orion 2100 hcca problem

Hello, I am new to the forum by reading alot of the questions and answers it seems that you guys know what your doing and really try to help each other out. I think I have read too many things from different sources and now am totally confused on what I am doing. I have a 1994 mazda rx7 , I have upgraded the alternator to a hi current stinger 300 amp but I have yet to swap the stock battery with an optima yellow top ( will do that today) I have 2 orion 225 HCCA's running the front , cdt audio components with front and rear speakers, frontstage and upstage system . They sound awesome no problems . I have an orion 2100 HCCA pushing an Audiobahn AWP310T 2ohm DVC in a ported box wired parallel. The orion is bridged mono. The amp does not even heat up and the sub does not seem to move as it should. It doesn't sound very good and doesn't hit very hard , not like it should with that amp. I also have dimming lights when the car is on and in park. I have the power and ground wires at 8 guage ( but from the battery one 4 guage power wire )could that be the problem? The amp is connected to the mono sub out on my head unit a blaupunkt bremen mp74. Am I simply experiencing power problems from the wrong size wire or could it be a deeper problem? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for reading

That Orion amp, running at 1/2 ohm per channel (bridged into 1 ohm), is trying to make somewhere in the vicinity of 1600 to 2000 watts! Those amps are power hungry monsters and you are on the right track, but you need WAY more than a single 4 gauge to power it correctly. 1600 watts will be somewhere in the 185A range, by itself! A number 4 is only good to 150A for a .5v drop at about 10 feet. Yeah, you dont have enough power feeding that. BTW, STAY AWAY FROM THE YELLOW TOP! Technically speaking the red top is FAR better for (running engine) car stereo applications that the yellow-top. Parking lot listening, the yellow top will have a longer LIFE-SPAN, but the red top will provide more current to the amplifiers, which is what they really want, anyway. With a power drain like that Orion has, there really isn't very much you'll be able to do to PREVENT light dimming, NO alternator will make 300A at idle.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Thank you so much for the reply. I think I really took on too much with this installation and I don't really have the knowledge of how this stuff works to do it properly (bad idea), but I haven't blown anything up so I will definitely take your advice and add the extra power wire and change out the other power and ground wires. I also appreciate the advice on the battery I was wondering why most people use the yellow top over the red anyway, now I know. If you or anyone else have more observations about possible problems with my setup, feel free to chime in! Thanks again

Wire sise is definitely miniscule - try 2 awg or 1 awg to the 2100 - and my next question - Which is- what is driving those amps? one channel of a cd player thru a crossover? you may have some voltage loss, maybe try a more powerful head unit, 4v outs or so, OR use a line driver in line in conjunction /w/ the x-over. Those amps crave power in every way, from power wires, to input signal.bangin old school since it was new