35yr Old Orion Amp Reviewed and Amp Dyno Test - 280 GX Moon and Stars
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- Опубліковано 17 жов 2024
- #ampdyno #vintageaudio #1980s
1987 Orion 280gx
Rated 80x2 at 4 ohms, 160x2 at 2 ohms or 320W bridged at 4 ohms
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![Early 90's Precision Power (PPI) ProMOS 50 Review and Amp Dyno Test [4K]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/X3eAg5rliU8/mqdefault.jpg)
*SHOP*
Elac Debut 2.0 B6.2 Bookshelf Speakers: amzn.to/3Mmdbcz
SAVARD 6.5" HiQ Subwoofers - lddy.no/1iv98 (use code WAL7 for 7% off!)
LINK TO 1988 Magazine Test Article: drive.google.com/file/d/1wmPw5tIFJYLGmmMaxNdTSyXO10rwvHDI/view?usp=sharing
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*RELATED VIDEOS*
Old School Orion Car Audio Playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PLu98-M_EowHPPIr23qZphwn372KkF9964.html
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Orion 280gx Overview Video: ua-cam.com/video/qj-230VnfEk/v-deo.html
Orion GX/HCCA Molex Plugs: ua-cam.com/video/6Wt0YeJ6jMw/v-deo.html
Vintage a/d/s PQ20 80x4 Amplifier: ua-cam.com/video/KrLNDorSHKk/v-deo.html
Brand New 37yr Old Sony Speakers: ua-cam.com/video/i9zZOLvf_bI/v-deo.html
'80s Sparkomatic Speakers: ua-cam.com/video/loxJa2k2O5A/v-deo.html
1984 Kmart Blue Light Special Speakers: ua-cam.com/video/ckvjUcq-ABs/v-deo.html
Vintage Radio Shack Optimus Surface Mount Speakers: ua-cam.com/video/hzKgtjZOaRg/v-deo.html
The Worst $200 Speakers Ever: ua-cam.com/video/S42JA00XVb8/v-deo.html
*TEST BENCH EQUIPMENT*
SMD / D'Amore Engineering Amp Dyno: goo.gl/sJTcf7
XS Power D1400 Batteries - amzn.to/2BPFCKW
XS Power PSC60 Charger - amzn.to/2CHGcfs
Fluke 1000A AC/DC Clamp Meter: amzn.to/2Rw5WDA
Handheld Dyno: amzn.to/2u2EgKV
My Favorite Screwdriver Kit: amzn.to/2x0VzcE
_DISCLAIMER: This video and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase from one of the product links, I may receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases_
My Grandfather worked for Honeywell when they bailed Elac from bankruptcy. He didn't like my car audio in the mid late 90s, yet built boxes with me and wired in series parallel for he was a electrical engineer. Unfortunately, he owned no Elac speakers, just Sansui.
I have a six channel Audio Art amp that I would like to see on the amp dyno.
I don’t know about you guys, but I miss the super tight guess jeans, white musk perfume and the hair that can get radio stations.
Lest we forget jean jackets that we all silkscreened in art class,....🤜🏾🤛🏾
@@heyitsvos can’t include that Jean jacket without Parachute pants 😆
@@heyitsvos 🤜🏽🤛🏽
I was born in 1980, I miss the 90s when there was hardly anyone with the internet, and if you wanted car audio, you went to a shop and learned by speaking to others. Amplifiers back then were made with pride and lasted for years. I still have today, a set of Abyss Amplifiers and a set of Tru Technology Amplifiers that were made 30 years ago that STILL WORK FLAWLESS TODAY. Unlike my old CT Sounds amp that I bought in 2018, died 2020 from suicide, car audio back then was something else
@Only-Memories-In-The-End I used to rock the painters pants and acid stain Jean pants...it was dope back then... I also used to cut lightening bolts on the side of my head with the rat tale ...I thought I looked good lmao 🤣
Another old school legend humbled by the amp Dyno. The 280GX amps were everywhere in the late 80's. Basically anyone who was a Orion fan but, couldn't afford HCCA amps had them.
Regarding that low efficiency, imagine running these amps on stock electrical in 1986. Talk about low voltage!
Another great old school car audio review and Dyno. 👍👍
I feel old when you bring out these amplifiers.
I had a GTA Trans Am that was identical to the one pictured at the beginning of the video. One of my favorite cars I've ever owned. Sold it about 20 years ago, and I still miss it to this day. That definitely brought back some fun memories.
Thanks for all the GREAT Content. I sold & installed Rockford, Alpine, Kenwood & more from1986-2002. I had a good bit of inventory mostly Rockfords biggest Amps plus 10s & 12" woofers when I closed shop & gave it all to my son & his friends in 2012.
Wow unbelievable I had this amp pushing two MTX Blue Thunder 12's back in 91. Love seeing old school audio. Keep up the amazing content
Those were great subs. Had pair of 10s on about 200 watts. Sounded amazing. The MTX Black Gold series were bomb too.
What truck is that in your pfp? Looks absolutely badass
@@SprinkCalSAThanks. It's a 1986 Dodge D50. Walk through with 2 18" subs on dual Orion Hcca 3000.1 splx on 96Ah lithium. Bass head mini truckin since late 80's.
OMG YES! I used to run one back in the day in my lowered minitruck.
After wishing I could afford it in the 80’s, I actually ran this amp in my daily driver 10 years ago along with a pair of same era Rockford Fosgate 8” subs. It sounded great but unfortunately I became well acquainted with its guts(!). I had to pull the board a couple of times for cap replacement. These old school amps are great but should be fully recapped before actually being used in a working system.
This is a great series of vids Big D, thank you.
In 87 my main competition was running the original Orion 425 HCCA to my 2 punch 45s. Brings back good memories
I had those same Blue Thunders back in the day and I loved em!
Awesome Big D. Keep these legendary amps coming. I appreciate your upload frequency!
What a great lineup of amps in that test. It was a fantastic time for American-made car audio.
I love the information behind the amplifiers that you give. It really builds the stories behind the amps instead of just what the dyno says.
Thanks Big D!!! Happy early new year!
Thanks for the feedback. I try to put in extra info I’d want to know so I’m very happy when people notice 👌
The bangers just keep coming. I remember looking at the magazines in 2000 dreaming about Orion amps 🇺🇸
I have the day off so im binge watching any of your vids i might have missed or forgot. 😆
Jeah boi!
Now you're talking!! I had an '85 Camaro that I competed with using a single Orion 620 gt 6 channel, Rockford mids and a single Orion XTR 10" dvc mounted in an old Bazooka tube... talk about great sound!! God I miss that set up
I still have a few 400bdg laying around😂😂and seeing the blue thunder reminds me mtx terminator 2ohm red cones😂😂so many 12v memories from this channel,thank you
That was the first amp I ever bought. Got it used at a local shop. It was also my first lesson on ohms laws lol. I learned just because it was a good quality brand didn't mean it would take a 1 ohm load lol.
I still love these old school amps Big D! It was my passion when I was a young man...
I'm glad we get way more power now days
back in the day I had an orion 2150, Everyone and myself was very impressed with the power of that thing. I had it powering 2 12inch orion NT subs in a orion ported box
I had a 2150 on 2 punch 15s in a sealed box. Box wasnt nearly big enough but it hit pretty good.
My friend Bobby had a 280 GX .This was back in 1987 .At the time we didn’t have as many wooofers at we had today .We had Pyle ,JBL Driver ,RF ,Alpine and others .
But not literally 100’s odd 1000’s today .So he got some JBL L 100
Home woofers .Which had cast frame and a 6 lb magnet .In the back of a Vega Wagon .That SOB HIT !!
Those JBL’s hit ,but we know that .
The JBL L100 were studio Monitors
ANOTHER GREAT Video! BIG D !!
I remember when ORION amps came along... 1 ohm load all day.... FIRST AMPS that I can truly say NEVER DIED... on BEER SUNDAY.... BDBD/2023
I had that amp in 1992 in my 1988 Honda accord coupe running two 12 inch kickers in an Obcon box. I had the 240gx for mids and highs. Good times
awesome to watch, I have this amp as well as the 4100GX and the 2350GX , nice to know what the 280 puts out
Amico, con i tuoi video che ricordano ampli che hanno fatto la storia del car HiFi, mi stai dando una gioia grande, ricordi unici, di pomeriggi e moltissime notti insonni ad installare e regolare per un sound unico di tutti questi mostri sacri.
Orion era all'ordine del giorno, suono immensamente grande, per una potenza senza pari, spero di vedere anche ampli nakamichi PA302 e PA304
Crazy to see how off these Orions were from back in the day. I ran their stuff for years from 225hcca to 2100 hcca.. They always hammered when dropped to low ohm loads, but clearly not as everyone thought. I still think the best amp from AZ I had back in the late 90's was the PPI PC2100 charcoal Grey "muffler" Amp. I'd love to see some tests on that Gen (grey or chrome)
I had a bunch of those PPI amps. Muffler series lol 😆 can't remember all the numbers but 2240 and had a couple of the bigger ones too
@@derekgardin1512 power class is their official name, hence the PC, but they looked like a damn muffler and took on that name in a hurry lol. I ran the 2100 with a single jl 12w3v2 in a custom vented enclosure I built for my S10 extra cab... it was ungodly loud for a single 12. wound up running 3 of the jl's with a memphis 16-ST100d in my old Jetta.. pulled 150db out of that untuned in a sealed floor enclosure. that car knocked hard!
I had a set of blue thunder 12s around 1998 2000 model I loved them had kicker comps also and kicker solobaric also had a set of credence solobarics
Our store was the first to carry fry'n Orion:) these amps blew our minds, great sound and sheyaht tons of power.
Wattage is heat! Thank you so much for showing this classic.
EDIT... First in SLC Utah that is ( Audio Tech ) . Got a good laugh when you showed that MTX Spew Thunder, I made a ton of spiff $ on them. Mid 80s 2 Ohm Mono was big time.
I put 2) 280's a PEQ-7 ( Hissssss) , Audio Control X over, Blaupunkt Houston and a mix of Becker, MTX and Blaupunkt, VIFA (tweets) speakers in my wifes 82 RX-7. Cool for 1985-6:) And yes she rocked the Fluffy hair as well..... Oh yea, thems the days.
Oh can't forget the Bell Micro Eye radar detector.
Cheers
Another great video. Love watching. I am sure there is a few people who would like love to see dyno on Hollywood amp or Audio Gods by Hollywood.
Are you digging through my garage and i didnt notice? I have the ads and the 280gx. Used the 280gx at 2 ohms mono for years and it was a champ
I really enjoyed this weeks vids, nice going Big D
Thanks man! One more tomorrow, the big one!
Today’s woofers aren’t a lot better woofers of Yesterday .They handle more power .Make more SPL
But overall ? The vintage woofers sound better for SQ .
Blue Thunders by MTX don’t hit !!
They have right snappy bass .Because of the rubber surround
If you used OS a RF ,JBL ,JL,Gold Sound,or Kicker .
Those woofers would hit with that amplifier.
Because they are 89-94 db efficiency.
Today’s woofers in Most cases are 82-84 db
My friend has a Orion 280 GX in a Vega Wagon .With 2-JBL L-100 home woofers .They were 92db had a 3” Voice coil .Plus a 6 lb magnet
That car hit !! Really hard
Back in the day the woofers were much more efficient.So we could take a Punch 45 or a Punch 150 with 2-12”
It would hit !!
This is a great Video .Like always
My brother’s soccer team “endorsed” the new (1985?) Firebird Trans Am and the photos were plastered all over the front pages of newspapers and magazines.
Using passive cross overs I ran four dual voice coil 15s 6 6.5s 4 3.1/4s and 6 tweets on mine
Hey Big D, you ever done a dyne on a pair of 6X9 Mindblowers by Tena? There were two different sets, one was 50 watts the other was 100 watts. They both had amplifiers on the magnets, with a remote on-off level knob.
400 @ 2ohms with 8 gauge? Is that right? I wonder if the voltage was @ 12v, could it have produced even more power? Outstanding. Keep up the good work!!
Just out of curiosity
How can one get this Amp here in SA?
It's perfect for the setup I'm looking to do.
Man I wish I knew how collectable the moon and stars amps was gonna be I prolly had 25 altogether.
The caps in these car audio amps seem pretty small - is this due to the thing hanging on a battery? If one would power such an amp at home with a power supply wouldn't the caps be grossly undersized? Which supply, if any, would be adequate for such amplifiers?
I haven’t seen any old school amp dynos on Kenwood amps back in 89 by bud may have had the first wall he had 2 15” (can’t recall brand” on 2 kenwood 1021’s and a 921 on a set of ? Triaxles crammed into a lowered aqua VW bug with the short seats. The 15’s started where the seats ended lol…
I luv this ch. more then the og I wanted more info on how you wire and get these different outcomes
Definitely worth the plexy bottom considering one of my favorite amplifiers for the layout of the circuit board US answers probably my first
Do you have a ppi 2150am to test out. Remember i believe 1992 it won Amp of the year. It was expensive but worth it. Just had it completely restored 2 summers ago, but have yet to use it.
I have two 2150am's in black. I call them the "swiss army knifes" of old school car audio. Great for subs, mids or even tweets if you turn the gain back or ran them at 8 ohms.
I ran this Amp in my pickup with 6.5 rf midbass and I believe 3 or 3.5 midrange in the doors, of course tweeter in the dash running left right mono and 2 sealed rf punch 12s behind the seats bridged. The sound quality was perfect and overall never let me down. Everything was 4ohm.
Was the din pin configuration same as the precision power??
Youre on a roll.... or are you just posting a bunch of videos youve had for a while?
Nah man I made 8 old school amp videos over a 2 week period with over 120 hours of time invested in shooting, research and editing
some friends had these...thanks for posting this holiday goodness 👍👍 where is the article link pdf?
I will update, sorry about that!
I have an Orion VCR that still works.
A few hundred watts was very different back in those days.
Surprised the Orion didn't make its rated power. I wasn't introduced to Orion until the mid 90's.
I keep waiting for the Altec Lansing that I paid WAY too much for. They only sold 2 different amps from what I remember. Traded it for a Sherwood 240. 🤷🏻♂️
Love it!!
Yeah Boi
Saludos Big D Wiz desde Colombia!!!
It doesn't get any more old school than the sheet rock screw holding down the blue thunder sub and the other screw hole not have anything. Now that is old school lol
Gotta be real
Thanks D!
hey derick... man it would be awesome if you could come across a Cedance (or Cadence) amp 1000w .. they were kinda small and orange in color.. with 2 mesh ends that were held on with he screws... man that thing was a east with the two 12" Sony XPLOR's .... (no.. not xplodes, they were XPLORE subwoffers they didnt even look anything like xplodes as they were so huge and chrome backsides also with mesh around the motors) man it would be awesome to see a review of those amp and subwoofers...
Thanks for the suggestion 👌
i wish i could find the pictures of the system i had back when i was 16-17 that i had that system in a '91 blazer... if i find them ill figure out how to email to you :) thanks for the reply man!!!@@wal2
Im still using a 250sx my u cle gave me it still bangs
Orion made beautiful amps, but my stock electrical hated them so much. I ran Hifonics, Autotek and Fosgate without issue. I always thought Orion ran unregulated power supplies.
I thought this also but I’ve confirmed these and even the HCCA’s of the 80’s into the 90’s were regulated
That amp has very little in terms of supply filtering caps and relies almost entirely on the regulation which is why it has so much less power at 40hz. You need at least some dynamic headroom to hit those low sine waves.
A have this green and can't remember but this was 4*40 Watt/4 ohm/ 4*80 2 ohm.. Mono this amps was a monster 1992.. if anyone no about this Orion. Please let me know/Patrick
How about a mid 80s carver test.
I was going to suggest the 400 BDG but you beat me to it.
I can get a 240 gx for like 45 bux idk if I'ma get it I'd only buy it to resell it's in beat up condition
maybe a good amp for my (2) Infinity 120.1 SE
That thing was smoking trying to get over 400 watts. Lol 🤣 D look how far amps have come. 8000 watt taramps for $700
F’ing RAD!!!
They had the good coke in them days .
Clearly Orion's marketing people were not keen on sharing it tho .
" Military Quality Standards " ?
Holy hell , talk about low bars .
There was a brand. ,,,.( The hot set up) seems to be similàr to these series of Orion amps
I had that amp! How 😎
you need to test super pros subs
TEST THE 6hz and 30khz power output and see if they were BS’ing about the 0.5db -/+ tolerance.
I can’t recall an amplifier I tested on the bench that didn’t dip in power output once it got near 20hz or 20khz.
I believe that was one of the outrageous claims they were referring to
Orion amps just don’t make power. I myself had an Orion Hott Setup 2.125 back in the day. It was rated at 125Wx2 at 4 ohms. But it just didn’t hit hard. I eventually replaced it with a Punch 60, which had FAR more kick.
👍👍
Are you going ween us off the daily video or do we have to go cold turkey? 🙂
I promised a week of vids, one more to go
Moon and star? Or deathstar, starwars
Anyone else want a video a out Lanzar amps??
😎👍👍
sound the same as any other amp. lol ..with the magic of DSP
So many dead caps :)
Personally rather of had a old school California made Zapco
😎👍🆙️
That's the horrendous efficiency in the 30s? That the worst I've ever seen in my life I thought 50s was bad on class ab amps
8 ohms? HUHHHH!!!!
Again, for an amp like this, a frequency response would be great to see. Playing the amp using the Elac speakers really doesn't tell me anything about the amps performance. The majority of us are watching this video through our phones. So, if you were to do a blind test with your best amp and crappy one, i cohldnt tell the difference. Well, wait, i am wrong. There was one amp i actually did hear how bad it was lol but, for the most part, we can not. If there was a chart that showed a single sine wave and THD. We, as the views, can not only hear what the amp does but also see where it's failing. For example, many people today are raving about how great the recoil amps are since they do rated power at a cheap price. Well, i am sure most are not aware that those recoil amps and dsp's are TERRIBLE and poorly made. ANOTHER EXAMPLE, although many people know Alpine is good, most people dont know that not only does alpine do rated power, but there are amplifiers are some of the CLEANEST amps on the market. A few of the older models, mid tier, absolutely wipe the floor with the high-end ones like Mosconi. But, my point is, it would be great to see maybe some more, and i am sure if you posted a frequency response on amplifiers, you would shock people on how some of there favorite amps are actually greater than what they thought or terrible then what was expected.
Thanks for the feedback 👌
11:32 I disagree, Old school subs just needed a lot of air space, were more efficient, bass traveled further (like concert subs). Today subs take more power, less efficient, can play low with less air space enclosers, bass don't seem to travel as far os O.S. subs.
We can agree to disagree, but with the same power this 6.5” Savard destroys that 10” Blue Thunder sub. And ran Blue Thunder’s back in the 90’s
@@wal2 Touché, I was mainly referring to old-school subs, not necessarily MTX brand I was never a fan of MTX anything. I was a fan of Cerwin Vega, red edge, strokers, Orion XTR's. JBL 1000’s , Lanzar DC's & JL Audio…
I wonder how much my $3000 monolithic set up is in today's money Big D 😲❓🫨
Prob 2.5X that
@@wal2 🫨😲 I worked hard for it.