NooB Question: Orion amp paired w/ L7's

**gab5** · 01-31-2007, 06:51 PM

Hello all, I'm new to this forum so please bear with another silly NooB question....

I currently am setup with two (2) SoloBaric L7 12" in a front slot-ported box...i only have one of these guys hooked up to my Kicker zr-360 amp as i believe the amp cannot push both of these subs optimally...the one that IS hooked up sounds awesome as it is...but i figured why not go ahead and buy an amp that can handle running both subs??

SO my question here is actually regarding the Orion 2100 hcaa amp...ive been doing some reading up on this amp and it seems like a good amp to go with and power these two 12's but i may be wrong.. has anyone had any experience with this line of amps? will it be a good pairing to the L7's? im not one to enter into any competitions but i do love my bass! any insight would be greatly appreciated

**Dennis5587** · 01-31-2007, 10:57 PM

::sigh::

Welcome to the forums! We here at mp3car.com are mainly based around fitting computers into our cars for multimedia purposes. We do in fact have a car audio section, but for specific questions like this you will probably get better/more responses at a dedicated audio forum.

I for one have no first hand experience with this amp, but from what I've heard Orion is good...

**Postman** · 02-01-2007, 01:09 AM

Originally Posted by gab5

SO my question here is actually regarding the Orion 2100 hcaa amp...ive been doing some reading up on this amp and it seems like a good amp to go with and power these two 12's but i may be wrong.. has anyone had any experience with this line of amps? will it be a good pairing to the L7's? im not one to enter into any competitions but i do love my bass! any insight would be greatly appreciated

Are you talking about the old school HCCA amp? Those are legendary amps, probably more then you need, but yes that woudl run those L7's with power left over. I never actually ran one, but have heard plenty of good stuff over the years for whatever that's worth. Also a high current amp, so you can run it down to 1/2 ohm if I recall.

That's assuming you're talking about the old red amps, don't know if the "new" Orion has started making an amp with the same name, in which case I no nothing about it.

**gab5** · 02-02-2007, 02:01 AM

very helpfull responses guys....i do realize this site is dedicated to in car pc setups, which i plan on heading in that direction over this summer, i just needed to know if i should be wasting more money on my bass fixation or saving that $$ to go forth and begin piecing together an in car multimedia solution....i am very curious and optimistic to install a car-pooter, in which i do have many questions i hope you pros might be able to help me out with....

first off what are average dB levels of people with computers installed in their vehicles?? does bass effect the disk heads on the HDD? or maybe location of the install? (front of car compared to rear)? if i can i may incorporate a custom mounted case within the amp racks i am about to construct.. i have a couple of sketches drawn out but i may have to scrap them if having huge woofer magnets and insane bass bumpin' a few inches from can affect operations...

also, has anyone had any success with running a full 5.1/7.1 setup within their cars? im assuming a capable sound card would be needed in which i am already looking at a few names, but what kind of sounds can be anticipated?

for now i will have to search these forums, but if anyone can provide insight and guide me in the right direction it would be much appreciated...

**spoonraker** · 02-02-2007, 02:17 AM

first off what are average dB levels of people with computers installed in their vehicles??

There is no such thing as an average dB level for any car, computer or not. It depends on the audio equipment, and the installation. Can CarPCs compete with regular head units for SPL? Yep. SQ? Yep.

does bass effect the disk heads on the HDD? or maybe location of the install? (front of car compared to rear)? if i can i may incorporate a custom mounted case within the amp racks i am about to construct..

Obviously vibrations effect a hard drive. It depends on the drive really. I have a western digital 3.5'' drive, it's mounted vertically no more than a couple feet directly in front of my woofer and it's been running perfectly for several months. I'm sure it's possible to damage one with enough bass over a long time, again this is install dependent. As for the magnet, unless you are REALLY close, like a 6'' or less, I wouldn't worry about them. Another thing to worry about with the location of the install is temperature. If you live in a place where the temperature frequently drops into the single digits or below, it would be best to mount the PC inside the passenger area of the vehicle. This way if your hard drives freeze and the computer won't boot, they will heat up faster than if they were in the trunk. A remote starter is something that can help avoid this problem too.

also, has anyone had any success with running a full 5.1/7.1 setup within their cars? im assuming a capable sound card would be needed in which i am already looking at a few names, but what kind of sounds can be anticipated?

Unless you have 7 speakers in your car, 7.1 isn't possible. 5.1 has been done many times as well as 4.1 (usually run in 5.1 mode)

Yes a soundcard capable of 5.1 sound is required for producing 5.1 sound, also you need the proper audio equipment. The easiest way to get 4.1 (most common for CarPCs) is to have your front and rear stages run off of a 4-channel amp and then a mono amp for your subwoofer. Most people don't bother with a center channel in a car. There are also 5.1 amps, I believe boston makes them.

**JasonWW** · 02-02-2007, 03:36 AM

There's no good reason to run 5.1 in the car. A dedicated processor plus additional amps can easily add $1200 or more to you sound system costs. It's just not worth it. Plus the only things recorded in surround sound would be DVD movies. How often would you watch them?

It's better to stick with a basic 2 channel setup (left and right) as that is how all music is recorded and if you want rear fill, then just add rear speakers and an amp for them.

If you want to know for sure about that amp you'll have to tell us specifically which one and what subs you have (dual 2 ohm or dual 4 ohm).

**spoonraker** · 02-02-2007, 01:18 PM

Uhm...JasonWW what the heck are you talking about?

All you need for 5.1 surround sound is a regular car stereo (front and rear speakers,) and a sub with an amp. Assuming you already have that, the only thing you need to buy for 5.1 surround other than a sound card that supports it is a 4-channel amp for your speakers. If you don't have a regular head unit you need to buy one anyway...

If you use AUX in on your regular head unit, then yes you'll probably need some expensive equipment to get 5.1 surround, but if you just plug your PC into your amps directly it's the easiest thing in the world.

If you are driving a car with only front speakers and no subwoofer or amp of any kind, then I can see spending $1200, but if you've already got 4 speakers and a sub, at most all you'd have to buy would be a 4-channel amp.

**JasonWW** · 02-02-2007, 10:21 PM

You need the processor to adjust the time delays.
I think your talking about 4.1, also. For a 5.1 you need to have a center channel of some kind in the dash.

Also, how do plan to get the tonal balance between the non-sub speakers matched up? Each speaker would need it's own EQ.

So I guess it depends on what your standards are. If you want a real 5.1 experience with DVD's or if you just want kind of close to that and don't really care that it's just right.

I would take a good 2 channel setup to a good 5.1 setup anyday. 5.1 is just much better at home than in a car.

**scott_fx** · 02-02-2007, 10:51 PM

Originally Posted by JasonWW

There's no good reason to run 5.1 in the car. A dedicated processor plus additional amps can easily add $1200 or more to you sound system costs. It's just not worth it. Plus the only things recorded in surround sound would be DVD movies. How often would you watch them?

It's better to stick with a basic 2 channel setup (left and right) as that is how all music is recorded and if you want rear fill, then just add rear speakers and an amp for them.

If you want to know for sure about that amp you'll have to tell us specifically which one and what subs you have (dual 2 ohm or dual 4 ohm).

well.. there is audio dvd that is recoded in 5.1 now...so there are some other formats that take advantage of 5.1. but i agree that i'll take a 2.1 setup over a 5.1 right now.

Originally Posted by spoonraker

Uhm...JasonWW what the heck are you talking about?

All you need for 5.1 surround sound is a regular car stereo (front and rear speakers,) and a sub with an amp. Assuming you already have that, the only thing you need to buy for 5.1 surround other than a sound card that supports it is a 4-channel amp for your speakers. If you don't have a regular head unit you need to buy one anyway...

If you use AUX in on your regular head unit, then yes you'll probably need some expensive equipment to get 5.1 surround, but if you just plug your PC into your amps directly it's the easiest thing in the world.

If you are driving a car with only front speakers and no subwoofer or amp of any kind, then I can see spending $1200, but if you've already got 4 speakers and a sub, at most all you'd have to buy would be a 4-channel amp.

you are loosing me. if your head unit has regular aux in then you are giving it a 2 chan analog signal. it isn't going to decode to dolby digital or true 5.1.

as with only need your 4 speakers... then you're not getting true 5.1 sound largely due to the fact that you don't have the 5 speakers + sub needed. your front speakers are sharing the center chan which the original recording was never mixed for. jeez i'm so confused i'm not even sure my rebuttal is making any sense

**XC-C30** · 02-02-2007, 10:53 PM

Originally Posted by JasonWW

You need the processor to adjust the time delays.
I think your talking about 4.1, also. For a 5.1 you need to have a center channel of some kind in the dash.

you can easily have 5.1 sound these days without having a center-channel or even rearfill..... something called virtual surround ring a bell? Ok it's not as good as the real thing but it's good enough for in-car use.... You'll possibly never get the full potential of real 5.1 in a car, so why bother?