Orion Cobalt CO3002

Hmmmm...... not again

Sound is fine, runs cool, and seems to be generally a good amp in terms of amplification. The physical package is terrible though. The terminals do not grasp the wire, are oddly positioned, and require metric allen keys. The holes for mounting are deeply recessed in the plastic housing. The recess is wide at the bottom which allows screws and bolts to fall in sideways and take forever to retrieve. It is worth an extra 10 or 20 dollars to avoid the headache and get a comparable amp designed with consideration for installation.

Very solid amp great sound quality, Built in Low pass XO? 6dB?

Good:

This is a very solid well built amplifier. (Circuit wise)

It does look very good and has a small footprint.

Accepts large gauge wire with ease.

Perfect for a SQ installation, and it seems to have that low end grunt and authority producing music with effortless reserve.

Perfect for Component and full range speakers.

Best when used with an external crossovers.

You can really make this a very stealth install and hide your wires and hardware to mount it very clean if you go down that route.

Ok, The BAD:

The power and speaker terminals are at an angle so getting to them is bit more challenging.

Mounting the amp, (Just like the other guy said) is best done with Velcro. Getting the screws in for installation proves MANDATORY to have a strong magnetic bit so the screw does not fall loose inside the plastic encasement end caps.

The Built in Low Pass XO is almost useless. set it at 50hz and you still get output well into the 200 hz range. This has to be a 6db with a very wide slope. The High pass, I have not had the pleasure of trying, This really would work best for high pass in my opinion. Or with an outboard crossover from a head unit or other source.

The bass boost works, but makes it useless with the wide crossover slope. (It makes it sound "Boomy" ) Its hard to integrate it with your system as a whole. Its actually one of the better ones that actually targets low bass notes and has 2 settings without making it sound overly strained like you would get with something like Boss Audio, (RM 1500) come to mind

lack of dual RCA jacks makes using RCA spliters mandatory if running multiple amps when sharing one set of RCA outputs. Most will not have a problem with this one.

lack of crossover slope selection is understandable, but with the wide slopes, makes it a hard sell for an outboard sub amp with a system that does not do active bass management.

----------------


You can tell Orion really spent the money on making a really great sounding amp with solid parts on the inside.

You can tell that the Crossover stage for the low pass was just an afterthought. Most decks do that for you today anyways so no loss here. But most people who are going to buy this are the same people in the market for the lower end amplifiers.

The price is FANTASTIC!

The performance for dollar is Out of this World!


On the side note, You wonder if Citroen made this amp. It;s not that it is less functional, it's just ...Quirky.. However, if custom fitting your amp is a option for you, this amp will make a great clean install granted you wanted to go that route.

This really is the perfect starter amp. Great with high efficiency sub-woofers.

Very "tight" sounding, but not clinical.

This really feels like a 200w amp. when bridged.

VERY GOOD BUILD quality on this amp and you feel it and it shows in the music and the fit and finish.

Perfect for driving your 6x9's,, or full range speakers.

Seems to run pretty cool, so that leaves you some good mounting options.

With other amps, you may get more features, This amp however was built with one goal in mind. And that was great sound quality. I can live without the flexibility. I can't live with mediocre equipment.

Highly recommended for SQ and starter systems. Most cars only should be running nothing more then this anyways since it will not put a strain on a stock electrical system.

Very good buy and great amp to start your system.