Orion BP-HP12D2
A ready assembled subwoofer enclosure with twelve inch driver. Dual 2 Ohm voice coils are wired in parallel internally so as to show a mere one Ohm load to an amplifier, thus drawing maximum power from amplifiers that can cope with so low an impedance load. It is rated for 500 watts RMS and 1,000 watts peak. The front baffle carrying the reinforced cone subwoofer driver is set an angle to the front of the cabinet, which is massy and densely made at over fifty pounds avoirdupois. It is covered in tightly woven well adhered black carpet and a single set of 4mm gold plated binding posts sit in a connection cup on the opposite end to that of the woofer driver. It is supplied with a plastic silver painted badge that you fit where you wish once installed (using provided screw fixings) that says on it, ‘ORION Custom Tuned Performance.’
– One 12 inch woofer driver
– Slot ported enclosure with black carpet and silver painted front baffle board
– Dual 2 Ohm voice coils and subwoofer driver is wired in parallel
– Box impedance 1 Ohm
– Power Handling: 500w RMS (1kw max)
– Frequency response: 30Hz to 250Hz
– Box tuned frequency 35Hz
– Minus 3dB point (F3) 34Hz
– Typical Output Level at Full Power 116dB to 122dB
– Efficiency: 88dB 1w/1M
– Gold plated 4mm binding post terminals
– Complete with additional after-installation-fit badge
– Mass 23.2kgs (51lbs)
Review by Adam Rayner
Cripes! I seem to have changed religious persuasion to that which needs to confess all the time. Thinking I knew what I was doing, I simply hooked this box’s terminal cup up to the single wire coming from the mighty PowerBass XA3000D Class D monoblock amp I used to impress myself with the Morel Ultimo 12 woofer and simply cook the terminals of the Kenwood we looked at recently. This is because the amplifier can put out the most incredible wattages, especially as I have it running on a PC925 battery from Odyssey that can deposit amperes of 12 Volt like nothing else I have experienced. Thing is, the box is rated at a miniscule one Ohm. This means the BP-HP12D2 was getting a possible 3,200 watts RMS and it is rated at 500w RMS! Work it out.
I had just assumed it was a 4 Ohm box and that a thousand watts would be OK if I was careful. However, I had gained the amp back. A bit. But I did spank the volume good and hard before I realised and not only did the woofer happily survive, it rocked my world to its very roots, shook a couple of tiles off the brand new roof in my semi and didn’t make even a semblance of any complaining noise. It simply didn’t give a damn, so I think the power rating may well be a massive understatement. However, the whole box, all fifty pounds-plus of it is mostly woodwork and yet only costs £200. Some if this cost is shipping from the USA where they are sourced (buying in US Dollars is great in early 2008) but only a certain amount can be for the woofer itself, which is quite clearly a remarkable piece of kit.
The box doesn’t have any of the awesome fancy sonic footwork and oddities of detail you never heard before that the Morel Ultimo 12 provided (and so I should hope at thrice the price just for the raw driver alone) but what it does do is to track a bassline a treat, drop down good and wobbly to its 35Hz-odd tuned cut off point and do it with great power, rhythm and control.
A sealed box may get deeper but if you fancy being heard coming, enjoy some real street bass throb and want to really piss off your mates, this is one hell of a way to do it. Plus, unlike home built specials, it’ll keep a phat slice of resale value even if you do manage to kill the woofer, which I seriously doubt. The specifications state an SPL the box can make of between 116dB and 122dB and we have a gorgeous SA-3055 Audio Control Real time analyser and SPL meter that will easily reach that far up, so after a good listen, I popped the RTA in its natty battery bag before the box and as they say, Took it out and measured it. The result was that the box made some 125dB of bassulent throb from a couple of feet away and was well into the 130dB zone from right on top of it. Thus these must be accurate 1 metre measurements. It goes bloody loud, basically and at the price for a fully finished ready to rock box it is good value for money, too. So it earns a Talk Audio Recommended rating.
Sound Quality 8.0
Build Quality 9.0
Power Handling 10.0
Efficiency 7.0
Value For Money 10.0
Overall rating 8.8 