I only used a couple of 240's back when, and never really put one through the mill. As expected, it is a good sounding amp and won't dissapoint. Expect a stride ahead of the Alpine.
Layout is pretty simple, as long as parts or substitutions are available, it shouldn't be hard to work on. Especially with Perry around here for advice!
We didn't cut the old 260's any slack. It's a workhorse and *will* run at one ohm, the first car amp I was aware of to do so (pre-Orion HCCA). We once did A/B testing against a PPI 2300 both running 4 Dynaudio subs and the big Arizona amp couldn't hold a candle to the H/K.
jol, we're off topic and our votes are already in... what now?
tsmith1315 said:
Hmmm, not sure but I did see some life out of my big alpine and have to post on my thread! I wish I had a few 260s around. We will see, that little alpine is the best sounding amp I have had I think. Not sure why, and other alpines didn't work like this one. I just keep going back to it until I get tired of it being too small....
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The Good: Split Decision Between
The original ORION HCCA - Anodized Red. These Amps Rocked, Soft Power On, Clean Sound and Looked Awesome! Also McIntosh Mobile Audio Power Amplifiers for the true audiophile.
The Bad: Kraco 5 Band EQ/Amplifiers
The Ugly: Coustic from the 80's
The Good: Split Decision Between
The original ORION HCCA - Anodized Red. These Amps Rocked, Soft Power On, Clean Sound and Looked Awesome! Also McIntosh Mobile Audio Power Amplifiers for the true audiophile.
The Bad: Kraco 5 Band EQ/Amplifiers
The Ugly: Coustic from the 80's
Some amp pics of mine.
John C.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
John C.
^^ I give it up for the BAM 235 up there, not your amp for the average user on here though.
My favs: LINEAR POWER!!!! I sold and installed over 125 of them, ZERO have ever been back. Also old MS & MPS Phoenix Golds plus the TO3 Audio Arts, very stout and reliable.
My nays: Xtant, Pioneer Sony, Clarion well most "headunit" manufacturer's amps except the Alpine, the early V12's were solid amps.
**these opinions are just based on what I've seen installing for 15+ years. Lots of even 'cheaper' amps can and will work ok if you feed them properly and ask them to do what they were designed to do.
My favs: LINEAR POWER!!!! I sold and installed over 125 of them, ZERO have ever been back. Also old MS & MPS Phoenix Golds plus the TO3 Audio Arts, very stout and reliable.
My nays: Xtant, Pioneer Sony, Clarion well most "headunit" manufacturer's amps except the Alpine, the early V12's were solid amps.
**these opinions are just based on what I've seen installing for 15+ years. Lots of even 'cheaper' amps can and will work ok if you feed them properly and ask them to do what they were designed to do.
tsmith1315 said:
3 actually, I posted the first oner wrong and it just came out as a link. I'm unable to edit my posts for some odd reason.
Durability: Not an issue. I have 3 of these in active triamp. You can ping a tube with your finger, and its not microphonic at all. Remember also, that many tubes were designed for avionics originally.
The Milbert is the 12V version of the Berning EA-230 if anyone is familiar with that.
John C.
'), Pyle, Lanzartsmith1315 said:
So the 260's were that powerful? Now I wish my brother still had his old h/k 600. Wow, I might have to find one just to check that out.
So the 2300m you tested wasn't one with the singler large circuit board? I like the ppi's but there are still lots of things I need to learn about them.
Correct. It was a low S/N, we ordered it for the customer in... '86 or '87. A very early model.
As a lark, while tweaking or adding something else, the shop umm...manager decided to replace the PPI with the 260 as a comparison. Everyone in the shop was floored by the difference.
The 2300 was transferred to fullrange duty.
While the 2300 was out of the car, we opened it up and were disappointed to see it was actually a pair of bridged 2150m's mounted in one heatsink. The mystique of the giant 600W amp evaporated, and it explained why they weren't rated for 2 ohm duty.
I still have a 2075M, and just can't seem to part with it. It's such a good-looking amp, inside and out.
The most realistic thing I can say is that they were a true, no BS 60W per channel. Heatsinks were enormous, and it appeared to have the equivalent power supply of a solid home amplifier. And plenty of current was available for low impedance loads. Every one one we ever used was fully satisfying, and required expletives to describe the results.
Given the details, I'd say that the one 260 was easily twice as effective as a pair of old 2150M's bridged mono. One difference here was the effective load. The Dynaudio 24W's were 8 ohm, so the PPI was running them in 4 ohm pairs, that still should have been 300W per pair. They were all paralleled onto the H/K for a 2 ohm mono load.
I hated it, too. The shop umm...manager was a complete dunce, with about as much intelligence as a stump. He swore by the H/K for bass. Already impossible to work with, this event just solidified his wisdom in his own mind.
Remembering him gives me an idea for a new thread, ridiculous things you've seen or heard in car stereo...
Tim
This HK 240 is over a foot wide, not quite as long. It's big for what size it is supposed to be, but then again HK always grossly underrated everything back then. I have a 2x60 home unit that is heavy, has two transformers in it. That thing has blown off at least 3 other 2x100 old home stereos like pioneer for example. It does it with ease, and sounds better without doubt. It just has the power.
Well the 2300m I knew of has one circuit board with two power supplies. Each amplifier is capable of running 2 ohms easily and will produce 600 watts rms per ampifier at a low distortion level. I'm pretty sure the m series can run lower than 2 ohms because of the lack of the adaptive circuit like the newer models. I guess you guys somehow ended up with an odd one that could only run a four ohm load per channel, but it still seems 600 clean watts would do some damage.. Have you checked the white 2300m board on the amp guts site tsmith? So yours wasn't the same? Weird, ppi had some crazy concoctions I guess. I can't really tell the capability of the h/k 260 on ampguts, but it looks nice from what I can see.
Wait a second... now that I think about it, two 2150m's bridged at 4 ohms would yield 600 watts rms by two. That would mean a total of 1200 watts rms for the four 12's. I think your manager did something fishy to prove his point. I'm not seeing 1200 watts worth of design in the 260, even with eight high voltage output transistors. I'm thinking the power supply transistors aren't mosfet either which would make it more difficult to run at that level. Are you sure the ppi was supplied with enough current to produce full rated power? Wow, now you've thrown me a curve ball tsmith..... 
Wait a second... now that I think about it, two 2150m's bridged at 4 ohms would yield 600 watts rms by two. That would mean a total of 1200 watts rms for the four 12's. I think your manager did something fishy to prove his point. I'm not seeing 1200 watts worth of design in the 260, even with eight high voltage output transistors. I'm thinking the power supply transistors aren't mosfet either which would make it more difficult to run at that level. Are you sure the ppi was supplied with enough current to produce full rated power? Wow, now you've thrown me a curve ball tsmith.....
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