Old school amp for SQ
 

Out of the Orion GX 280, Soundstream D100 II, PPI A200 art series, or Hifonics Sampson series 7, which are all pretty much from 50 x 2 to 75 x 2 amps. Which would give the cleanest sound powering a set of front mid/tweet speakers. Are there any amps made today for a price of under $500 or so that can compete with these amps in SQ?

any decent brand name amp in the rms power range will sound as good, maybe slightly different depending on processing circuitry built into the amp, but certainly as good within human hearing abilities. Those were all well built amps, and there are/were many reasons to buy them, but there's no magic inside that makes their watts better than anyone else's. All modern amps have way below detectable (by humans) distortion, noise, and frequency response. There may be a few reasons not to buy one of those today though, age being the major one, parts availability if they need repairs, and more than likely being used...you have no way of knowing how they were treated, where they were installed, how many times they overheated, were dropped, or repaired in the past, and there's no warranty. I think nostalgia is the main reason most people love the old gear, as i remember lots of problems with old equipment just as there are problems with todays. Infact, I'll bet all those "hand made" electronics back then had way higher failure rates compared to todays automated factory built products by percentage. There's no way that some 10/hr joe can be as consistent in quality as a machine that gets neither tired or lazy, or give's a rat's ass about it's pay. SO, for 500.00 today, you can get a way better amp as far as I'm concerned, and certainly much more powerful.

So would the Alpine PDX's amps be just as clean?

I have run and loved my Soundstream D100 II it is a good amp with a small form factor and understated cosmetics, the PPI Art were legends and are snazzy looking (or gay your call). The quality control point is an interesting one as I had issues with a fair number of Soundstream amps in the early days but they were wonderful amps with an uncolored presentation. The PPI came next then the HiFionics (never heard the orion). I think they are as good as current amps and vice versa.

The PDX costs more and has more power, and comes with a warranty so it isn't apples to apples is it.

Not having used any of the old school amps listed, would it be a fair comment to mention the possibility that the power ratings listed are somewhat "conservative"? Many of these brands were known for putting out significantly more power than what was usually listed on the amps.

i have personally played with those old hifonics, and i currently have pdx amps.
they are indeed nice, but the benefits of much newer technology outweigh any possible heads up those old amps have.

i'd go pdx, i don't have any complaints about them, and i have been running two out of the series for a while now.

Thanks guys, I have been out of the game for many years and have just heard some storys about the new stuff not being as clean as the older stuff. I guess if you look you can find bad things about anything no matter how good it really is.

So far i have a Eclipse 55090 head unit
an eclipse XA1000 to power my sub
a older but barly played MB quart 12
a set of MB quart QM 218.61 Q's that will be my front stage
Powering the front for now is Orion GX 240

I plan on upgrading the front to new Hybrid audio L6,L4, L1v2 powered by 100 watts of some new clean power.

I have a question on the PPI art series amps
how much power do the A300 and A600.2 make respectively? real power if you think they are underrated. What do you think would be appropriate prices for each today?

The older PPI amps were just slightly underrated. the A600.2 was rated 600Wrms 4ohm mono bridged..or 150WrmsX2. Given PPI's retentive quality control, I'd say those amps made from 152-154Wrms per channel.

Ok that confirms what I found online for the 600.2 (I would be using it 2 channel mode)
Could not find any ratings for the A300
What do you think they are worth? I have heard they are very detailed sounding amps