Going back to the Art Series

ShockTherapy · Post by **ShockTherapy** » Sat May 15, 2010 2:32 pm

Hi everyone! I recently got my hands on 2 mint condition A600.2 Art Series amps and I'm strongly considering replacing my Arcs with them. The Arcs are fantastic but I was hoping to cut down on the amount of power in my system and the amount of drain on my electrical system. My questions are these:

1. Do you think that an A600.2 running stereo would run the CDT Eurosport components well? I'm thinking yes but could use some positive reinforcement.
2. Also... The IDQs are dual 4ohm so I'd be running the second A600.2 at 300x2.

I understand that they do not have crossovers built in so I will utilize an Audiocontrol 3xs to filter the sub and midbass.
I've loved the Art series amps ever since I heard an A300 in 93 running a Quart component set. I'm hoping that maybe someone has tried in the past or is currently running a setup similar.

I WILL BE POSTING MY ARC 2500CXL ON EBAY. AS YOU CAN SEE IN SOME OF MY PREVIOUS PICS IT'S IN VERY NICE SHAPE. I ALSO HAVE THE PERFORMANCE SHEET AND ORIGINAL UNUSED BASS KNOB. i'LL MOST LIKELY DO A $300 BUY IT NOW. IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED LET ME KNOW.

Post by **kg1961** » Sat May 15, 2010 2:43 pm

I loved mine 2 a600.2 but i had a cap fail back in 2005 and never looked back
They sound great work very good you just might want to open them up and change the caps
are they white or black
I love the white

ShockTherapy · Post by **ShockTherapy** » Sat May 15, 2010 5:17 pm

kg1961 wrote:I loved mine 2 a600.2 but i had a cap fail back in 2005 and never looked back
They sound great work very good you just might want to open them up and change the caps
are they white or black
I love the white

They are white and were in a show car since birth. I actually have 3 of them now. my mind is going crazy thinking of uses.

Post by **kg1961** » Sat May 15, 2010 5:54 pm

you could alway send them to me and not worry about them anymore...lol

Post by **Eric D** » Sat May 15, 2010 7:08 pm

I too love the art series, but only for collecting purposes, not for actual use. Since PPI is gone, you have no support. If one breaks, they are a pain in the butt to fix (mostly due to the transistor clamping method).

Even though they sound great, they are very old. They are also pretty primitive. The power supplies use older less powerful parts.

In the preamp section there are small daughter cards which only PPI made. If one of these fails, there are solutions, but they are not easy.

ShockTherapy · Post by **ShockTherapy** » Sat May 15, 2010 7:47 pm

Eric D wrote:I too love the art series, but only for collecting purposes, not for actual use. Since PPI is gone, you have no support. If one breaks, they are a pain in the butt to fix (mostly due to the transistor clamping method).

Even though they sound great, they are very old. They are also pretty primitive. The power supplies use older less powerful parts.

In the preamp section there are small daughter cards which only PPI made. If one of these fails, there are solutions, but they are not easy.

Actually in my experience these things last a lifetime. I still have an A300.2 that I have had for 13 years. The key to longevity when it comes to these amps is correct load. 4 ohm mono or 2 ohm stereo... dont push it! As for the power supplies, The .2 versions had beefed up power supplies compared to the previous A600. anyhow, I'm stoked!

Post by **Eric D** » Sun May 16, 2010 9:28 am

What I meant by power supplies is if you look at the MOSFETs used in these amps (.2 included), they are only half the current capacity of what you find in modern amps.

KUB3 · Post by **KUB3** » Sun May 16, 2010 9:39 am

I only use 150 rms per channel on my CDT's. They sound great, although not mega loud of course. But more than enough for day to day personal listening. I have toyed with the idea of more power, but that can wait for now. I'd suggest anything around 200 per channel will be ample

Post by **smgreen20** » Sun May 16, 2010 12:09 pm

ShockTherapy wrote:
They are white and were in a show car since birth. I actually have 3 of them now. my mind is going crazy thinking of uses.

Wall art.

JayGold · Post by **JayGold** » Mon May 17, 2010 6:11 am

I'm in the same situation, a long time old friend has had (2) A600s in white sitting in his closet for many many years. However I know the history on them as a close friend was the original purchaser of these units and only utilized them in his install for a couple years.

I'm waiting on pics of the heatsinks and guts to determine if I really want to shell out the asking price shipped from CA.

I did find this regarding repair as it may comfort you:

http://www.db-r.com/repairs/index12.html

As for SQ, back in the day we had a set of 2-way high end Dynaudio components in a Mustang running on a small 50Wx2 amp (don't remember the brand or model but it was high end) and the front stage sounded good. We decided to fire up the A600 on it and from that point we never looked back, it was like night and day. Tons more headroom, clarity, dynamics, etc. with little to no distortion due to the gain never leaving its lowest setting. These things sounded like true bliss and this was back in 1994!!!

This is the main reason I'm gonna run a PPI PC450 for my components and potentially the (2) PPI A600's on each sub I have

Post by **smgreen20** » Mon May 17, 2010 6:25 am

Going from 50w to 150w would sound like night and day damn near no matter what. I was given a non-working ?PPI2350? and wished it was fixed. I'd use it in the wifes car. I love the older ART series PPI's.

marko · Post by **marko** » Mon May 17, 2010 7:48 am

i had a large collection of these at one point, i thought the A200's were very sweet indeed, i ended up selling the lot as i had (still have

) too many amps. i'm sticking to collecting the good 'ol PG stuff now

JayGold · Post by **JayGold** » Mon May 17, 2010 8:36 am

smgreen20 wrote:Going from 50w to 150w would sound like night and day damn near no matter what.

I agree, but this was back when most audiophile authorities stated to match wattage and components only to RMS specifications. With our limited knowledge and experience of car audio back in high school (I'm now 34) it was unlikely to push over 150 watts to front stage components.

Post by **Eric D** » Tue May 18, 2010 11:19 am

smgreen20 wrote:Going from 50w to 150w would sound like night and day damn near no matter what. I was given a non-working ?PPI2350? and wished it was fixed. I'd use it in the wifes car. I love the older ART series PPI's.

What is wrong with it (the PC2350)?

Post by **smgreen20** » Wed May 19, 2010 3:45 am

I really didn't see it at first, but I posted pics here about 2 yrs ago and was told what it was but can't remember what. Found the pics. I guess it's the 2150 and it also looks to be blown fets, I don't have a soldering iron w/a tip small enough to try the work myself and I'm also not sure what fets/where to order them.

Post by **Eric D** » Wed May 19, 2010 4:12 am

That looks pretty fixable, as it is probably only the power supply. But, sometimes a blown output is what causes the power supply to fail. In this case the fix is harder, as you have to adjust the bias, clamp the amp together, take it apart, adjust the bias, clamp the amp, etc, until you get the bias set right. It can be a time consuming pain.

If it is just the power supply, then it would not be a big deal.

finbar · Post by **finbar** » Wed May 19, 2010 5:58 am

Hi Shock,
I ran a JL 15W6 with an A600.2 for a few years, very good it was too. I had it on my bench last month and it played without any issues.

Here is a link to the manual,

http://www.precisionpower.com/Manuals/A ... ifiers.pdf

which came from,

http://www.precisionpower.com/manuals.htm

Shinju · Post by **Shinju** » Wed May 19, 2010 4:25 pm

I miss my arts, too. Got this one over on ca.com going to redo the whole heatsink and get the gain adjustment dial repaired it goes all the way around.

lots of cosmetic work to be done

JayGold · Post by **JayGold** » Wed May 19, 2010 8:37 pm

PPI A600.2
Continuous Power Output per Channel:
4 Ohms, 11-15 VDC, Stereo: 150 Watts
2 Ohms, 11-15 VDC, Stereo: 300 Watts
4 Ohms, 11-15 VDC, Bridged: 600 Watts

I'm stuck between running at 4 Ohms stereo OR bridging the bad boy and pushing that heavy wattage into a vintage Kicker Solobaric S10a (4 Ohm SVC) rated at 350 wrms....decisions, decisions

JayGold · Post by **JayGold** » Wed May 19, 2010 8:40 pm

Shinju wrote:I miss my arts, too. Got this one over on ca.com going to redo the whole heatsink and get the gain adjustment dial repaired it goes all the way around.

lots of cosmetic work to be done

Have you personally repaired this yourself or had it done by a shop? I'm concerned the A600.2's I pick up will require some replacement caps....how difficult is this to do if I have soldering skills?

Shinju · Post by **Shinju** » Thu May 20, 2010 8:29 am

I havent done anything to the amp yet. I am trying to find end caps for it first wich is going to be next to impossible since there really isnt a fan site for PPI like here for PG.

Post by **kg1961** » Thu May 20, 2010 9:41 am

what about these?
http://cgi.ebay.com/PPI-Precision-Power ... 4837d680d6

http://cgi.ebay.com/PPI-Precision-Power ... 4837d6802c

Shinju · Post by **Shinju** » Fri May 21, 2010 1:48 pm

Saw those but I have no way to stamp out the holes I would need.

finbar · Post by **finbar** » Fri May 21, 2010 9:47 pm

a whithey punch might do the job,

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-NO-2-WHITNE ... 500wt_1137

kick ass tool at a good price. had one of these mounted in a bench vice many moons ago. punch and die sets are still available. I used to get them at Clark & Barlow in Chicago.

a unibit does a fair job too, readily available.

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid ... nkw=unibit

Going back to the Art Series

Going back to the Art Series

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