was that serious?

 

Please, for the love of God, don't get the Boss amp. You have a pretty nice sub, mid-range in price and quality, but it will only sound as good as the amp that powers it.

When Boss said **Strap two amps together for twice the power** I almost laughed, this is NEVER a good idea. Either they're cascading the amp driver and will probalby blow the last stages with exteded use, or running in parallel, which causes phase issues, distortion, etc. Trust me, at their dimensions, roughly 11" x 12", they aren't getting nearly 2600W max, the thing would overheat in minutes.

The popular and somewhat decent quality brands are Kicker, Pioneer, Alpine, Kenwood, JBL, some MTX, Rockford Fosgate though they're overpriced, Infinity, Blauplunkt, Polk Audio, AudioBahn and some Sony.

Lesser known but higher quality (and more expensive) brands are JL Audio, Mephis, Soundstream, MA Audio, Nakamichi, Image Dynamics and the gold standard, McIntosh.

Start here to get some decent reviews:
http://www.epinions.com/Car_Amplifiers

Anyone who knows of or already has a decent 1 ohm stable 800W RMS amplifier please chime in.

 

so i should run it at 1 ohm not 2 ohms?

 

what about this kenwood amp? Kenwood KAC-9104D

 

another question... would it be too much to have an amp that had more rms power than the sub? on the other side would it be bad if the amp had less rms power?

 

You can't run at 2 ohms. The D2 model subwoofer has two 2 Ohm coils. You will want to power both coils, or it won't have the energy to really push the speaker and make decent sound. The only way to hook up two coils is in series or in parallel. In series, the resistance is just R1 + R2, so 2 Ohm + 2 Ohm = 4 Ohm. In parallel, the resistance is (R1* R2) / (R1 + R2), or 1 Ohm. These pictures might explain it better:





Generally, people only buy a dual 2 Ohm sub when they are running two of them, that way they can hook both of them together and still get a 2 ohm load, like this:



With just one speaker, your options are limited. You can either buy an amp thet has 800W @ 4 Ohms, which will be expensive, or one that has 800W @ 1 Ohm, which will probably be cheaper if you find one stable to 1 ohm.

The Kenwood should work, it looks like it's 900W RMS @ 1 Ohm. Hope you can find it at a decent price. it also has four terminals, so follow the manual when wiring it up.

More power can be bad, it can overheat or overextend the sub, both of which could break it. You can compensate for this by keeping the gain turned down a bit. I usually buy my amps 10-20% bigger than the speaker is rated for. Less will not hurt the subwoofer or the amp, but it may not get as loud as you want it. Think of it like car horsepower. If you have a motorcycle, it's very light and 100 HP will move it pretty quick. If you have a pickup truck, that same 100 HP will make it slower than dirt. The reason is inertia, or resistance to movement. Speakers also have inertia, it's partially based on mass but also on suspension stiffness and magnetic force, so a smaller, lighter speaker needs less power.

 

That would work fine, in spite of what others in this thread have stated. The specs state it'll do 900w RMS into a 4 Ohm load, and you can wire the voice coils in series to accomplish that, just as the how-to wiring diagrams someone else posted show. With bass frequencies you don't really need to spend more on a higher-end brand amp, unless maybe you're planning to compete in SQ at sound-offs or are trying to achieve audiophile SQ in the car.

 

how about the jvc arsenal ks-ar7501d? it will run 1000 rms at one ohm which is a lil bit much but i could just get it tuned down

 

It will certainly work at 4 Ohms, but it most likely won't be giving 900W RMS in your car. Boss does not state the test voltage, and in my experience when it isn't stated they generally use 14.4 V to rate it, while your car puts out 12.8 V. P = I X V, so it's putting out 62.5 A, which at 12.8 makes an even 800. They are manufactured either in Taiwan or Korea, and at the price quality assurance my be an issue. In lower quality electronics, board solder processes aren't as tightly controlled, leading to cold solder joints and component chips that can vary month to month depending on what's cheapest at the time. Add in thermal expansion as the car gets hot in the sun + heat from running, then cooling down and you have thernal shock that can cause premature failure.

The Boss may work new, but I wouldn't count on it to last. if you're looking for value amplifiers, I've had pretty good luck with Power Acoustik / Farenheit. Sonic Electronix carries them and a lot of other stuff. Try the PS1-200D, it's 1200W RMS @ 1 Ohm, 600W RMS @ 4 Ohms and about $180. The BAMF200/1D is even cheaper at $170 with the same power ratings. I think they may use the same power board across their series and just change housings for different style looks. The BAMF2000/1D, LFA1-2000D, OV1-2000D, and PS1-2000D are all 1 Ohm stable at 1200W RMS, which in realitly is probalby closer to 1067W RMS. The Reactor, Class D/AB and Demon series are NOT 1 Ohm stable and you'll need a much bigger amp to get the same power at 4 Ohms. They are probably also manufactured oversees, I've just personally had good performance from them in terms of reliability.

Here's the link to each of the styles, just pick the one that looks the best for your setup.

BAMF2000/1D
LFA1-2000D
OV1-2000D
PS1-2000D

 

None of those amps listed will ever see anything close to 1000watts at 1ohm load.. more like ~700watts if that.

 

trial, not trying to get into any forum BS, but could you please qualify your statement that no lower priced amp will reach anything greater than 700W? Do you have a power meter? Have you measured outputs or done comparitive analysis? I'm trying to answer a legitimite question and general hearsay and assumptions don't help. There have been several articales in Car Audio & Design and other publications on the power rating systems for amplifiers. Most, when they don't publish the voltage value, use 14.4 VDC, but have gone as high as 15.8 VDC to inflate the numbers.

Thermal efficiency is another matter, and these will get HOT compared to a higher priced brand, but I do believe that they can sustain 900-1000W RMS under a 1 Ohm load. Since you obviously don't agree, what do you recommend.

 

Well in theory watts=volts*amps. Hypothetically looking at the fuses on the amp, 2x30amp fuses, 60amps total. For an amp that can draw that 60amps at max power at 14volts will put out 840watts but at 100% efficiency, which you should know that an amp will not be 100% efficient, depending on the class of the amp, it can be between 60-85% more or less who knows. So give it the benefit of the doubt for 85%, max power at 1ohm will give ~700watts.
However to get the real numbers you will have to bench test the amp, measure current draw and voltage output on the amp.

 

thanks for all the help guys i juss bought a memphis 1000d amp for a good price and it will push 1100 rms at 1 ohm so im gooooooooood

 

trial, thanks for the explination. Wasn't sure if you were just generalizing like so many on here. I agree with the logic but your fuse ratings are off. The BAMF-2000/D1 uses 2 40A fuses, see the product manual linked below, page 10. I believe the same amp board is used in all four, so the fuse ratings should be the same as well.

http://www.poweracoustik.com/pa2006/...F%20MANUAL.pdf

100% efficiency @ 80 A, 14.4 VDC is 1152W, pretty close to the advertised 1200W. At 85% efficiency range though, that drops to 980W, and at 12.8 VDC, 85% is 870W, enough for an 800W sub.

Of course, since he went and bought a Memphis, it's pointless to debate the Power Acoustik. Now all he has to worry about is overdriving the sub.

 

But no amp out there will run 100% efficient. Even 85% is pushing it. I had a RF T10001BD amp a while ago and it did 1546watts@1ohm. It was rocking a 150amp fuse on it, given that logic the amp was approx ~70% efficient at 1ohm. But this is coming from one of the more quality RF amps, the power series.
Quoted from the Sundown forums my SAZ1500 will do You see also the lower the ohms the lower the efficiency. Then you have to understand the quality of the product being produced from that can effect efficiency too.

The other amps you listed has 30A*2 fuses, thats the only one with 80A total.

 

Yeah, I see the fuse rating now for the others. Wierd that they would have the same power rating with a different fuse. Couldn't find the manual for the other ones on the mfgr site.

I'm biased against Rockford, my brother had an older Punch (brushed silver with black heat fins on the side, trapezoid shape) on his setup and we were sorely disappointed. I think also that as the power pushes past 1000W, the MOSFETs become less thermal efficient as the heat sinks can't keep up, so a 1 Ohm @ 1000W may run more efficient than 1500W @ 1 Ohm, if that makes sense.

Higher quality does seem to run more efficiently, I see that a lot on consumer electronics like TV's and PC power supplies. energySTAR ain't cheap, and PC supplies now even have an 80+ certification.

Guess I'll leave it that the BAMF would be able to drive the Pioneer sufficiently, not sure about the others unless Sonic's spec on the fuse rating is wrong. The LFA manual does list 30A x2, so Sonic is probably right.

I no longer have Power Acoustik, ended up with a JL 500/1 for a pair of 8w7's. It underives a bit at max volume, the w7's would need an extra 100W for the pair, but for any volume that won't damage your ear while in the car they work fine.

 

if the sub pushes 2500watts u also hav to check out the rms that the sub can push and take. so depending on the rms, depends the wattage and the rms output of the amp.