Howdy all,

First, let me preface by saying I used to do all my own installs back in the day.
I remember the first Rockford Fosgate amps, and I had used them for years and
years. And I still build Folded Horn sub boxes for home theater use, but I've not done
any mobile installs for myself in about 12-13 years.

I'm starting to look around at what kind of gear is out there, to get a feel for what I
like and what's new. I see already that car audio has gone in HUGE leaps and
bounds, and I'm glad...because we were really pushing the boundaries back in the day.
Lots of cool stuff out there!

So I'm starting out simple right now for my xB. I've got the adapter kit to allow me
to hook up an external amp to the stock head unit. I figure I'm just going to buy
myself a sub and toss one of my custom built sub boxes from my studio into
the back of the box. But I have no idea what amps are good bang for the buck these
days. Is Rockford Fosgate still *there*? I mean, I see them at Best Buy now, and
that sorta scares me.

I have a hand made (by me) single 10" sub and box, and I figure I need something
like a 200watt amp to make it happy. Since I'm bleeding off a stock head unit the
amp needs to have a low pass filter, and an RCA pass-through would be nice for
later down the road when I upgrade the mids and tweets and give them a good amp
to drive them.

I don't need a big amp for my work, just lots of current. I prefer a tight, accurate
hit to big boomy mess. Generally my systems are built around heavy guitar sounds
rather then big bass. My goal in the late 80's early 90's was to have heavy guitar
riffs drowning out the rap when I pulled up to stop lights, and so far I've been
pretty successful. I think I'm going to carry on that tradition with the box.

Any help, suggestions, and guidance are greatly appreciated. So much has changed
in car audio in the past 12 years, I have no idea where to start!

Thanks!

 

You hand-made a 10" sub? That's awesome! Yeah IMO Rockford Fosgate is still a great amp, also check out Kicker & Alpine. Kicker's got a great Mono-channel amp, the KX400.1. Pumps out 200watts RMS (4 Ohms), 400 Max for $349.

 

i personally still like rockford amps.......the ones at best buy aren't the greatest for sure.......alot of ppl use hifonics amps....allthough I"ve never used them...they seem to make alot of ppl happy......JL are pretty good but i've heard alot of ppl saying they've been blowin and smokin the past 6 months....again....not my personal experience......just really depends on target price and preference.....

 

RF is ok now... if i were you and going for something simple i would stick with a JL 10 sub with a like a jl or alpine amp. this really depends on what kinda music your into.. the 10 inch if im not wrong will give you a better punchy bass as where the 12 will give u more of a deeper bass bc of the distance of the coil movement.

as for amps you can get a something around 300x1 @ 4 Ohms ( if you sub is a 2 ohm you can get something around 450x1) if your are sticking with 1 sub it will most likely be 4 ohms.

in my tc im going to put 1 JL amp 500X1@ 4ohms for my jl 12 sub ( im into rap ) and 1 amp 4 channel 400X1 for the tweeters and mids ( alpine ) and put it all in a custom box. Im sure if you want rock ect you prob want to amp the components so when your crank it up your HU isnt dieing feeding the speakers.

i hope that made some sort of sence im still kinda wakin up :-)

 

Fosgate is still awsome. You can't go wrong with it. Probably a good amp for the 10 would be the Alpine MRD-M301... Either Rockford or Alpine are great for what you are looking for...

 

Cool! I'd like to stick with Rockford Fosgate....what series
should I be sticking with, and what series should I be
avoiding? My runner up is JL audio since my dad can get
me on a discount...but it would have to be special ordered,
I can't buy from store stock...which means 2-3 weeks wait.

So what Fosgate amp should I be lookin at?

 

I go with a punch series. Like the P3001 or 6001. Take a kook at the punch chart...

 

sony came out with cool ams, the 800 watt p5 amp is a good one. i used it in mono(2ohms) with one rockford sub, and it sets off alarms. i also use that amp with 2 12" sony p5 subs and it pounds my chest with good bass. the cool thing is that you can get one for about $100 on ebay. not bad for the price. of course there are way better amps, but for the amount of wattage that your getting for $100 dollars isn't too bad.

 

for a single 10 I'd go with the 300x1@4ohm Fosgate P3002
http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/produ...h%20Amplifiers look for it on ebay