which amp to buy?!
 

Hey guys.. I'm pulling my hair trying to find an amp to buy for two Kenwood subs. They're the KFC-W3013PS subs from Crutchfield. Specs: 400w RMS, SVC, 4-ohm. First I was looking at a 2-channel 800w amp, but wouldn't run the 400w at 4-ohms like the specs say. I'm starting to pick up on this car audio stuff, but I still need some help. So any opinions? Which amp should I buy? How should I wire them?

Thanks!
Tyler

there are alot of great amps to choose from. personally i like alpine and rockford. your going to want to wire those subs down to 2ohm. but if you get a single channel(mono) amplifier and you wire them in series you wont be able to get them down to 2ohm. so if you get a mono make sure its about 800watt RMS at 4 ohms. but if you get 2 channel if its 800 watts at 2ohm. just wire each sub down to 2ohms at their own channel and your good to go.

I like rockford amps alot personally, but like boxman said make sure its rated for the right rms watts

Thanks guys! Is there any one specific amp you might recommend?

x2

--I've always stuck to rockford, alpine, and kicker. I'm sure there are other good brands that you won't have a problem with, but whenever in doubt, those are the 3 i stick with. good luck

I found the kac-9105d amp made by kenwood and it can be wired to 900w RMS x 1 channel @2ohms. Would this work even though the subs are only 400w RMS each?? Both Crutchfield, and SonicElectronix offer two of these subs and the amp in question, but is the amp to powerful for the subs?

my appologies for miss reading your first post! i thought you had DVC subs and you want SVC which changes alot of things. that amp would work great. if you amp is gonna put out a little more power then your subs, then watch your gains and volume. make sure your not clipping or getting distortion. you will blow them. its only 100watts over so thats not much of a difference. i persoanly dont have experience with kenwood. but im sure that amp and sub combo will work well for what you want! :thumbsup:

I've decided on the Alpine MRP-M1000 thanks to Mitch! It'll only give each sub 300w, but that's probably close enough to 400 and I don't exactly want to blow them. Thanks for all the help, guys!:)

great choice! i have 2 m500s and a f300 and love them. good luck with your system! :thumbsup:

Hey guys! Got another question.. If I wire my subs like this: http://a248.e.akamai.net/pix.crutchf...4-ohm_mono.jpg wouldn't I need to look at the 2-ohm numbers on the amps instead of the 4-ohm numbers? (Since the subs are 4-ohms) If so, would this amp work? Hifonics HFi1000.1D (HFi 1000D) Class D Monoblock Car Amplifier

that looks like a similar amp to the mrp-m1000, can someone please explain the ohms, is there a way to make a 4 ohm sub play at 2 ohms?

This diagram shows 2 4-ohm subs wired to a 2-ohm load. Does that change the RMS rating on the sub? http://a248.e.akamai.net/pix.crutchf...4-ohm_mono.jpg

that's exactly how you would wire the subs to receive a 2 ohm load at the amp. and no, it does not matter what ohms the subs are wired to, they will require the same amount of power. also, what might help you understand how to wire them correctly: when you put the subs in the box, wire them to their own box terminals then run your speaker wire from both terminals and inserting the wire from each terminal on the box into the same output of the amplifier. hope that helps! :)

That's a good idea! Thanks! Also, I'm so happy I found this amp because it's cheaper than the MRP-M1000 and it pushes more to the subs. What do you guys think of it for the subs I ordered? Here it is: Hifonics HFi1000.1D (HFi 1000D) Class D Monoblock Car Amplifier

Thank you!

not sure where you found that the hifonics will give your subs more juice when your subs will be wired to 2 ohms and the hifonics puts out 750 watts at 2 ohms while the alipine puts out 1000 watts at 2 ohms. regardless i would go with the alpine, they make really good products and i own one of their pdx amps for my speakers and i only have good things to say about it. :)

I have the Rockford Fosgate Prime R500-1 powering two Pioneer 12's and it works great. I've always been satisfied with Rockford Fosgate amps and have never had any issues. I have heard good things about Hifonic amps as well. They are priced good too.

Just make sure the amp and subs are 2ohm stable, some companies don't have accurate rms ratings like sony explodes, I haven't heard much of hifonics, but I'm a proud owner of 1000rms alpine amp. Also you may wanna buy a 1farad or bigger capacitor. When it comes time to hooking it up post back for guidance on the settings.

Hey guys! Finally found an amp! I was just wondering if it's possible to hook the amp up to a switch so when my parents, or more sensitive friends ride in the car I can shut them off? Would I just put the switch in the turn on lead wire?

Also, might be a newbie question, but on my sub, there's two terminals and they push up and come down. Do I push this up, stick the wire in, then let it down to hook them up inside the box?

Thanks!
Tyler

haha yes and yes...you can purchase a separate switch and place inline on the remote turn on wire but the easier way to go would be through the headunit. depending on which one you have you can adjust how much of the bass you get, like on my sony i can adjust the level of just the subs from completely off, and -10db to +10db all with just going through a menu and using the main knob. as far as the subs, all you do for the push-terminals is compress it with you hand, stick it in ;) and release and it holds the wire.

Awesome! Okay so the amp I got comes with a knob that has the -10 to +10 on it.. if I put it to -10 will it turn the subs off?

a side note on a switch for your subs. if your parents are in the car. you probably wont have the volume up loud enough to really bump it. the bass really doesnt start bumping unless you have the volume up. they will have a small bump but it will just sound really good. not door shaking bass just a nice rumble.

my fav entry level gear is massive audio, it's high end, but also affordible. great suff, ALL of it. the NX micro amps are great, the nx2, nx5 and the N2 are some of the best bargins, you can get for around 350-400 for the nx5, and thats 800 watts at 1 ohm, 120x4 at 4 ohms which is incredible amout of power.

the MB quart amps are also very afordible and decently built, built like allot of the other stuff out their, hifonics would be a good example since their pretty much the same amps in allot of cases, they dont really have to many that are exact matches right now but their made off the same line or similer lines if i recall, i mean it's nothing compared to the hay days of mb quart but it's nice stuff. alpine is what i run, their PDX amps are second to none. i will be running oldschool clarion, JL audio, and alpine amps in my new setup.

if you have any questions, hit me up. i love to help people into this, it is a pasion of mine and i enjoy teaching others the joys of it :) and pain :X

Hey guys! Just wondering if this is right for hooking up two SVC 4-ohm subs to run at 2-ohms on the monoblock amp I ordered. Also is this proper use of the line out coverter? I included all the part numbers so you can look them up if you want to know the different specs.

looks fine, but i alwyas recommend away from line converters, i mean for 30$ you could have a cheap deck lol well not with the 50-100$ converter kit but hey the decks only 30$ :P but no seriously that looks fine.

The converter I bought was a PAC-SNI35 and it was only like $13. I plan to get a deck eventually, but this'll do for now. Thanks for looking!

And one more thing.. when I'm running the turn on lead wire, can I just take out a fuse for something that only runs when the cars on, put the wire in there, and put the fuse back, or do I have to run it to the ignition like the write up on here says? (thread is how to run amp and subs on factory head unit)

Also, can I run wires from the subs out of the box and then bridge them there, or do I have to connect the negatives and positives inside the box?

Thanks!
Tyler