How many RMS watts should a good car setup have?

Question

i see a lot of subs and amps with like 700 rms watts, then some for the same price for 350 rms...is 350 or something similar too low? i dont want anything crazy sounding but i want a good affordable setup. any help would be great. thanks.

Answer 1

If they're the same price, it's likely that the higher number is given by an "off-brand" - they tend to overinflate their numbers to make them look better. Most reputable manufacturers will include some sort of certificate or something (for example, my Rockford Fosgate amp came with the test cert. that shows the actual output at different ohms, and a chart of the Freq. response). It all depends on what you want! If possible, go to a local car audio store and ask them to demonstrate different subs with different amps for you, but make sure they hook it up to an amp you can afford (I was building a system for a buddy who was spending ~$250 on a sub amp, and they tried to show him one that was roughly 3x that). With decent equipment, 500w to a sub is more than you should subject your ears to frequently.

Answer 2

this link will tell you a lot http://www.crutchfield.com/learningcente... and for any real bass i would suggest subs that can handle at least 200watts RMS each

as far as the prices when it comes to car audio you always get what you pay for and the cheaper stuff is over rated- you need to look for brands that are CEA-compliant which means- the amp will produce or exceed the advertised RMS wattage with minimum distortion and the subs can handle their rated RMS wattage-

here are the top CEA-compliant brands

Alpine (highly recommend)

Bazooka (don't like their subs)

Blaupunkt (don't like their subs)

Clarion

Eclipse

Infinity (highly recommend)

JBL

JL Audio (very good but over priced)

Kenwood (don't like their subs)

Kicker (the best in my opinion)

MTX (highly recommend)

Pioneer

Polk Audio (highly recommend)

Rockford Fosgate (highly recommend)

Sony (don't like their subs)