I need help finding an amp for my speakers.?

Question

Im buying two of these kenwood subs http://www.amazon.com/Kenwood-KFC-W3011-12-4-ohm-subwoofer/dp/B000N2N24G/ref=sr_1_2/105-4886719-7995646?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1213065809&sr=1-2 . The rms on each of these is 400. My question is if each speaker is 400, what type of amp should I buy? Should the amp be 800 watt rms because 400 + 400 of each speaker = 800? Or does the RMS of 400 mean that The amp only has to be 400 watts RMS? Also is it ok to buy an amp with more power? Im really really new to car audio so any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

since you are buy two and they are 4ohm SVC depending on your wiring options you can get final impedance's of 2 or 8ohms at the amp (the lower the impedance the easier/cheaper it is to power but the lower the sound quality- 2ohms is good though)

here is a diagram of your wiring options http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/woofer...

so the amp you need will have about 800watts RMS @ 2ohms and is also CEA-compliant (which means that the amp has been tested and produces or exceeds the advertised RMS wattage with minimum distortion)

here are the CEA-compliant brands

Alpine  

Bazooka  

Blaupunkt  

Clarion  

Eclipse  

Infinity  

JBL

JL Audio

JVC  

Kenwood

Kicker  

MTX  

Pioneer

Polk Audio

Rockford Fosgate  

Sony

regardless of the amps wattage, more or less necasary wattage, you still need to set your gain correctly to be safe (even with the perfect match you can damage your subs it the amps not tuned correctly)

here are some

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_8518...

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_6411...

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_8515...

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_5645...

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_9898...

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_1358...

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_2809...

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_7013...

Answer 2

1st of all its okay to buy a amp with more power.. aslong as its not over the max of the subss butt i ussaly try to match the rms of the subs to the amp.. ive been told u shouldnt need anything more then 10% over the surgested rms.. but yea for ur question id say a 800wat mono amp would be perfect for thoes subs.. just with a nicely made box(custom build to the specs of ur subs) and ul have some good bass for ur system.. just remeber that if ur speakers are already not the greatest u might have to upgrade thoes to make ur whole system sound good