I need help to buy car subs and amps. im new at this and dont no all the terms and right ways to do it.?

Question

i have a ford f150xlt, i want good sound but not crazy. (affordable) im looking at the "Boss Car Audio DC126D "Diablo Series" 12" DieCast Basket Dual 4 OHM Car Subwoofer 1400 Watts" (link=http://www.cardiscountstereos.com/... but what amp do i get to match that and car equalizers and all that. help me out please. thanks guys.

Answer 1

goldbakerboard is correct about boss, it is junk, but so are ALL of the other brands named- when it comes to car audio you always get what you pay for

you need to look into companies that are CEA-compliant- which means that the amp produces or exceeds the advertised RMS wattage with minimum distortion and that the subs can handle their rated RMS wattage also

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)

one major reason i tell people to avoid non CEA-compliant brands is that the subs cant handle their rated RMS wattage and the amps only make about half of their advertised RMS wattage (if you are lucky, and it will be distorted) and matching you RMS wattages (at the correct impedance) is very important_ and if you dont know the real RMS wattage you cant propperly match your stuff, here is what happens

If you send too much power to your sub, you risk damaging it. The cone of the speaker and the mechanical parts that make it move may break under the stress. Surprisingly, too little power can also damage your subwoofer — in fact, it's actually more common than damage caused by overpowering.

When the volume is turned up and the amp doesn't have enough power, the signal becomes distorted, or "clipped." This distorted signal can cause parts of the speaker to overheat, warp and melt. Not good!

You don't have to match speaker and amp wattages exactly. An amp with a higher output than the speaker's rating won't necessarily damage the speaker — just turn the amp down a bit if you hear distortion from the sub and don't run the speaker at extremely loud volumes for lengthy periods. Likewise, you'll be OK with a lower powered amp if you keep the volume down and don't feed a distorted signal to the sub.

Answer 2

first of all boss audio..... c**p. If you want to go for cheap subs that arent junk try audibahn  aw 1200 they are 1200 watts and only about 60 bucks and they will jam better than boss. As for an equalizer you dont have to have one and a good amp for cheap is mabye lanzar, ma audio, or visonik. These are nice brands for the price