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Im planning on my buying a sub in the next week to two weeks but I just cant decide on whether I should get a 2 or 4 ohm subwoofer. It will be run off a KICKER ZX350.4 amp untill July at that point I intend to get a seperate amp. My amp runs at 60 watts a channel at 4 ohms and 90 watts a channel at 2 ohms. I dont listen to alot of rap but I do on occasion. I listen mostly to The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Three Days Grace and The Hellacopters. So if anyone has an opinion i would greatly appriciate your advice. please explain why you think your opinion is better. Thanks

 
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Thats not a lot of power to drive a sub. The lower the resistance (ohms) the more strain is placed on your electrical system. Yes, you will get more power from most amps at a lower resistance but you will have a much better chance of something frying due to an overheat. I personally prefer to run most speakers at 4 ohms or above, but if you need to, 2 ohms should be stable, but like I said, you will generate more heat from your components. Also remember that when you double the wattage, you gain 3db of sound, in effect doubling it. If you listen to a lot of rock, you will most likely want to go with a sealed enclosure. Sealed enclosures tend to be smaller, and provide a more accurate bass response, which is better for ther type of music you described.

 
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pretty much what he said... go with a 4 ohm sub... and probably get a higher wattage amp... but don't look at the overall wattage look at the RMS that's what really drives the subs...

 
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When you mean stable what do you mean?
Also I am planning on doing only one sub, so my next question is 10' or 12'? And what wattage do you think for 2 ohms and 4 ohms?
I appriciate the help, im a major nub

 
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By stable, I mean able to run without shorting out your amp. Most amps on the market today can only run safely down to 2 ohms. This means that the lowest resistance that your amp can support without frying itself its 2 ohms. Some amps are stable down to 1 ohm, or even less than 1 ohm if you want to spoend a good chunk of money. The reason amps are needed that support such a low resistance is that so people who are running multiple sub competition rigs and still need thousands and thousands of watts can get all that power.

I would go with a 12" if you are just goping to do a single. 12"s usually have a better lower end frequency response (able to play lower notes). As for what kind of power you need, I could not begin to say without knowing what subs you are looking at. If you give me an idea of price range, how much space you are looking to take up in your trunk, and how much you are will to spend on an amp, I can make some recomendations.

 
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Here is the sub I am planning on getting.
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-gd6Fbxg...0&I=2067C12VR4

As far as the amp i dont really wanna spend more then around 350.

 
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60 watts isn't much for that sub, or even any sub at that. I'd reccommend waiting until you can purchase your amp, find out what is in your price range, and buy a sub based on what that amp can handle. The worst thing you could do is purchase a sub, then find out the amp you need to power it is $500.

since you listen to mainly rock, I'd go with a 10". provides a tighter bass which will be better for more accurate bassline. And as JMU said, go with a sealed box. They're smaller, lighter, and provide a tighter bass that doesn't resonate (does that word fit) for too long.

 
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Kicker is a good brand for the prcie tag they carry (usually). That sub should more than work well in a vic. I do however highly recomend at least 300watts RMS(continuous) power in a minimum of 1 cubic foot, if not at least 1.5. The bigger the box, the less power needed to make the subwoofer reach it's xmax, which is its mechanical 1 way excursion. Picture your sub bobbing up and down as the music is playing, when it goes down or up, this is call excursion. How far the sub can excur (my made up word) in one way (either up or down) is called its xmax. This is basically the point where the sub will "bottom out", and you generally want to avoid that as much as possible. The greater a sub's xmax, the more air it is capable of moving, creating more SPL (more sound pressure level), which is basically means it plays louder.

$350 is more than enough money to spend on a great amp. Dont let stores like bb/cc/crutch/ fool you, you do not need to spend a $1000 to get an amazing amp. In all of my vast tinkerings in car audio, I have found 4 amp brands to be worlds above any other crap on the market: Zapco, US amps, Incriminator, and Hifonics. Hifonics is what I would recomend for you, most likely the brutus line, model number bxi606 which puts out 300 solid watts at 2 ohms, which is what you would run that kicker sub at. Hifonics is a great brand and in my experience always puts out more power than they are rated at. The other three brands I named are a little more expensive, so I would go with a hifonics. You can pick up the 606 on eBay for around 200, if not cheaper. Keep on posting updates and I will try and help as much as possible

 
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Oh and in response to this, yes, the general rule of thumb is: the smaller the sub, the better its ability to respond accuratly to bass notes. The theory behind this is that the larger the subwoofer, the moore weight has to be moved by its motor (magnet), therefor the slower it's ability to respond (move the heavier weight). I seriously doubt that you will notice even the slightest difference between this 12" kicker and its 10" unless you are using sophisticated equipment and running test tones. You will however most likely notice a difference between a smaller subwoofer and a larger one in terms of how much lower (most 12" play down to 30hz or less while most 10s play down to around 35 or 40) the larger one can play. Basically, bigger subs play lower notes but have a micro second slower response time that is usually not noticible in a sealed enclosure. Bottom line, go with the 12, it will move more air and play lower while still being accurate enough for rock.

 
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hey man if your looking for subs and amp, i got an alpine type-r 10". you can check for detailed specs but its 500rms at 4ohms. its dual voice coils like your kicker. also i have a rockford fosgate 1500w amp, 125x2@4ohms, 200x2@2ohms, 500x1@4ohms. I ran the 500 straight and it works great. Let me know if your interested and we can work something out. or even if you just want one or the other.

 
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I apprciate it azn but I prefer to buy my stuff new. Thanks for the help everyone I really appriciate it. What do you guys think about this amp?
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-buoywgJ...20&I=099XA1000
Ive decided to run my sub at 4 ohms and this amp gives me 320 watts at 4 ohms. Im gunna look into the other amps you mentioned later today.

 
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to me that is kinda high for the amount of power...

 
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Well I can tell you that Zapco is going to be really expensive unless you buy used on ebay, and US amps and Incriminator are going to be reasonably expensive, so if you are going to go with one of the brands I reccomended, I would go with Hifonics. Ive opened many of their amps up and I can tell you that they dont skimp or use cheapo parts when it comes to beuilding them. They are also usually dead on, if not underated in terms of power output.

In regards to buying used subwoofers, I usually never do it unless I know the seller or they are very reputable. Speakers are a tricky thing, there are so many things that could be wrong if you dont know what to look for. It could have been abused, there could be mechanical defects-could have a blown/fried voice coil, snaped leads, eroded surround, punctured dustcap, torn spider, loose basket, problems with the magnet, etc, all of which are tough to know which is which unless you know what to look for. Used amps are usually straightfoward, if they have taken abuse it shows up. They overheat, the ***** for crossover etc dont work, the rca's dont work, they dont give out any power, or they go into "protection mode".

Eclipse is a brand that I have only seen in other people's cars, and have not used myself. I have heard great things about their head units and and amps. Some very reputable people that I know are always talking about eclipse's super fast processing speeds, and have yet to say something bad about the brand.

Just another thing to keep in mind, an amps power rating is taken at certain benchmarks-4 ohms, 2 ohms, even 1 ohm. This does not mean that when your sytem is set up in your car, it is always going to be at 4 or 2 ohms. The resistance, power output, and all other eletrical measurements are always going to be going up or down. In other words, sometimes that ohm rating will drop to 1.x and sometimes it will go up to 8.x or maybe higher. So you have to realize that the power/resistance rating on amps is fairly arbitrary. Electronics is confusing isnt itt

 
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You are running 500watts rms into a 10" alpine Type R....

 
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Screw Kickers. Its all about the Infinity Kappa Perfect Series. I have a Kappa Perfect Series 10" Sub powered by a 400W RMS Alpine MRP-M650. It bumps pretty hard, and my stuff kinda rattles. Theyre a perfect match.