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I am looking at getting an MTX 15 inch woofer (Model T8104) in a Q-Logic enclosure. It is rated at 400 watts rms and 1000 watts peak. My question is, what kind of amp power would I be looking for to power this.

My current setup has a clarion headunit (2 pairs of RCAs) and a four channel cheapo Kenwood amp hooked up to Infinity 6.5's in the rear and and components in the front.

What setup will give me max power? Brand of amps would also be nice. The Kenwood amp has a low pass output as well.

 
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mtx 421d, perfect match. Don't listen to everyone who says it will take more, blah blah blah. it will take more but if you want it to last give it its rms.

 
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Oh and you need an amplifier to power it, not a subwoofer

 
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what about the mtx 4250D? I have a bid going for this amp.

One thing I do not understand, I looked up the spec on the the amp you told me about. It says 210 wrms X 1 @ 4OHMS and 420 wrms X 1 @ 2 OHM. My woofer is 4 OHM, so does that mean i am only going to get 210 wrms out of it ? Is that not underpowering it if the woofer is rated at 400wrm?

Another question. if this is a mono amp, how come there are two speaker outputs on it (speaker 1 and speaker 2), i am just confused? I have heard people say that they are powering 2 subwoofers (box) off of one 4250D, how is that possible. Does the box have to be setup differently?

Is it better to get a 2 channel amp and bridge it to one channel or to get mono amp.

Hope someone can help.

 
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I've heard alot of good things about the JBL amps (especially on this board). You might want to check those out as well. Oh, I almost forgot to mention rockford fosgate. The amps are a little expensive, but the power is usually under-rated. Plus the system I once installed with fosgate amps hit incredibly hard (and the amp was pretty small ~200-250 rms).

 
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Since it is only single 4 ohm, it will only get the 210rms, which is underpowering it. The mtx 4250d i think is the same as the 421d. The two speaker outputs are conected internally so it is just giving you more options to wire subs up, it is the same as having only one set of outputs. What you should do is get the mtx 801d which will give it the recomended power and the amp will run at 4 ohms, then later on, if you want another sub, you can add it to the same amp and still get 400 to each because it will run at 2 ohms. You can check out www.jlaudio.com and click on tutorials and sub wiring to see the wiring diagrams for this. The 421 d would work if you got the dvc 4 ohm woofer.

 
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This refers to chriscivic's explanation, but anyone can reply to make it more clear.

Ok so let me get this straight if a mono amp is rated as:

210 wrms X 1 @ 4 OHMS then I can use my 4 OHM MTX T8104>

420 wrms X 1 @ 2 OHMS then can I hook-up either a 2 OHM woofer or 2-4 OHM Woofers (ie T8104) in parallel (2 OHM load) and use one speaker output?
Or, if using 2 woofers (4 OHM each ), is this where the 2nd set of speaker outputs come in, instead of hooking them up in parallel, would I just use one set of outputs for each woofer, since you mentioned that both outputs act as one as they are wired together internally.
Am I right in that you cannot hookup two pairs of 4 OHM woofers in parallel (2 OHM X 2) and connect them to speaker 1 and speaker 2 outputs, because this would combind internally to to give 1 OHM, which it is not stable to.

Please explain.

 
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you seem to have it down pretty good. 2 pairs of 4 ohm woofers all in parallel would be 1 ohm, but series-parallel wiring could also give you 4 ohms as a wiring option. again, you qould not get the max potential out of the amplifier you are using in the example (421d).

as to the second set of outputs, you could. either hook each sub up to one of the outputs, or wire the subs in parallel and then bridge the amp by using the outermost inputs. either way would do the same thing internally.

 
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Is the reason I will not be getting the max out of the 421d amp because if there is a series-parallel hookup (2 pair of 4 OHM) speakers), the max I will be getting out of the amp will be 210 wrms X 1 @ 4 OHM. The 210 rms would then have to be divided among the four subs, right. Meaning they each subwoofer would only get 210/4 or 52.5 wrms, is this what you mean by not getting the max from the amp or is it something else?
If simply two 4 OHM subs were wired in parallel, giving a 2 OHM load, the output would therefore be 420/2 or 210 wrms/sub. I thought mono amps are not bridgable, so then how can you hook up two subs in parallel and then bridge the amp?

 
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well, each sub would get nothing like it's max, and since the amp is CAPABLE of 420W at 2 ohms, the 210 it would be putting out in this case means you are not getting the max from the amp (max power out of the amp has NOTHING to do with how many subs you have, or what type of wiring it is. it's all about what the final load on the amp will be)

the amp has 2 outputs, since many people like to hook up 2 subs. so they made it so you can hook up each sub seperate. or wire the subs in parallel, then hook them up to the outermost outputs and it is the exact same thign. check crutchfield or jl's website for wiring help, or just wire each sub to each output. there is only one channel, so you aren't really bridging it, but it looks like you are from the outside.