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I am new to car audio and have a few questions about amps and subs.

Here is my current setup: Alpine 9833 with KCA-420i to my ipod. I also have polk 6.5's in the front and 6x9s in the back. I need to add something to the low end. Can someone tell me if this is a good amp / sub combination?

I recently purchased Kicker 12" Solo-Baric® L5-Series Subwoofer/Enclosure Package

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Kicke...oductDetail.do

I need a good amp and was wondering if this amp is suitable for the subwoofer?

Kicker Mono Subwoofer Amplifier (KX600.1)

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Kicke...oductDetail.do


Is that amplifier sufficient to power that or is it too weak or powerful? Would anyone suggest anything else different for around the same price?

 
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I am not familiar with that specific amp but I can vouch that L5 solobaric subs are bad ***.I got an L5 (12") and a punch 500.2 and its sweet.

 
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What about the Audiobahn A8000T?

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-hyvxS0P...30&I=037A8000T

 
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Here Ya go
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAu...roductID=14114
http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAu...roductID=13901

 
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audiobanhs are decent for the money. i have an audiobahn a8002t (although looking back, i should have gotten the a8000t) and use it to power a 12 in solo baric L7. hits reallly hard.

oh, and dude, if you dont want to spend over $100 so you can hook your ipod up, buy one of these http://www.discountcarstereo.com/detail.aspx?ID=764 . i have one and i love it. then i went out and bought a car charger for my ipod for like $20. so i spent around $50 and have pretty much the same thing that you would get with the KCA-420i for over $100 less. the only diff is that you cant see the song information displayed on the head unit, but wow, big f'in deal...you can just see it on your ipod anyhow.

EDIT: i would also reccomend that you get at least a 1-farad capacitor. even with my old 400w kicker comp-vr, my lights would dim like mad when the bass hits. the power supply on our cars just isnt enough sometimes. a 1-farad capacitor (or "power cap") is gonna run you prolly less then $150-$200, depending on where you buy and if you have professional installation.

 
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u gotta get the 600.1 amp, underpowering that sub will cause some damage to the coils and you DONT want that....circuit city's offering a nice sale on that amp by the way so you should DEFINITLY pick it up soon!!!get the city advantage too, you'll never have to worry about fryin the amp out once ur covered....it happened to me before and they helped me out bigtime....i had the 8000t on two x series mtx subs...i blew the amp and they swapped it out for one of the newer models cuz i didnt want that one ne more....

 
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Definitely dont underpower the subs, that is the easiest way to "blow" your subs. Personally I wouldnt have gone with the solobarics, as the square design leads to the corners tearing out in some instances, but that is just my opinion. Hope you find something you like and that you have fun doing it. Any questions just give me a holler.

 
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Underpowering a sub will not blow it. Its simple physics, the more power you give a sub, the louder it will try to be. If you don't feed it enough power, it just won't go as loud.

If the sub is 600 watts, then he can power that sub from 0-450 watts pretty safely all day long, 450-700 in short bursts w/o any worries. Anything more than that will start to do two things, either overheat the coil, or cause it to go into over excursion. Both will damage a sub.

Think about it, if underpowering a sub would blow it, you would never be able to turn the volume down on the radio.

 
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if you wanna go all kicker yes definitely get the kx600.1, i have 2 12" L5's and im also about to buy that amp this weekend...if you dont mind getting another brand i would put my money into the JL 500/1

 
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Yes underpowering the sub will blow it. It is a build up of electricity and megnestism in a specific spot. Subs are meant to operate through an entire range. The other burgoening point is that you wear on that specific part of the voice coil and movement becomes stagnant due to wearing the sub and heat expansion in one specific area therefore changing how the sub moves in that channel that was created by not the full range of motion. The biggest problem with subs is the I2r losses that occur with having such a large magnet and electricity running through it, this excess heat has a tendancy to distort certain parts. Also with the change in magnetic coupling across different parts of the pole can lead to a deranged path from front to back. This lead to the sub have distorted sound waves by not allowing a solid perpendicular movement from front to back. This also causes galling and most importantly seizing of the pole piece in the magnet core. The amount of power applied to the sub has a great affect of what to do with how the sub will work. Underpowering the sub will cause the amp to exude excess current and will cause an insulation breakdown in the sub and lead to potential shorting across the voice coil. Lots of problems can occur with subs that are underpowered. Get an amp that will runs at least at the same RMS power. It is better to have too much power than too little. You can always turn it down, never up.

 
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I would go with the Kicker SX650.1, it should do the job fine.

 
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bla bla bla.

under powering leads to blowing because people want it to be louder so they turn up the gain which leads to distrotion quicker, AND THATS what blows subs.DISTORTION IS A SUBWOOFERS WORST NIGHTMARE.

dont even tell me im wrong because im not, and i have had costumers come in YEARS after of having a smaller amp on a bigger sub and still works like a champ.

 
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Im just explaining what causes distortion. quit hating on electrical knowledge. It is kind of what i do for a living so I know quite a bit about it. Im just telling yall the many ways that cause sub problems, and they are not always caused by distortion

 
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im not hatin but i guarantee a lot of people didnt understand what you wrote, it is little on the technical side and yes its not always distortion, but underpowering doesnt really have a major affect on subs at all unless the sub has been used like that for 30 years or something, as long as the system is adjusted properlly(spelling i know) and not abused it should last forever.

again im not hatin. sorry bout that.

 
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Absolutely untrue. If you play anything other than test tones at full volume you are underpowering the sub.


When you power a sub the entire coil has power, not just one spot.


The piston is suspended and shouldn't be touching anything ever. If it is the sub is already blown and shouldn't be running to begin with.


All heat will do is melt things, especially the voice coil. This is why most subs have a vented pole piece. Less power = Less heat. So technically the less power you run the better.


Again all wrong. This kind of thing happens from overpowering when the sub begins to reach its mechanical limits.


I agree. More power = More Volume. Take a sub rated at 87db @ 1w/1m.
1 watt = 87db
2 watts = 90db
4 watts = 93db
8 watts = 96db
16 watts = 99db
32 watts = 102db
64 watts = 105db
128 watts = 108db
256 watts = 111db
512 watts = 114db
etc .... (all theoretical of course, cabin gain and box helps up the numbers)
So again, unless a sub is at full volume it is being underpowered, hence why underpowering won't hurt a sub.


Haha. Same concept. Less power = Less Heat. If this was true you could never turn the amp down.


I don't know where you get your information but your very wrong on so many levels. Don't talk about magnetic coupling and stuff when you clearly have no idea ..... unless of course you went to college and studies years of physics. Then maybe you got into classes like Nature and Properties of Materials where you would study gaussian fields.

 
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Joe you have no idea what you are talking about. And yes I have studied years of physics an electronics, its my damn job, and trust me i work on more complicated stuff than you will ever deal with. Until you know what you are talking about dont try to discredit something that is too technical for you. Oh and by the way if you were trying to make yourself sound smart, gaussian fields are for light distortion not movement of metal. They use gaussian field theory in high def tv's.

 
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Ok....so back to the topic at hand. I would say for the money, you can get something of better quality, but it will most likely have to be from an online store. Then again, if you really want to stick with a Kicker amp to match the sub, please use that link that was posted and save yourself some cash.

 
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Powering a sub with to much or to little will not hurt it, Distortion is the cuase of sub death. When the voice coil is given distorted power it heats up and starts to move out of alignment, this distortion is usally cuased by an amp that has little or no power real power to move the voice coil properly hence the reason most guys will crank up the gain, not relizing the gain is for matching your radio's output. So power is not an issue its always distortion. As for the amp in question the kicker 600.1 will run it but i would go to the 1200.1 its 600 rms at 2ohm mono or 4ohm mono and its matched perfectly for the sub.

 
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OMG dude. You need to stop. Don't assume anything about me or what I do and do not know. I actually have studied years of physics and am in the industry. So many statements in your previous post were just plain wrong.

God damn, where are WhiteRabibit, Ludlam, and MegaHurtz when ya need em .... lol.

 
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ohh ****...the physics nerds are at it again....

 
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Joe, both of us need to stop, not just me. I will leave you alone because very few people will actually understand what I am talking about and this is what amp he should buy. There is no point in continuing to degrade this forum over a personal scuffle. My opinion, buy an amp rated for the same RMS as the sub or higher. RMS is actual constant power output not peak. Hopefully this ends everything between myself and Joe. Id rather have ya as a brother than an enemy. We are all trying to get along on this lovely little planet.

 
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The sad thing is most people don't really understand how subs and amps work.

RMS is NOT constant power. It is simply a rating of how much power the amp CAN output all day long w/o overheating. In any system in real world use, amps aren't actually putting out much power at all most of the time, probably less than a few hundred watts at most.

This is exactly why underpowering a sub won't hurt it at all. You could power that sub at half power and probably only lose 3-5db off your max possible volume.

 
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Well it depends on how much you want to spend, if you have the money and want to spend it then by all means get a KX1200.1, if not, then get a KX600.1, SX650.1 or KX850.2 and bridge it (850.2) together.