What amp to get??

[cameoss]

i just got 2 new 10" JBL GTO subs (2 ohms) and i need help with what amp to get. I only have about $200 and im not sure what to get.

i recently found a Kenwood 7202 amp at a good price and wasnt sure if it was good enough. any answers?

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[Betrayer00GT 10+ year member]

You have the 1002D then, huh? Dual 2ohm VC per sub, no?

Hmm...

I would think a single CL640 might be enough. It is rated at 225w RMS X 2 when each pair of its 4 channels are bridged into a 4ohm load. And it is $77 +s/h, including a 1 year warranty, as a factory direct refurb:

http://www.profilecaraudio.com/amplifiers.htm

For a little more money you could get two 400SX amps from that link, which would each bridge into 300w RMS X 1. That would be $90 + s/h, total. A little more $ for a little more power. I run a 400SX into my sealed 15" sub (for the moment). No complaints. No complaints at all.

If you wanted a good amount more power, each CA600 amp is rated at 450w RMS into a single 4 ohm load. A pair of those would run you $138 + s/h. A pair of CL600 amps would do the exact same thing, and run $142 + s/h, total. I like the look of the CA series better, but that is just me.

I have ordered (and received) 4 amps off that site in the last few months. I have a pair of the CA200, a 400SX, and a CA800 (I just got that last one today, but they do not seem to have any more ATM). I bet any of the options I just mentioned would work extremely well for you. I know mine work extremely well for me.

 

[cameoss]

thanks ill have to keep that in mind...any other suggestions??

 

[bdjacks 10+ year member]

I have the same exact subs in one of my sealed boxes, only the infinity version, and they absolutely rip when I hook them to my Cadence TXA500hc, clean, controlled, solid, smooth. AND in your price range.

http://www.cadencestore.com/ProductCart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=125&idproduct=384

When you want to order, call Jason at the main number. He is pretty good in the service dept and definitely knows is shtuff. Don't tell him I sent you or he might charge you extra, LOL. Seriously.

 

[cameoss]

anybody know about the kenwood 7202 amp?

 

[Betrayer00GT 10+ year member]

anybody know about the kenwood 7202 amp?

Well, if you have a pair of dual 2ohm VC subs, you could only get 150w into each sub, because you would be wiring both voicecoils per sub together in series in order to not drop below 2ohm per channel.

A 4-ch amp would be better. Or a pair of 7202's, but that would likely be a bit much, if you are going ported. For sealed, maybe not.

The CA600 at the link I already provided is rated identically to that Kenwood. Well, the Profile's 2ohm rating is 5w/ch more, but that doesn't count. Maybe you can get that discontinued Kenwood for less than the CA600 sells for ($69, new), however. Besides, I think the better Profile choice is the CL640, even though it is $8 more than the CA600 ($77, new).

Again, all 4 of the Profile amps I have bought from my earlier link have been bulletproof, and they sounded great running my home audio Dynaudio bookshelf speakers off a car battery.

 

[saleen408]

just a word bro try to get away from main stream amps they will only give about 1/3 of the power they claim the 7202 and the 810d kenwood claim as much as 1000w well at 100watts per 10 amps of fuse they will do 400watts max look on a 1000 watt arc amp 4 25 amp fuses do the math dont get tricked by the big corperations

 

[cameoss]

thanx man, im a noob and i dont know much about this so im lookin into the CL640.

 

[Betrayer00GT 10+ year member]

just a word bro try to get away from main stream amps they will only give about 1/3 of the power they claim the 7202 and the 810d kenwood claim as much as 1000w well at 100watts per 10 amps of fuse they will do 400watts max look on a 1000 watt arc amp 4 25 amp fuses do the math dont get tricked by the big corperations

Well, when a manufacturer provides a "Peak" or "Max" wattage rating, those are BS numbers. You need to see something tagged with "RMS" or "CEA Rated Power", then those are the more realistic numbers. Plus, your 100w/10amps rule of thumb only works on A/B class amps, not really on the >80% efficient "D" amps.

My CA800 (600w RMS rating) came from Profile with 3X 25amp fuses. The CA200 amps (180w RMS rating) each came with a 20amp fuse, which is really close to your "100w/10amps" formula. Actually, I just checked, and the manual I got with my CA800 specifies 3X 20amp fuses, which is dead-on. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

I think the most important point is that we all should completely ignore any power ratings that are not prefaced or followed by an "RMS" or "CEA rated" statement. If it doesn't have either of those, then it's just noise.

thanx man, im a noob and i dont know much about this so im lookin into the CL640.

Yeah, I haven't heard one of the Clarus series, specifically. It seems that the Clarus series is supposed to be "up-level" from the California series, and everything I have ever heard about any California series amp (well, from OWNERS of them) has been really good. If you wanted to, you could check the ratings/feedback on the current Profile California series amps on Crutchfield's site:

http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Group/ProductMenu.aspx?g=120&tp=115&nvpair=FFBrand%7cProfile

The number of reviews and the average rating is listed at the bottom of each model's entry on that page. Take a look at the numbers for the "AP" line. Like I said, the feedback on Profile's CA-series from OWNERS, is very good.

 

[skateboardkid 10+ year member]

MTX ta 7801 600 rms at 1 ohm retail is like $250 Pretty uderrated even the smaller MTX mono does plenty of power.

Smaller cadence amps that do 500-600rms at 1 ohm woudl also work.

CHeck classifieds here frequently.

 

[cameoss]

now when i hook all of this up, should i connect the amp to the sub parallel? just exactly how would i hook it up together?

 

[Betrayer00GT 10+ year member]

now when i hook all of this up, should i connect the amp to the sub parallel? just exactly how would i hook it up together?

Well, with a 4-ch amp and a pair of dual 2ohm voice coil subs, you have a couple options for an optimum setup.

The first would be to hook up each of the 4 channels of the amp directly to a voice coil on your pair of dual voice coil subs. That way, each channel is seeing a 2ohm load. This means running 4 sets of speaker wire, two from each sub.

The other option is to wire each pair of voice coils on each sub together in series, then run the (+) and (-) leads off each driver to the "Bridged" outputs of each pair of channels. Then you only run a pair of speaker cables, one to each driver.

I run a single dual-2ohm sub off one stereo amp in bridged operation, personally. I am mildly concerned about running each voice coil off its own channel, because what if there is way more bass info in one channel vs another? It is not very likely that it would ever matter, but it bugs me thinking about it. So, I wired my two voice coils in series and ran that to the bridged operation connections on my amp. Plus, there's less cables to run that way.

 

[cameoss]

alright well i went to my local car audio dealer and i asked them about the clarus amp and they said that they never heard about it before. N then they were trying to sell me a TMA 500w for $199. Is the clarus really good and worth not worrying about it being good enough for my subs? thanks

 

[cameoss]

any ideas about the amps?