Another newbie question

[Fish15]

I'm sure I'm asking the same question you guys/gals have been asked a thousand times! I'm buying a Rockford fosgste p3 12" sub on Amazon, I'm just going to run one single sub. The rms is 600 and peak is 1200. It says most people buy it and the punch amp together (1200watt 1 channel)! Is this the amp I would need for maximum preformace or do I need a 600 watt? Iv read and read and the ohms to watts and all that i can't wrap my head around it! So what would you guys recommend the best size amp for peak preformace for a single p3. Single channel? 2 or 4 ohm sub? What Rockford fosgste wattage? And how to wire the sub! And anything else I need to know! Thank for your time any help is appreciated!!

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[Umbra]

I'm sure I'm asking the same question you guys/gals have been asked a thousand times! I'm buying a Rockford fosgste p3 12" sub on Amazon, I'm just going to run one single sub. The rms is 600 and peak is 1200. It says most people buy it and the punch amp together (1200watt 1 channel)! Is this the amp I would need for maximum preformace or do I need a 600 watt? Iv read and read and the ohms to watts and all that i can't wrap my head around it! So what would you guys recommend the best size amp for peak preformace for a single p3. Single channel? 2 or 4 ohm sub? What Rockford fosgste wattage? And how to wire the sub! And anything else I need to know! Thank for your time any help is appreciated!!

I don't know exactly which amp you're talking about, so give us a link and we can comment on it.

You want an amp that does around 600W RMS at the impedance (measured in ohms) of your sub(s).

If you're using one sub and it's an SVC sub (meaning single voice coil) then the load (what the amp "sees") will be just 2, 4, or whatever it's rated.

If the one sub is DVC (dual voice coil) then it's a little trickier. DVC allows you to wire the voices coils together in either series or parallel, giving you expanded wiring options.

For one 4 ohm DVC you can get 8 ohm or 2 ohm final. For 2 ohm you can get 4 or 1. If you're using multiple woofers you wire up each woofer, then wire them together.

To get a feel for this, check out RF's wiring wizard it'll also show you how to wire it:

http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/support/wiringwizard.aspx

Buying an amp for a 4 ohm load is kind of a waste unless you plan to add a second sub down the line because it'll most put out twice the power at 2, so you're better off just buying one that does what you want at 2 or even 1. My guess is if you're going with that sub you'll want a mono amp that does around 600W RMS on a 2 ohm load (so 2 ohm SVC, or 4 ohm DVC [and technically 1 ohm DVC, though I'm not sure RF makes those]). You could use a bridgable multi-channel amp, but keep it simple with a 1 channel monoblock.