I need some help with purchasing an amp.

[The1egend]

I would like to know what is the best amp around $400 can get me and where I could find it. Any help is appreciated. It will be pushing 2 12" RF Power HX2's that are 2000w max, 2 ohm dual voice coil, and in a sealed mdf box with 2 cubic feet each.

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[mykeys 10+ year member]

Lookat the Harrison Labs 800.2 its 800 watts but its only $329 then you can take the rest of your money and put it into a box..I wouldn't know whre to get a box for a good price because I build my own.

Mike

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

800 rms for subs that want 2000? I think he can do better than that.

MTX 8100 is on e-bay for 389, another one for 350. The RF 1500.1 would work well too, but I think they're a lot more than 400.

If your subs were dual 4's you'd have a lot more options...dei, autotek, optidrive, earthquake, jbl. Can you exchange them?

 

[RangerMan Premium Member]

I agree...go for the MTX 81000D. This is plenty of power for your subs.

 

[mrray13 10+ year member]

yea, the mtx 81000d is about 1200 wrms (i'm told) and i can get one here in the area for $375. i'm thinking about that one or a rf 800.2 i can get for $499. the rf is last years model. the power hx2 12 rms rating is from 150 to 1000rms, so the harrison would work. of course so would the 81000d!

oh yea, all POWER hx2's come in 2 ohm dvc. you'd have to get the PUNCH hx2's to get a 4ohm dvc. if you get the punch's your rms rating DROPS to 150 to 500 wrms!! with a 1000watt peak rating. of course my punch hx2's hit pretty good!

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

i would suggest a dei 1100d or memphis 1000d or the mtx or the rockford...it isnt that important to "drive" a sub to its limits always unless you plan on db drags...if you want good sound any of these will do it.....the bigger amps will get you 2-4 extra db ..........but then again if you are not gonna drag it what is the point? are you going to listen to it alot at 140+ db? do you have the highs to play with it that loud?

 

[EPanther99 10+ year member]

another choice could be an audiobahn A1500HCX you could wire the subs mono to .5 ohms and the amp puts out 2000 watts RMS at 1 ohm and they are stable to .5ohms and r supposed to put out nearly 4000 watts RMS at that and the best part is you can find them at Ubid for right around 400 dollars.

 

[jtmoney 10+ year member]

i thought the mtx8100d pushes clser to 1500rms?

 

[Unregistered]

I would say go with the crossfire 1000d and their is a guy on here selling six of the for 250 a piece and it will definently push them

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

The dei, crossfire, and memphis (from the info I found) are all 1kw + at 1 ohm, they're all great amps, but you need that power at 2 ohms. MTX is still the best option given your price range.

 

[Orange County]

If I were you I would look for an MA Audio HC 2502 on ebay for three reasons 1. you should be able to pick one up for around $200-250 2. it's stable down to .5 ohms yes 1/2 ohm and either in stereo or mono it will produce over 2000 watts, and it's a high current amp so it hits hard. 3. The amp hit really hard and clean, so if you want something that won't break your bank but still will disturb your neighbors 3 blocks away. Look for the MA Audio HC 2502 on ebay.Good luck

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

anyone know what reactive load is? nominal? anyone? ........ you all realize that your subs wont be 4 ohms or 1 ohm the whole time right? so why does it matter what the hell the amp does nomially? eh? do all the stat pushing you want but when the real push comes to shove nominal means about as much as how big a burn out your car can do.............l8er

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

Originally posted by audiolife anyone know what reactive load is? nominal? anyone? ........ you all realize that your subs wont be 4 ohms or 1 ohm the whole time right? so why does it matter what the hell the amp does nomially? eh? do all the stat pushing you want but when the real push comes to shove nominal means about as much as how big a burn out your car can do.............l8er

Take it easy mr. einstein. Of course most of us realize speakers are reactive. But what you're implying is that resistance is so varied that it really doesn't matter. If that's the case why don't companies just build any old sub and not bother puting a resistance spec on it and build amps and slap some arbitrary rating on them. Wouldn't that make things a lot simpler?

The thing is, if you take a 4 ohm sub and measure it's resistance it will say, what? 3.2 or something like that, but then at let's say 40 hz it may only be .1 ohm. Take another sub rated at 8 ohms and it will measure say 6.8 ohms. Measure it again at 40 hz and it may only show .25 ohms. The point is sub's resistances are critical to your amp's output. And thier variance is relative to their nominal resistance. Competitors design their entire bass set ups based on specifications like this. Would you like to tell them they're being foolish for wasting their time concerning themselves with that? I know I wouldn't.

If your arguement holds any water then you should be able to take a regular a/b amp and put a 1 ohm bridged load on it right? Since the resistance isn't always that low?

I'm getting more and more frustrated as I think and write about this.

The fact is, nom. resistances aren't given so much attention for no reason at all. You should do your best to match your speaker's resistances to your amps optimum output, plain and simple.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

ehehe thinking thats what i said up there anyhow eh?... its sorta funny though i have 2 amps if you looked at nominal load resistance you would say i was "under powering" my speakers when in fact they get about a 50% gain in power via a reactive load eheheh cheater amps got to love them....

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

Originally posted by audiolife ehehe thinking thats what i said up there anyhow eh?... its sorta funny though i have 2 amps if you looked at nominal load resistance you would say i was "under powering" my speakers when in fact they get about a 50% gain in power via a reactive load eheheh cheater amps got to love them....

Despite your experience, the more you write the more I question your comprehension of the subject.

Define "cheater" amp.