I have two Kicker Comp 10's (both SVC, 4ohm). I have been doing some research and it seems my cheap Sony XPlod 1200w 2/1 Channel amp just ain't gonna cut it. What's the best amp for the subs that I have? Thanks for the help!

 

Hey 4x4, first off, ALL car audio amplifiers will play into 4 ohms. In fact, they better be stable into 2 ohms, even if you only plan to run them into a 4 ohm load. My RF amp is stable to 1 ohm, and I'm playing into a 2 ohm load. Oh BTW, if you use a mono amp, your pair of 4 ohm subs will become a single 2 ohm load.

Second, if you think your cheap Sony Explode is not cutting it with 1200 watts, that would be because your cheap Sony does not produce 1200 watts. That's just another one of those "Twist the numbers around to make it sound like a great amp" kind of thing.

Their are some great values out there though. I know a lot of guys talk about the Sundown amps being a lot of bang for the buck. Maybe Elemental designs too. I'm running a Rockford Fosgate, which might be overpriced if you walked into a store and paid full cost, but I got it from SonicElectronix for dirt cheap.

Anyway, I don't know what your Kicker Comp 10"s say that can handle, but I'd be very surprised if a true 600 watt RMS amp, to those two speakers > IN THE CORRECT ENCLOSURE < didn't slam pretty darn hard, and sound good doing it.

Peace,
Fish

 

Generally you get what you pay for when it comes to amps for subs. In general don't expect a $150 1000 Watt amp to come close to a $500 500 wall amp. It used to be the watts listed were the average during load. In other words, how much power the amp could sustain for an extended period. In fact, they usually UNDERRATED the amps. Now they rate them for how hard the punch once or twice.

I'm not trying to put down the Sony amp, I know nothing about them. Before you give up on your amp, make sure you have everything right. Make sure the sub box is the right size, sealed properly, and not leaking. if you open it, put some poly fill in (pillow filling). Check that all of the wires are lined up right (blacks to blacks, +'s to +'s). Check if there are any highpass/lowpass filters on the amp engaged. Are the speakers in their own independent side of the box? If so, have you tried running just one speaker to see if that might show some problems. I found I had a pair of wires backwards in the box my way.

I run two older Kicker 10" solobarics off an 'old school' Kicker ZR600 amp in my car. It's only rated at 1x600W @2ohms, but the thing makes my teeth hurt. I just recently picked up an Alpine v-power amp, and I was fairly impressed with it.

Not sure if that helps.

 

there is a kicker on sale on ebay same as your old one

http://cgi.ebay.com/Kicker-ZR600-Car...3A1%7C294%3A50

 

I've got a Kenwood 600w coming in Friday or Monday. Think that will be good enough? Thanks for the help FishChris!

 

That's her. It came with the Kicker test sheet , and even though it's stated at 600watts at 4ohms, the Kicker testbed has it north of 800 watts stable. I also have a couple of ZX460 amps, but one has a blown channel (still works as a 2 channel amp), and the other has a short that causes a whine. Back when I got those amps in the 90's, they were like old school tonka toys. They did run hot though. I haven't found anything that compares to them. They were great compared to some of today's stuff.

For me, I've never seen anything like the old class D Kicker ZR1000. I saw a guy with one of those in a car at a show a few years ago. He had to run an extra battery to keep up with it. He was driving 3 12" subs with it. It was a thing of beauty.