first off i know nothing about car audio, so bear with me.

how much amp should i have for a sub? equal to max rms power? equal to max power handling? more?

say im looking at a sub with a rms power range of 500-1000watts, with a max power handling of 3000 watts. how much amp do i need?

 

Ive found out that most of the cheaper amps dont actually put as much wattage out as they say. Get something with a good name behind it, if its 500-1000 rms then get something around a 800 watt amp. You could even get a 3k watt if you wanted, you can always adjust the amp to your likings.

Some companys subs tell you what their ideal power range is. My JL W7 10" is 250-750 rms and 1500 peak, JL says the ideal wattage is 500 watts..

 

peak or max power/watts means jack squat. to get that they test it at impossible real world conditions for just a few seconds. just get a "Good" amp, good being the key word there obviously. and match its power output with your rms at the correct resistance your using and you should have plenty of thump. and dont skimp out on good ground and power wires for the amp..

 

Like said, you want the amps rms to be close to the subs rms, not peak

 

ok, i was looking at the alpine type-x 12" w/ 500-1000rms. an alpine 1000watt amp would be good for this, right?

 

Yes it should work perfect, If its to much you can always turn the bass down..

 

well whats the subs rms, 500 or 1000? im assuming the sub is 2ohm, whats the amps rating @2ohms at 14v?? links to what your talkning about would prob help..

 

yes, having too much amp is always better than not enough. cause then you have to dish out more dough for another one..

 

Say the specs on your speaker is 750 RMS and its a dual 4 ohm voice coil. You can bridge that one speaker down to 2 ohms, so you want an amp that is going to put out around 600 to 800 watts at 2 ohms. If you had 2 of said speakers, you would want an amp that put out 1200 to 1600 watts at 1 ohm. There are alot of online calculators to help with this. Kicker, and JL audio I believe still have them, its been a while since i have used them. Read up a little bit and get a better understanding of things. Also you can buy all of the top of the line equipment you want, if you don't put it in the RIGHT spec box, it will sound like $20 crap!!!!

 

I justed looked the sub up, it is a dual voice coil 4 ohm sub that takes 1000 watts rms. Look for a amp that puts out close to 1000 watts rms at 2 ohms.