Ok im going to go with a Kicker L7 which is 600 RMS 1200 Peak now my question is how powerful of an amp should I go with?

 

600/1200, the most important part of an amp is matching it to the sub, underpower and it will overheat or not power the sub enough, overpower and youll have a warranty issue if it blows.

remember underpowering is worse than overpowering a sub.

 

I agree about matching the total power needed for the sub, but don't agree about the "which is worse" deal.

There's a lot more variables that you need to consider when matching sub(s) to an amp, such as resistance of the sub(s) and the current that the amp will be stable at, etc. Go read on the icix forums for some good engineering info about speakers and amps. BTW, it's really easy to get a monster amp and then properly adjust the gains to output the desired power. There's also a lot of good info here, so just search around for more info. Good luck!

 

DIRECT QUOTE:


How powerful an amp do I need?

Choose an amplifier whose power output matches the power handling of the speakers you'll be amplifying. Make sure you're comparing the RMS power ratings of both the amp and speakers. And remember — it's better to overpower your speakers a little than to send them too little power.

http://www.crutchfield.com/ISEO-rgbt...ing_guide.html

 

Ok maybe I should of worded it a little better..

The sub is 600 RMS and 1200 Peak

The AMP I was looking at is the Kicker ZX750.1 Which is 750x1 at 2ohms is that too much power?

Also what does "peak" really mean?

Thanx

 

Here is a great explanation of RMS power vs. peak power from Rockford Fosgate:
http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/scrip...YWdlPTU*&p_li=

The best method when matching speakers to amplifiers is to use the "RMS" power ratings instead of "Max/Peak" power ratings. It's important to note that most speaker manufactures publish two different power ratings:

Speaker "RMS" Power Rating
The "Nominal" or "RMS" (root-mean-square) rating is the amount of power that can be applied to the speaker under normal circumstances. One of the primary factors that determine the power rating of a speaker is the size of it's voice coil. A speaker with a high power rating uses a large voice coil, allowing more heat to be dissipated and therefore allows more power to be applied to the speaker.

Use this power rating to match the speaker's "RMS" capacity to an amplifier's "RMS" output. For example: if your speakers are rated to handle 50 watts RMS each, then select an amplifier that will deliver approximately 50 watts RMS to each speaker.

Speaker "Peak" Power Rating
The second is the "Max" or "Peak" rating which is the maximum amount of power that can be applied for short periods of time without causing damage. If the peak power rating is exceeded for an extended period of time, there is danger of overheating and deforming the voice coil.

Do not use this power rating for matching speakers to amplifiers. It is for informational purposes only. Do not match the speaker's RMS power rating to an amplifier's Max/Peak power output. For example: If your speakers are rated to handle 50 Watts RMS each, and you select an amplifier that will deliver 125 watts RMS per speaker, you will likely apply too much power for the speaker to handle. This can cause a voice coil to literally "burn" and possibly "short-out," rendering it inoperable.

In our question above "Do I need a 200 watt amplifier to drive a 200 watt speaker?" the answer is simply NO. A 200 watt RMS power rating is how much power a speaker can handle, not how much it requires.

N O T I C E
Even a 200 watt speaker can sound great with only 10% (20 watts) power applied. However, you'll have low SPL (sound pressure level) or "loudness" with this little power.

 

I've been doing a ton of reading in the car audio forums and decided that the pheonix gold rsd 6.5 comps are the choice for me. They are rated at 60 watts rms, but alot of guys are running over 120 watts rms to them and say they sound better when overpowered as long as it's setup correctly. So now I'm trying to figure out how much power I really need.

 

its better to have an amp that is too much power so you can turn the gains down then weaker and have to turn up full gain

 

topgun_g35 is right.
Running 200 wrms amp will make your sub pretty loud, you don't have to drive it into clipping. How loud do you want it? Are you gonna crank all 600 watts out all the time?
I run 80 wrms home receiver to 150 wrms speakers and somehow didn't blow them yet and they are VERY LOUD even at 70% of max volume.
Are you gonna enter SPL drags or something?

 

Thanks, Now about clipping. Clipping is a bad thing for speakers. When an amplifier clips it actually can produce 2.5 times more power than a clean signal, this "extra" power is clipping sometimes referred to as distortion. This clipped signal will build heat in a speaker voice coil and this excess heat is what what causes speaker failure. This is why under powering any given speaker is sometimes worse than overpowering.
Happy New Year!

 

peak techniacally means the max amount of power it can handle. but in reality if u ran 1200 watts to them for more than a minute ud make them blow up. no amp or sub can run at peak wattage. rms wattage is what an amp or sub truely runs at. a little extra juice to a sub isnt bad but dont go too much over the rated amount.

 

if u ran a 200watt rms amp to a 600 wattrms sub u would have shh!tty performance from the sub. it wouldnt get loud and it wouldnt be able to hit the lows. on top of that u would most likely burn out the amp.