I am currently looking at the Boston Acoustics G5 (10 in. or maybe the 12 in.) sub and the Kicker ZX350.4 amp.

The G5 is rated at 450RMS and I was wondering if the Kicker amp I am looking at is enough power to drive the G5? This is my first set up and I don't want anything crazy, I just want something that will bump somewhat hard when I want it to.

I've been reading about sub/amps and all I could pretty much find was to match the amp RMS watts as close as possible to the subs without going over the sub's RMS watts plus the ohms.

If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to let me know.

-Edit- I just found the ZX450.2 amp. Would that be a better choice?
I'm going to be spending about 400-450 dollars for the sub/amp.

 

That is a 4 channel stereo amplifier. If you're only planning to run the subwoofer off of it, you'll want to buy a subwoofer amplifier. If you like Kicker, the ZX400.1 or ZX500.1 would do well. The 400.1 will be close to the same price. The 500.1 will cost a little more but probably be worth it.

I don't have any experience with Boston Acoustics subwoofers. If that's the way you go, make sure you get the dual voice coil (DVC) model and then wire it for 2 ohm operation.

Don't worry too much about exceeding the RMS wattage on the subwoofer. Set the gains on the amplifier correctly and listen at a reasonable level. You won't have any problems.

 

Ah thanks for the input.

The specs for the G5 say that they come in dual 4ohms or single 4ohm. That means the amp will have to be rated at 4 ohms?

 

If you buy the 4 ohm SVC version, then yes, the amplifier will see a 4 ohm load. If you buy the DVC version, you will have a choice as to how you wire the subwoofer. Most people would wire it in parallel which would result in the amplifier seeing a 2 ohm load. As long as the amplifier is 2 ohm stable, that's the way to go since it will make double the power at 2 ohms vs 4 ohms.

There's more to it than that though. JL Audio has a lot of good tutorials that explain how it all works. You might check out this link:

JL Audio Subwoofer Tutorials

 

Thank you so much.

 

the g5 is a good choice, have you looked into a passive radiator (gtr)? I am running 2 10in G5's with GTRs and it is loud and accurate. Get the dual 4 ohm version and pair it up with a 400-600 watt amp at 2ohms, such as the zx400.1.