Been out of the scene for a minute. Back in the day I had a MTX Blue Thunder amp which I bought 13 years ago. I ended up putting that in my DD and it hasn't missed a beat since. So I'm looking to put a single 10" in my Bird and I already have a loaded enclosure for the cubby hole with a MTX Thunderform 4500 T4510-44. I actually bought this loaded enclosure like 8 years ago and I am just now getting around to putting it in. LOL. Going fast took away from audio for a minute. Anyways it is this sub, a 10" DVC sub rated at 225 watts max RMS. -->

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Now, I stopped at my local car stereo store, just to browse and get some input but had no intention of buying anything without research. He basically told me all MTX amps nowadays are junk. I told him I was pushing a single 10" with 225 Max RMS and he tried to sell me a markdown Jensen amp. I took down the model # and left. 13 years ago Jensen was not a big name at all. JL Audio and Fosgate ruled the market back them.

So I guess my question is what's the good name it amps right now? Pioneer? Fosgate? Audiopipe? Kenwood? Polk? JVC? MB Quart? There are SO many names out there I'm not sure which one to roll the dice with. Thanks for any input or advice.

 

Jensen will always be crap in my book, never was much a fan of Pioneers amps (I use there headunits exclusively).

the problem is even the smallest class D rockford amp currently available (Rockford Fosgate R250-1D) is rated at a higher RMS then that old MTX sub.

what you want to look for is a CEA-2006 certified amp that does approximately 175-200 watts RMS @2 ohm since that sub is a dual 4 ohm you will be running it at 2 ohm (most likely).

 

IMO, try and stay away from the entry level Amps even with the name brand companies and you should be fine. So SweeTbone, what's you budget for a power Amp...?

IMO, it's better to go with too much power, than not enough.

 

No specific budget. I was assume I'd be in the ballpark of $150 for a good amp to push 1 10" sub. Every amp I've seen in that price range has reviews with people pushing 2 12" subs with it and it hits. It was just all coming down to name brand and reviews. For about a 20 year stretch, I was on a Pioneer kick in both home audio and car audio. I was really brand loyal and really saw no reason to change. But I haven't had to buy any piece of audio equipment for about 6 years now. I've been eyeballing a Pioneer GMA-5602 at that recommendation of a friend of mine but that thing has double the RMS of my sub (225 watts RMS) pushing out 450 watts RMS. Overkill? Good amp? Like I said I'm not concerned with budget per say but don't want nothing that's going to be a piece of junk.

 

Having personally seen a sub melt, smoke coming out of the box and the sub being frozen (melted voice coil) as a direct result of to much power I would have to advise against over powering, in fact for a good life span it is generally accepted that 75-80% of the rated power is where you want to be.

 

Kicker has a few small mono amps that'll suit your needs, that are right around $150.
Kicker DXA250.1
Kicker 12CX300.1
You'll need to wire in a fuse right before either one of these amp, since they don't have a built-in fuse holder.

 

Sorry for the misunderstanding.
I meant overpower , in the sense of using a power Amp that has higher rms rating than the Sub hooked up to it, but not actually continuously pushing the sub beyond it's rms limit.
I'm sure you know that you're more apt to burn out a sub from clipped lower power amp pushed to high, than overpowering it with a un-clipped amp. Furthermore, it's also easy to just adjust the gain down a little bit to help prevent over powering the sub. That's what I've done for yrs with my IDMAX10's and MATTS D3500.05 Amplifier.