I'm new to this stereo stuff so I need some help. I couldn't resist how awesome the box from subthump looks with the triple ten inch subwoofers. So I bought a box and three subs. I know everybody says they suck, but I bought three sony explod, 300watt rms and 1100 watt peak per sub. They might suck in the end, but the red matches perfect with my red trans am so that's the main reason I went with them. Anyway, the question is, what kind of amp do I have to buy to power these three subs? 3 channel I'm guessing???does that mean 3 subs? I have no idea. I want to use the stock head unit for a while, maybe until christmas and then replace the monsoon HU with something else.

 

You need a mono amp so you can wire the subs all together. So the impedence of the subs makes a difference and also if they're since coild or dvc. I don't recall off the top of my head. Look for an amp that puts out around 900-1200 watts rms at 2ohms and then try to get your circuit of subs wired together to make 2ohms and you'll be very happy.

 

Get yourself an amplifier that is rated for "high currrent". I am assuming your Xplod woofers are 4 ohms a piece? wire all of them in paralell...( all +'s toghether, all -'s together) and that will present the amplifier with a 1.33 ohm load. Now, you must find a "high current" amp that is capable of pushing a 1.33 ohm load. For the cheapest route, I would find an older Orion amp like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW
or this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

That amp will produce around 380-400 watts RMS when bridged into a 1.33 ohm load. I would ask the seller(s) if it is bridgeable, because the older models required a "bridging module", where the newer ones just have a switch on the end to bridge them. Good luck!

 

the three subs are 4ohms each. so pretty much any amp with a high current, like say 900+ watts will be ok. What exactly does it mean by bridgeable(Just hooking them all to the same positive and negative??)

 

I dunno about 900 watts... those Sony's might xplode for real.. Most amplifiers are brigeable, which means that the two stereo channels are summed into a single mono channel suitable for subwoofers.

 

well the only reason I was thinking 900watts was because I was thinking 300 would go to each sub. If I hook all three subs up to a 300watt amp do they each get 300 or do they split the 300 watts. I just always thought that if you stay more or less at the same rms that you would get the most out of it.

 

have you ever considered the phoenix gold TI 1500

 

900 watts isn't high current, it's high power.

but anyway, here would be a perfect match for those 3 subs:

JL Audio 450/4

150 watts each on channels 1 & 2, plus another 150 watts for channels 3 & 4 bridged.

 

For the those subs I would recommend a JL1001 for the best amp for the money but if your looking for something cheaper I would look into a kicker amp.

 

any decent 4 channel amp put in tri-mode would work or a mono wired in parallel.

 

The only solutions to driving three 4-ohm drivers are:

1- Use a "high current" amp, or an amp capable of driving a 1-Ohm mono load.
2- Use a six-channel amp, then bridge all the channel pairs for a total of 3 channels, one to each woofer.

The problems with using a "tri-mode" amp, is that the amp will put out less power on the stereo channels then on the mono channel. You want all three woofers to get the same amount of power. The same is true if you use a 5-channel amp. The 5th "sub" channel is most likely going to put out less or more (Depending on the amp) then a pair of the stereo channels bridged. The reason I suggested the Orion 225 HCCA, is simply financial, one of those amps can be had on Ebay for about half of what a decent six-channel amp could be purchased for. If I'm wrong, then post some links for the original poster, so he/she can get the best deal on an appropriate amplifier. Good luck!
P.S. .... Each subwoofer wil share the total power output of the amplifier. So if the amp puts out 300 Watts RMS, each subwoofer would "see" 100 Watts RMS. Some good reading: http://www.bcae1.com/