QuestionQUESTION: I have a custom sub enclosure being built for three 12 inch Kenwood kfc-w3011. I was wondering if there was an amp that could push all three. I found the Lanzar MXA422 but some reviews have called it cheap and not worth the money. The reason i chose it was because it has the necessary power and said it was "tri-mode configurable"? Any help on amp selection would be great!
ANSWER: Josh, I would have to agree with the reviews, Lanzar is generally a cheap brand. The rule of thumb is you get what you pay for. Any mono or mono-able amp will work for you. Three subs means you will not be wiring for stereo, so mono would be the best. Then, there are 2 ways to bridge your subs together. First, you bridge them in series. That means you wire a positive from the amp to the positive of first sub, then wire negative of first sub to positive of second sub, then negative of second sub to positive of third sub, then negative of third sub to negative of amp. This gives you a 12 ohm load which any amp can handle. The problem is you will need a larger amp to make the watts you desire. Second, you can wire the subs together in parallel. That means you splice the positive coming from the amp into 3 leads and run a positive to each sub from that splice. Then splice the negative from the amp into 3 leads and connect them to the negatives of the subs. Wiring like this lowers your ohms to just over 1.3. That means you need to be careful in picking out an amp and be sure it is stable down to 1 ohm into 1 channel. That type of amp usually costs a little more, but you will not need to buy a very big one to get the watts you desire. My personal favorite amps are Hifonics and Phoenix Gold, but Rockford Fosgate and Audiobahn are a close second. Key words are mono, class D, and "rms" watts. Hope this helps, Scott
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QUESTION: Thank you so much for your help, you suggested a Phoenix Gold or Hifonics, i was wondering which of the two would be better for what i am trying to do a Phoenix Gold V8001 Ryval 1x800 Monoblock Amplifier or a Hifonics BXI2008D 2000-Watt Super D-Class Brutus Amp 1-Channel Mono-Block.
AnswerJosh, No problem. Both amps that you have picked out are good amps. The Brutus is hands-down the better amp. It is stable down to one ohm, so it is more versatile for future upgrades. Both amps will work great for your current configuration, and they will both last forever in that setup. They quality amps. The Brutus is just slightly more power, and slightly more versatile, which I always suggest keeping your options open for future changes. For instance, if you want to change subs in the future, you can get 3 2000 watt "rms", 4 ohm subs, and you can use the Brutus to power 2000 watts, which would be super loud. The V8001 amp is only stable to 2 ohms, so you could only get 800 watts out of it, and you would have to buy dual voice coil subs to bump the ohms up to 2.4 where the amp is stable. With your current Kenwood subs, you would wire them in series, and your output from Brutus would be about 225 watts rms. That is a bunch. You will love it. Let me know how it sounds. -Scott
