I have 2 12" JL W0's, not the best, but sound pretty decent. Anyway... My PowerAcousticrap 600w amp just decided to stop working, I check out the internals and it doesn't smell of electrical burn, nor are there any burned spots on the board. I've never went above like 40% of it's power, but oh well, it's served me a many good years.

So, what would be a good replacement amp for these subs? They are in a full size box with 2 breather ports in a 94' Caprice. It's been awhile since I've gotten an amp, and am wondering what is a good name brand to go with, KICKER maybe? I'm not looking for competition amps, just something that'll make these subs live again.

Thanks.

 

I'm not looking to cheap either. I've learned my lesson about buying high wattage amps with low rms #'s.


Thanks.

 

The best bang for the buck would be the JBL BP600.1 They go for about $160 brand new off Ebay and output 600WRMS@2ohms. Just ask around. A ton of people have these amps. What impedence are the voice coils? ie. single 2 ohm, single 4 ohm, etc.

 

Although the JBL 600.1 is a great amp I don't think it would be the best choice with W0's especially in a trunk car where distortion is masked. I think a 300.1 would be a better choice. Another choice would be a Phoenix Gold XS300 or Tantrum 300. They can be had on ebay for around $100. Pretty much any 300watt rms amp that matches you woofers would work.

 

What does distortion have to do with this?

I think you are trying to say that the 600.1 is too much power for the pair of W0's? The reason I recommended the 600.1 over the 300.1 is the fact the you can get double the power for only $40-$50 more..... power handling is COMPLETELY dependent on the box the subs are in. Either way, you can always turn the gain down..... until you upgrade!

 

FYI, they're 4 ohms.

 

my amp is for sale, Phoenix Gold XS6600

 

Their is no way some W0s are going to handle 600 plus watts for very long. A responsible listener in a hatch car might be able to make them live because they could hear the woofer bottom, but in the real world where bass is king they will smoke. They are only rated for 125W rms. The only way they might survive is to put them in a sealed box and stuff it to the woofer barely fits. I am not knockin JL but I have seen it done to many times. I've seen 600.1s take out W3s. I would only get the 600.1 if you plan on upgrading woofers soon after. That PG6600 would be perfect and run the whole car highs and all. And gain has nothing to do with power output. The gain could be all the way down and you can still get full power by just turning the radio up more.Gain control is to set amp input to radio output. It is not a volume ****.

 

you're right distortion and clipping kill not power. However, most people aren't responsible enough to handle that much power. I have used huge amps on small power speakers for long periods of time but it never fails. I will recomend something like that to one of my customers especially one with big trunk cars (caprice buicks etc) and they kill them in a week. Hell I sold my trophy winning setup to a guy and hey blew the woofer in a weekend. I have customers that blow anyhing I sell them. I have one guy who actually count his kills. He blew 17 JL woofers before he came to us now he blows IDmaxes(7) then we tried some Strokers he blew them. Before you say it was something we did know that all boxes were built either to factory spec or by computer designand all electrical systems upgraded to meet the need of big power amps. I realize not all people are like this but I am sceptical about recomending twice the RMS power to someone on small woofers. I don't sell JL our competiter store does. The W0 is the most common replaced woofer to come through our doors. We usually sell them some Concept CSE (109pr-129pr)series woofer to replace them because that all the money they have and they leave happy and don't seem to blow those.

 

Gain does have something to do with power output. You said it yourself. "Gain control is to set amp input to radio output." So what if your head unit only outputs 2V? Or what if your using the stock H/U? They output less then that! So on an amp that can accept up to 6 or 8V....... you keep the gain on min...... less power is output. It's not rocket science. I think you get what I'm saying.

And this is only true if you are pushing the amp into clipping. If you have a woofer that says it can take 500WRMS and your amp is rated at 300WRMS, but you keeping the gain on min and using the stock h/u. You are outputing far less then 300W. So now your power your 500WRMS woofer with say 100W. Is it going to blow? NO. You are not using the full potential of your amp.....ie. not pushing it into clipping. So basically what I'm saying is that clipping kills speakers not underpowering them.

 

I agree with everything you guys are saying. I have been a professional car audio installer for 12 years. I have been certified by MECP three times including first class. I agree that more power is usually better. This argument seems to be getting out of hand and is going nowhere. If someone needs the last word, you can have it. I was just stating that in my experience most people are not able to show restaint. I can't tell you how many time I have set gains to low. The customer leaves then comes back days, weeks, later with the gain wide open and blown woofers. Its like having a 500 horse motor on the street. If you got it your gonna use it. Get the 600.1 its a great value.