Sub amp

[DarnPB]

I don´t want anything fancy, just something to enhance the bass. I was looking at amplifiers to run a sub woofer and was told by the chap in the shop that I need a mono block. The more power the better he said, but it does not matter about the power handling of the woofer. The more power the amp has, the better for the woofer. Can anyone shed any light on this? Don´t want to spend a fortune on the wrong gear. What is the norm when running a sub woofer?
I have bought nothing yet, not even the sub woofer BTW.

[Len]

Yes if you only want to run a sub then a monoblock or single channel amp is the right on to use.

As for power well now this is a minefield!
The only thing I can definitely tell you is to look at the amp and speaker ratings in RMS wattage only!
You will see loads of high numbers but they are always Peak power and mean sod all.

Anything over 55 watts for the amp and 150 watts for the sub is fine.

[Heyho]

It's hard to give advice without knowing roughly how much you want to spend...

As already stated, the only rating worth taking notice of is RMS, and even then it doesn't mean a huge amount, given that there are various ways of measuring this figure.

As for the sub, you have the choice of a sealed or ported - sealed is probably what you're after - tends to be more "musical", whereas a ported enclosure will usually give more output (sound) for less input (watts), but cheaper subs, or those with mismatched ported boxes can be boomy/wooly.

If I wanted a nice little sub and amp combo to enhance the overall sound of a system, I'd be looking at a sealed 10" sub, and an amp pushing about 200-300 watts RMS.

Saying that - this ported sub is in a properly designed enclosure - I have the 12" version, and it does sound nice:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JBL-GTO1060BR-10-1000W-CAR-SUB-WITH-CUSTOM-MADE-BOX_W0QQitemZ330196329593QQihZ014QQcategoryZ18805QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

And you'd want something like this to power it:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JBL-GTO-75-2-CAR-AMPLIFIER-2-channel-500w-BASS-AMP-MONO_W0QQitemZ120196601942QQihZ002QQcategoryZ18796QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Which gives 260w RMS when bridged to a single channel.  I'm sure that there are other value for money brands about, but I can vouch for JBL - and those GT4 subs are so cheap now!  They nearly always get good press.

Your other option is a combined sub/enclosure/amp setup all in one, but I've not heard any myself, or heard any good reports of any particular brand/model.

This kit includes everything you would need: (it is 12", so consider how much room you have to spare - also sealed enclosures are usually a good deal smaller than ported for the same sized driver)

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/anniversary-bass-pack-p-6228.html

Hope that helps.

[DarnPB]

Thanks for the info. Those two items look extremely good value for money. I will contact the seller later to ask about payment and packaging costs to Spain where I live. Certainly cheapest I have seen so far.