ICE All About Amps

Ok so I want a standalone amp. What am I looking for?
Firstly decide what you want to run off your amp. Be it a subwoofer, components or coaxials, all can be run off a standalone amp. With the right amp, you can run all of them off the same amp!

• So the first thing to look for is the amount of channels. The amount of channels is usually in pairs – so if you have a 6 channel amp, you can run 3 pairs of speakers. However, some amps are “bridgeable” which means you can turn 2 channels into 1 to make twice the power for a single speaker. For example, I have a 4 channel amp that’s got 300w per channel. If I was to run 2 subwoofers off this amp, I could turn the 4 channel amp into a 2 channel amp by bridging 2 of the channels. This would then give me 2 channels of 600w – which would adequately power most subwoofers.

• Ok so I mentioned power. This is the next big thing to look at. If you buy one that’s too powerful for your speakers, they will blow. Get one that’s too low for it, you will again have problems with clipping (where the noise distorts) at high volumes. The easiest way to find out what power is needed is to look at your speakers power rating. Ideally you want to match your speakers RMS rating with the amps RMS rating, or have the amp a little more powerful than the speaker to combat the chance of clipping at high volume. For example, I have a 600w RMS subwoofer. I would be best looking at a 600 to 700w RMS amp.