How to match subwoofers and amplifiers

Find the right amp for your sub or sub for your amp

Meet Buck Pomerantz

Buck Pomerantz

I belong to a culture of fine sights and sounds, and I like spreading the word.

I've been tinkering with electronics ever since I was a kid - starting with taking apart and putting back together televisions and radios. I always got them back together again and working. I took courses in radio and electronics as a teenager, and became a ham radio operator. I worked in my high school's stage crew, running sound, lights, and a movie projector. After college, I joined a rock 'n roll band as the soundman and learned how to lug around and operate the gear that helps make music sound good and loud.

Working in a music store in Austin, Texas, I spent a few years manufacturing, installing, repairing, and operating sound systems. Our customers were recording studios, nightclubs, and touring bands. Eventually I moved back to Charlottesville, Virginia and opened a small demo recording studio. In 2006, I finally came to my senses and got this job at Crutchfield. They actually pay me to ramble on, rant, and explain the things I love about music, electronics, and getting good sound.

Given my background, they put me to work writing about some of the most complex electronic products Crutchfield sells: car amplifiers, digital signal processors, wiring, professional sound mixers, and PA systems.

More about Buck

  • Started at Crutchfield in 2006
  • Completed our thorough in-house Advisor training, learning about the ins and outs of our various products
  • Stays up-to-date by attending vendor training sessions for new products
  • Earned MECP (Mobile Electronics Certified Professional) certification
  • Designed and organized Crutchfield's subwoofer wiring diagrams
  • Authored dozens of Crutchfield articles and hundreds of product presentations, primarily focused on car audio amplifiers and pro audio gear
  • Answers the many customer questions posted in the comments on his articles
  • Semi-retired soundman with decades of experience making other people sound good
  • From 1999 to 2018, also worked as a sidelines video camera grip for University of Virginia football and basketball games

More from Buck Pomerantz

How to choose a car alarm

How to choose a car alarm

Best mono amplifiers for 2021

Best mono amplifiers for 2021

A 2016 Mustang gets loud

A 2016 Mustang gets loud

Troubleshooting your car amplifier installation

Troubleshooting your car amplifier installation

Disabling active noise cancellation (ANC) in your car

Disabling active noise cancellation (ANC) in your car

Digital signal processor buying guide

Digital signal processor buying guide

How to match subs and amps

The secret to great bass is making sure your subwoofers and amp are evenly matched and will properly work together. And this article will help you figure out how to do just that — match amplifiers and subwoofers.

Getting the right sub for an amp, or the right amp for a sub, is like solving a puzzle. A subwoofer has impedance (measured in ohms) which represents the "load" an amplifier will sense on its output. An amplifier will put out different amounts of power (watts RMS) based on the impedance load it "sees."

Solving the puzzle

The amplifier's capabilities (X watts RMS into Y ohms) needs to match the subwoofer's specifications (Y ohms and can handle X watts RMS). Your goal is to get those two variables to match for both the amplifier and the subwoofer.

Below, we cover the important basics of power-matching, impedance, and planning for the number of subs you want, and we approach the situation from both sides of the system:

  • Part A: You have the subs, which amp should you get?
  • Part B: You have the amp, which subs should you get?
  • And also, Part C: You have neither amp nor sub, and want help deciding how to begin.

Start with either part you want, but A and B are both worth a read.


Part A — You have the subs, which amplifier should you get?

The subwoofers need to be the same

Multiple subs wired together must be the same coil type and impedance. If they’re not, the power won’t divide evenly between them, and some subs would probably be over-powered while others get under-powered. If you want to run different types of subs in a system, each type needs to have its own separate amp.

Step 1: How much power? Find out the “watts RMS” rating of the sub

Then, multiply the number of subs you have by the RMS rating of each, to get their total RMS rating. You want to make sure the amp you choose will supply no more than the sub system’s total RMS rating.

Step 2: What impedance? The results of combining coils and subs

Figure out the possible total impedance(s) that the subs can be wired together to form.
(SVC = single voice coil, 1 pair of terminals; DVC = dual voice coil, 2 pairs of terminals.)

  • 1 SVC 2-ohms can only have 2 ohms of impedance
  • 1 SVC 4-ohms can only have 4 ohms of impedance
  • 1 DVC 2-ohms can have 1 ohm or 4 ohms of impedance
  • 1 DVC 4-ohms can have 2 ohms or 8 ohms of impedance
  • 2 SVC 2-ohms can have 1 ohm or 4 ohms of impedance
  • 2 SVC 4-ohms can have 2 ohms or 8 ohms of impedance
  • 2 DVC 2-ohms can have 2 ohms or 8 ohms of impedance
  • 2 DVC 4-ohms can have 1 ohm or 4 ohms of impedance
  • 3 SVC 2-ohms can have 6 ohms of impedance
  • 3 SVC 4-ohms can have 1.3 ohms of impedance
  • 3 DVC 2-ohms can have 1.3 ohms or 3 ohms of impedance
  • 3 DVC 4-ohms can have 2.7 ohms or 6 ohms of impedance
  • 4 SVC 2-ohms can have 2 ohms or 8 ohms of impedance
  • 4 SVC 4-ohms can have 1 ohm or 4 ohms of impedance
  • 4 DVC 2-ohms can have 1 ohm or 4 ohms of impedance
  • 4 DVC 4-ohms can have 2 ohms or 8 ohms of impedance

For more combinations of subs and their impedances, see Subwoofer Wiring Diagrams.

Step 3: Pick an amp that can do both — X watts at Y ohms

Look for an amplifier that can put out power up to the RMS wattage  you’ve figured in Step 1, at an impedance load the subs can be wired to form, from Step 2.

Estimating amp power at the odd impedance values:

  • 8 ohms — figure on the amp putting out half the power it would at 4 ohms
  • 6 ohms — figure on the amp putting out three-quarters of the power it would at 4 ohms
  • 3 ohms — figure on the amp putting out the average of what it would at 2 ohms and at 4 ohms
  • 2.7 ohms — figure the same as for 3 ohms, and add a few watts
  • 1.3 ohms — use the 1-ohm spec and take away a few watts
Alpine Type R SWR-843D

Example:
You have two Alpine Type R SWR-8D4 8" subwoofers and you want the right amp for them.

They are DVC 4-ohm subs rated at 350 watts RMS each.

Two 350 watts RMS subs together need a total of 700 watts RMS.

Using the chart in Step 2, 2 DVC 4-ohm subs can be wired together to form a 1-ohm, a 4-ohm, or a 16-ohm load.

The last is too high a load to be practical, so you’ll look for an amp that can put out up to 700 watts RMS into either a 4-ohm load, or a 1-ohm impedance load:

  • up to 700 watts RMS x 1 at 4 ohms, or
  • up to 700 watts RMS x 1 at 1 ohm

Among Crutchfield’s selection of amplifiers you’ll find:

  • Memphis Audio PRXA600.1 — 600 watts RMS x 1 at 1 ohm
  • JL Audio Slash 600/1v3 — 600 watts RMS x 1 at 4 ohms
  • Rockford Fosgate Power T1000-1bdCP — 700 watts RMS x 1 at 4 ohms

Any one of these high-quality amplifiers would work well with those subs. It doesn’t matter which impedance an amp plays through — 600 watts RMS through a 4-ohm load produces the same volume as 600 watts RMS through a 1-ohm load.

Rockford Fosgate T1000-1bdCP

Rockford Fosgate T1000-1bdCP subwoofer amplifier


JL Audio Slash 600/1v3

JL Audio Slash 600/1v3 subwoofer amplifier

Part B — You have the amplfier, which subs should you get?

Step 1: What can the amp do? Find the RMS ratings of the amp at different loads

Find the amp’s power, expressed in “watts RMS”, at 4 ohms, at 2 ohms, and, if it can, at 1 ohm. Pick the power you’d like to achieve. The load impedance (ohms) of that rating will be what you want your subs’ total impedance to be.

Step 2: How many subs do you want?

Divide the power you picked in Step 1 by the number of subs you want. This number is the target RMS rating for each of the subs you’ll choose. 

Step 3: What impedance does each sub need to be and how many voice coils?

Using the impedance you picked in Step 1 and the number of subs from Step 2, cross-reference the possible coil configurations that you can use: 

1-ohm 2-ohms 4-ohms
1 sub DVC 2-ohms SVC 2-ohms
DVC 4 ohms
SVC 4-ohms
DVC 2-ohms
2 subs SVC 2-ohms
DVC 4-ohms
SVC 4-ohms
DVC 2-ohms
SVC 2-ohms
DVC 4-ohms
3 subs (1.3 ohms)*
SVC 4-ohms
DVC 2-ohms
(3 or 2.7 ohms)*
DVC 2-ohms
DVC 4-ohms
(6 ohms)*
SVC 2-ohms
DVC 4-ohms
4 subs SVC 4-ohms
DVC 2-ohms
SVC 2-ohms
DVC 4 ohms
SVC 4-ohms
DVC 2-ohms
* Estimate amp power at the odd impedance values like in Part A, Step 3, above.

Step 4: Pick a sub that works for both — (SVC or DVC) X-ohms, Y watts RMS)

Look for subs that are rated at the wattage you figured in Step 2, and are configured as you found in Step 3. This might sound confusing, so let's walk through an example and it'll make sense.

Memphis Audio 16-SRX500D.1

Example:
You have a Memphis Audio SRX500D.1 amplifier and you want it to drive two subwoofers

The amp is capable of 350 watts RMS x 1 at 4 ohms and 500 watts RMS x 1 at 2 ohms.

Let’s say you choose to maximize the amp’s potential and want the system to put out 500 watts RMS. This means your subs have to be wired to form a total impedance of 2 ohms.

Two subs on a 500 watts RMS amp will want about 250 watts RMS each.
So you’ll look for subs each rated for 250 watts RMS or more.

Using the chart in Step 3, for two subwoofers, a final 2-ohm load can be achieved with either two SVC 4-ohm subs or two DVC 2-ohm subs.

So, you’ll look for two subs that are either SVC 4-ohms or DVC 2-ohms, rated for at least 250 watts RMS each:

  • 2 SVC 4-ohms, at least 250 watts RMS, or
  • 2 DVC 2-ohms, at least 250 watts RMS

Among Crutchfield’s selection of subwoofers you’ll find:

  • Alpine W10S4 10" — SVC 4-ohm, 250 watts RMS
  • Memphis PRX124 12" — SVC 4-ohm, 300 watts RMS
  • JL Audio 12W0v3-4 12" — SVC 4-ohm, 300 watts RMS
  • Kicker 44CWCS104 — SVC 4-ohm, 300 watts RMS
  • Rockford Fosgate R2D2-10 10" — DVC 2-ohms, 250 watts RMS
Kicker CompC 10"

Kicker CompC 10" component subwoofer

All these subwoofers will sound their best when amplified with the proper amount of power. Differences in size have more to do with tonal qualities and frequency response than with power performance. And optimizing performance is the point of matching subs and amps together.


Part C — You have neither amp nor sub, and want help deciding how to begin

Check out our other article, All About Subwoofers to learn the basics of how much bass you need and how to choose your subwoofers. 

And of course, if you have any questions, contact our expert advisors and they'll be happy to help you build your system.