Buying New Amp/Sub/Box help

[CanadianWizard]

I am driving a 99 Ford Escort ZX2, and found out i do not have much space in the trunk so i need to go to roughly a cubic foot box and not much larger. As this is my ownly transportation and have lots of equipment i have to move around for school.

Right now i have a 10 inch sub and amp but both have been really used and lets just say they gave out on me... I had a friend who gave me it as a package and it was all set up all i had to do was hook it up.

Now i am looking at a new sub, sealed box, and amp. I want to stay at anouther 10 inch sub because of space. I am looking at a max of around 1000 dollars.

Questions

1. What type of wattage should i get. I want something that will give off a good crisp sound at mid volume.

2. Should you match your sub and amp wattages, ie 400watts and 400 watts, or should your sub be rated a little higher then the amp so you cant blow the sub or vice versa.

3. Should i go 2ohm or 4 ohm impedience? will it make much difference in the sound as i listen to mostly country in the car.

4 Can i run 2 6x8 speakers of the same amp as the sub? or do i have to get 1 sterio and one mono amp?

Thank you for reading and hope to get more knowledge after people have told me too many different things. (most i have found to be wrong and the people didnt know anything about systems)

[3rdGenScort]

I did not spend much on my setup i have a pioneer 12" 150watts rms with a scoche box kit. My amp is an Infinity 1300a which when powering my sub is 200 watts rms @ 4ohms. This not an etemely loud system but it does sound good. It is a little big but since your looking at 10" i think that the scoshce 10" box (.75 cubic feet) will fit into the right rear recess of the trunk nicley or even under you speakers behind the rear seats.


Wattage all depends on how loud you want it but i would not reccommend less than 120 watts rms for a sub and at least 50 watts rms to your speakers (if you want them amped)

As far as matching amps and subs. The closer you match them the better obviously but you do not want to underpower the sub so if you dont "match" them get a more powerul amp and turn down the power (this also leaves room to add another sub later is you so choose)

From what ive heard a 2 ohm system will hit harder b/c of less resistance thus more power going to sub but it is hard on the amp. So if you want a 2 ohm system then you need to make sure that your amp is 2 ohm stable (most mono amps are).

If you want to run only one amp then get a bridgeable multi-channel amp. I do not think you can run 2 speakers and a sub off of a mono-amp efficiently.

this can easily be under $1000 a decent amp and sub prolly around $400 a good set prolly around $600
hope this helps a little

[CanadianWizard]

Just bought a system about a week ago for a price i could not object to.

All for 950.00 Canadian, I recieved a new h/u (alpine with ipod 3 outs), 6.5 speakers for the front, and 5x7's in the back. These are all alpine. Also got a baseworks 10' sub/amp/box. If i remember right im pushing roughly 350 rms. You have to love back to school sales. Everything was roughly half price.