So if you have ever shopped for an amp and have read the spec and have ever wondered what they mean or if you know what they mean but are not sure if the amp your looking at will actually sound the way you want. Then stick around for this video.  We will be covering those things and more. So shopping online for stereo equipment can be a tough thing to do.. if you can’t hear it how will you know I’d you’ll like it?? You can read reviews but sound is so subjective! And what sounds good to someone may not sound good to you. And you want to make sure the amp your picking out is right for you and what your looking to get.  So we’ll break this down by taking a look at the 5 things you’ll want to look at when buying an amp. Now we’ll categorize this subject into to two. Buying an amp for your subs and buying an amp for your highs or your interior speakers.  But either way you’ll want to look at these same 5 things. 

What comes first the speakers or the amp? We say speakers!! Find the speakers you like and work match from there. 

Look at CTA ratings not peak power. 
Match, match. Match power match impedance. Match the power and impedance from your speakers with the amp. What comes first the speakers or the amp? We say speakers!! Find the speakers you like and work match from there. So if you speakers are rated at 50 watt and they are 4 ohm then match up and amp they is rated at 50 watts rms each channel It’s better to have more than less. A good rule of thumb. Is 20% more. So about 60 watts. That will give give you enough head room so when your matching the gain on your amp to your head unit you won’t have to turn it up as much, thus allowing the amp to run cooler and with much less stress. Now if your shopping for subs it’s the same method. But this can get a little tricky so we’ll run through an example. Let’s say your running two subs rated at 500 watts each and they are dual 4 ohm. Now you’ll want to run them in parallel to get to a 1 ohm load so look for an amp that has a minimum ohm load 
For SQ look at THD 
Damping factor. 
Brand factor!! Ok so this can be a touchy subject so I’ll tip toe around it because some of you may have strong options about this. But this is what I mean. We at breakers who have been in business for over 45 years have noticed a few things that you should know about. Manufacturers will tend to channel their energy towards doing one thing really good. JVC Kenwood pioneer make great stereos and Decent amps and subs. JL AUDIO Memphis and Rockford make great amps and subwoofers for bass decent when it comes to mid and highs. where Hertz, Audison, make great mids and highs and amps focused on sound quality. Now there are exceptions to this but for the most part this is true… that’s why when setting up a system it’s rare to use just one brand for every component. We’ll do a JVC  radio with some BLAM speakers on a hertz amp and run it with Rockford or Memphis subs running off an Rockford or Memphis amp.