# Rockford Fosgate T30001BD. Yay or Nay??



## lust4sound

Ordinarily, I would never consider any newer Rockford Fosgate equipment as part of my ensemble.. But this one particular amp, the Power T30001BD, for what it was selling for, I just couldn't resist (pennies on the dollar) So, I picked it up BNIB for a very low price, 1/3rd the actual lowest retail I found on the net.. Let's just say it was a steal.. The guy lost more than half his investment on it, bought it new, never even opened it. Wifey saw it, told him to get bent, his loss, my gain.. Or so I hope.. 

I have 3-JL12W7's that I am looking to power, sealed, about 6.5 CF before subs. I don't want to win burping contests, I want serious, tight, accurate, impacting low end that will give me good SQ when dialed in to match front stage, or remove fillings when necessary.

A) Is this an amp worth installing for an SQL setup? Does it exhibit good control of subs, something worthy of a serious SQL setup or is it a sloppy burp monster? 

B) Aside form the monstrous size and huge current draw, are there any drawbacks?

C) Will it live @ .75 ohm? It is rated @ 3700 watts RMS 1 ohm, will it get down with .75 ohm?

I'll try getting some answers from the Fosgate forum, but any product related forum is usually fanboy based, so a lump of coal could be worth my wifes weight in gold to them.. (Biased a bit much)

My hopes are in the Sundown SAZ3000, but I haven't got the bread just yet. Using the Sundown as a benchmark, is there a huge disparity in the performance of this amp VS that? I don't know the performance of the Sundown either, I am reading great things about it..


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## seddon

I have the T10001BD pushing 1 10 JL w7 in a sealed box aimed through a ski pass and sealed off from the trunk of my car and the bass is crazy. Some might say it's not the best amps but it does give deep, tight, and controlled bass. I think the amp and sub combo I have is too much I have it at about 1/4 of the way up. The sub itself is not the most SQ sub as compared to the W6 I had before but the bass is there and the amp pushes it perfectly.

Also the amp is rated at 1 ohm stable not quite sure how it will handle at .75 ohms, I'll let the experts chime in on that.


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## dblover

hate rf but the t3000bd won't like going under 1 ohm i heard. I have 2 sundown 3000 at .5ohm. Can't destroy the dam amp and never gets hot. Sundown makes some good **** and lasts. look for the new 3500 sundown coming out soon. The amp can run up to a 18 volt electrical which the rf couldn't


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## lust4sound

I'm selling the amp.. Spoke to 4 people that all agreed, no can do @.75 ohm..

Spoke to Chris at DB-R, he's got modded Sundowns that do 3500 watts @ 1ohm, will dole it out all day everyday into .75 ohm.. 

Anyone interested in a Fosgate Power T30001BD? $700.00 is my asking price, BNIB, never been mounted, I took it out of it's original factory wrap just to power it up.... .. Waiting on the original sales receipt as well as the birthsheet which states over 3700 watts into 1 ohm.. (Hey gotta have me a Sundown)


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## dblover

lust4sound said:


> I'm selling the amp.. Spoke to 4 people that all agreed, no can do @.75 ohm..
> 
> Spoke to Chris at DB-R, he's got modded Sundowns that do 3500 watts @ 1ohm, will dole it out all day everyday into .75 ohm..
> 
> Anyone interested in a Fosgate Power T30001BD? $700.00 is my asking price, BNIB, never been mounted, I took it out of it's original factory wrap just to power it up.... .. Waiting on the original sales receipt as well as the birthsheet which states over 3700 watts into 1 ohm.. (Hey gotta have me a Sundown)


modded sundown? 
mine does .5 without breaking a sweat and its a normal sundown amp


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## ChrisB

dblover said:


> modded sundown?
> mine does .5 without breaking a sweat and its a normal sundown amp


He may have beefed up the power supply some.... Of course, I am going to state the obvious and say that you better have the electrical to keep up with that bad boy


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## dblover

06BLMUSTANGGT said:


> He may have beefed up the power supply some.... Of course, I am going to state the obvious and say that you better have the electrical to keep up with that bad boy


f yes they are power hungry


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## lust4sound

dblover said:


> modded sundown?
> mine does .5 without breaking a sweat and its a normal sundown amp


If memory serves me correct, I think Chris from DB-R mentioned that they are modded Sundowns, put out closer to 3600 watts @ 1 ohm. Is that normal for them?

The Fosgate amp is up for sale. $700 plus shipping if I don't actually use it.. If I don't use it, it's a brand new amp, I took it out of it's original box and wrap.. It's never been mounted.. 
It retails for $1200 or more from an authorized Fosgate dealer.. The cheapest I saw one bnib was $980, I think that's a refurb..

If I do decide to use the Fosgate, I am going to power just the pair of JL's, 2CF per sub sealed, that's before sub displacement..


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## Jeremy M

u can run the RF t3k at .75 and u shoudn't have any problems.

I ran a direct drop in comparison to a t3k and a saz 3k on a btl 18" at .5ohms.
To the ear the RF sounded better and louder...never put it on the TL so i don't have evidence of which one was louder but i can say that with the crossover settings the same and the gains the same the RF sounded better IMO. But i woudn't hesitate to buy a saz 3k.


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## lust4sound

Jeremy M said:


> u can run the RF t3k at .75 and u shoudn't have any problems.
> 
> I ran a direct drop in comparison to a t3k and a saz 3k on a btl 18" at .5ohms.
> To the ear the RF sounded better and louder...never put it on the TL so i don't have evidence of which one was louder but i can say that with the crossover settings the same and the gains the same the RF sounded better IMO. But i woudn't hesitate to buy a saz 3k.


Seriously?? Makes me wonder. I am in the middle of building my box. Wish I knew for sure that I could run the 3 JL's without incident using the T3K..


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## dblover

everbody has there own opinions. As much as a i hate rf its not a bad amp. Either aren't. I love sundown due to customer service you can't beat


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## lust4sound

I'm going to use the Fosgate for now.. I don't have the trunk space to run my 3 JL's anyway.. I mean, I'm sure I do, if was ready to start using fiberglass and all that.. For now, I deadened the floor and spare tire well, used sand believe it or not.. I lined the spare tire well floor with sand, made sure to leave plenty of clean, dry surfaces to seal the sand in with deadener. I used a few layers of the peel n stick stuff you find at Loews (roofing materials) This took out all the hollow ringing, now I have a solid thud, deader than wood.. I then framed in a T shaped base using 2 x 4's. On top of this a piece of 3/4" ply, then I built a box for the 2) 12's on top of that.. I used great stuff foam sealer for all the cracks and spaces under the 2 x 4 framework.

So bisiaclly what I have is a large, sealed enclosure that uses the spare tire well as part of it, it gives me just over 4 CF before subs, solid as a rock, subs lay flat facing up, now I have the room for these gargantuan amps.. Building a traditional box wouldn't do it for my setup, not in this car.. (98 Acura CL, tiny trunk, strut towers and trunk hinges get in the way of everything)

I am about to get big sound out of this little car.. Can't wait to get it bumping..

Did I forget to mention how big these amps are?? The 2) Matts 4 channels measure in at 25" long.. EACH.. While the T3K is a whopping 33" long.. Just fits between the strut towers, so it's going on top of a board, putting lots of soft material under the amp boards to soften the blow from the sub enclosure which they will be sitting on..


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## [email protected]

dblover said:


> hate rf but the t3000bd won't like going under 1 ohm i heard. I have 2 sundown 3000 at .5ohm. Can't destroy the dam amp and never gets hot. Sundown makes some good **** and lasts. look for the new 3500 sundown coming out soon. The amp can run up to a 18 volt electrical which the rf couldn't


man asked a simple question, not a sale pitch about sundown


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## [email protected]

but i'ld go with the amp you already have, both uses a 300 amp fuse right?


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## dblover

[email protected] said:


> man asked a simple question, not a sale pitch about sundown


i didn't do a sales pitch. I am saying that sundown backs there stuff quick. Biggest reason why i own the amp. customer service you can't beat


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## lust4sound

[email protected] said:


> man asked a simple question, not a sale pitch about sundown




LMAO!!!! Funny ****!!

I finally finished the install. Just got to tidy up the wires and then..... STOP ALL THE VIBRATION!!! HOLY ****... When I tell you that my entire car sounds like it is about to fall apart.... 

I picked up the Bass Mekanik CD, one of my JL's basically tore apart (old sub that I picked up used..) I noticed a little bit of dry rot on the foam surround on one of the subs, it was fine for a few days, when I popped in the Bass Mekanik, the sub shredded. Good thing I have a spare.

I have a buddy that gets JL's fixed at cost.. I guess having 3 JL's with only room for 2 in the actual install has its perks..

Now I have the daunting task of stopping all the vibration. I'm glad I picked up that CD, it really helped me localize a lot of the ringing/distortion i had been hearing but wasn't able to pinpoint in order to fix.. Now I can start systematically removing all the buzz thats being generated at all different frequencies.. I know i could have got that stuff off the net, but I just picked up this comp and don't have a burner in it yet.. Besides, I prefer having an original copy, sometimes it's hard to tell what your getting off the net, levels might be off. Winisd has all the sine waves, but again, I don't have a burner, and wouldn't know how to make a CD using the sine waves from Winisds tone generator..

BTW, my sub enclosure is working like a charm. It is giving me strong usable response down to 28HZ, below that it turns to shake.. 40HZ and up is ridiculous, indicating a peak in response, I get a sharp rise in DB's from about 38HZ to about 60, my cutoff is 63HZ with an 18DB slope. I let my midbass do the rest. I don't have an EQ installed yet, so I'll have to live with it for now.. Still, even without an EQ, I am getting a pretty well balanced sound. I tried using the factory preset EQ's, sounds best when I turn it off (flat)


If i could do it all over, I would use different amps. The Mmats 4 channels are killer, but they have a huge footprint. The Fosgate is OK, but there is no justification for the sheer size, weight and current draw of that monster. I had Mmats amps that did almost the same power, at 1/3 the size and weight of that ugly ass Frankenstein looking Fosgate amp. The reason I sold them was because they were the .05 ohm versions. 

Fosgate and the Gorilla amp.. What's their excuse? "Proprietary Fosgate tech" What a crock of ****.. What, Fosgates Proprietery tech prohibits a smaller footprint? All it really is, is a class D that they couldn't manage to squeeze into a smaller footprint like the Mmats. 

Not that I'm unhappy with the amp, for the money I paid for it, it's a keeper. Was a nightmare to incorporate into my system, had to tear the entire system out and rebuild an entire sub enclosure just to use the ****ing thing.. I would never have actually gone out and spent what it retails for.. Hate Fosgate.. But I needed serious power, didn't have Gucho Dinero to shell out, stumbled across the Fosgate on Craigslist, thought it was a killer deal so here I am.. BTW, the amp was BNIB when i got it.. It is a beast in terms of output though, no denying that.. To date, this is the loudest system I have ever owned..

I'll tell you this, the fact that the amp required me to redo my entire system was a good thing, my system looks 100% better than it did before.. So it kind of worked out for the best.. Now to have my Alt rewound.. It never ends..

Sure wish I could find a used Mmats D3500.1. 2700 watts RMS @ 1 ohm, in a package that is about the size of a PPI A600.2, just a little wider. What a punch those amps pack, don't put a huge strain on your alt, don't get warm and are bullet proof..

How big is the Sundown SAZ3000?


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## lust4sound

Question, with just over 4 CF before subs, could I port this box? Measuring off my framework and enclosure volume, plus some of the spare tire well (used wood to create a "box" in the spare tire well to get an idea of how much space was down there, I wasn't able to account for all the space in the spare tire well.)

So I was able to get an exact measurement of 4 .25 CF, with room to spare (the spare tire well doesn't have any measurable dimensions, so I'm guessing that I have about 4.5 before subs.. Maybe more..) Is that enough to port this enclosure with good results for SQL?


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## [email protected]

lol just playing


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## lust4sound

I just realized why my response falls off so sharply below 30HZ. I am getting a serious amount of flex in what i thought was a solid build. It's back to the drawing board. I have to take everything apart and add 2x4's to reinforce everything, that and additional straps from the 2x4's to the trunk floor..

Work work work work work.. Just wish I had a shop to work out of with some decent tools and a Gopher to run around for me..


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## bigaudiofanatic

That is one nice amp I have the smaller amp.


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## lust4sound

It makes tons of power, but it's way too big for a normal install. I had to reconfigure my entire system just to get it to fit..

I would never pay retail for it..

Good amp for the serious SPL heads with the big SUVs.

I have to get my alternator rewound, stock alt has the voltage dropping down in to the high 11's during serious pounding..

I did more than the big 3. I went overboard with doubling up on grounds and + wires.

I doubled up the factory 8 Gage from the + battery to the main fuse box, also doubled up on the 8 Gage going from the alt to the main fuse box. Used 4 Gage from alt to + terminal of underhood battery. Replaced all 8 Gage grounds with short 4 Gage, added a second battery in the trunk, ran dual 4 Gage to that one (didn't have 0 gage that long) 

After I ran dual 4 Gage + from front to rear battery, I also ran dual 4 Gage ground from trunk floor to rear battery, then dual 4 Gage + and - out from rear battery to digital cap (which also serves as a distribution block) 

From the cap, I have 4 Gage out to my 4 channels, 0 gage out to the Fosgate amp, still not helping.. 

My cap has dual 0 Gage inputs (which is supposed to be coming in) then 4) 4 Gage out for + the same for -. I did the reverse because I didn't have 0 Gage long enough to run from front to rear. I essentially doubled up on 4 Gage to feed everything, then used the 0 Gage out to the Fosgate. I couldn't have planned it better if I tried.. Just worked out that way..

Besides, judging by the diameter of the 4 Gage wires combined, I have more flow than if I had run 0 Gage the whole length..

Sounds confusing but it's pretty simple..

Made a huge difference, but it's still not enough.. Need that alternator mod now..

I get great sound during normal listening, great sound at full bore, can only imagine how much it will improve once I have the current needed for full out SQL..


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## qstarin

I have the T1500 and I've been very unimpressed with it. 

The big one, is that it started dropping power after about 20 min of near-max output use. Warranty service took 5 months.  

It also ate a lot of power, is much less efficient at 1 ohm, has a horrible scale on the low-pass x-over, and was much less punchy and powerful a couple other less-rated amps I tried on my setup.


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## lust4sound

I sold the amp. I am looking to replace it with a Sundown SAZ3000D or better..

The amp was no doubt a beast but I feel it was more of an SPL type amp. I spoke to someone that repairs amps for a living, he told me that the supposed BD class is nothing more than a D class.. Same ****, different day.


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## qstarin

lust4sound said:


> I spoke to someone that repairs amps for a living, he told me that the supposed BD class is nothing more than a D class.. Same ****, different day.



Doesn't surprise me for some reason. 


When I bought it, I wasn't even really aware of the DIY audio movement nor did I know there were still non-big-name-brand amps around that were quality and bang-for-your-buck.

I am only glad that I did not pay the ridiculous full retail they ask for that RF amp!! Even at < $600, I am disappointed in it.

Anyway, thx for the thread that I put my first DIYMA post in. 


Out of curiosity, why do feel the T3000 is more of an SPL amp, compared to say the Sundown?


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## CAPO

sounds fine just make sure you check the birth sheet if you have a HO alt because at that point the amp becomes underated and will give more power then 3k watts the bd10001 i seen gave over 1400 watts so there no telling were the 3k would land


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## Erik4Danielle

No I would not go with that. They do not have the best sound and I think they are kind of cheap compared to many of the others.


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## Erik4Danielle

Are you looking for old school or something new?


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## lust4sound

Erik4Danielle said:


> Are you looking for old school or something new?


I'm undecided.. I have a bunch of OS PPI amps for my front stage, was thinking of following suit with A/B amps for subs, but the kind of power that I need for 3 12W7's is hard to come by in the A/B class. 

If I do decide to go all PPI, I was thinking of powering each 12W7 with a PPI A600.2. This means I would have to get 3 more of those, since the 2 I have are going to be used in my front stage (3 way active)

I may actually look into some other offerings from the OS, maybe 3 SS Ref 1000's, 1 per sub, or some of the OS Earthquakes, Zed Hifonics etc etc. It doesn't have to be an all PPI system, but OS A/B power is the idea, with the Arts being displayed, the rest hidden..

It's a question of funds, if I had the money, I would go all out and match all the PPI's, would love 3 of the A1200.2's to power the subs, but that is about $1000 above my budget.

If I do decide to power the subs with D Class, it will more than likely be a Sundown SAZ3000D, or I am working on a deal that may get me 3 Preowned JL 1000/1's (cheap, about what it would cost me for a Refurb SAZ3000D)

I think the JL's are good amps, just a bit overpriced for my needs (retail new) I would never pay full retail for them. All the built in bells and whistles drives the cost of those amps through the roof. With a bit 1 processor, I will have enough processing to negate the need for all those bells and whistles built into the JL Amps. However, if I can make this deal happen, I could be sitting pretty on 3 of them (JL 1000/1) at 1/3 the cost of retail, that's worth it for me.

BTW, that Fosgate amp is long gone. I sold it for a nice profit. Was fun while it lasted, I had it powering a pair of my JL's. The full on output was serious, but it lacked the detail and control that I am looking for.. Was just a loud belching beast, unrefined at best.. If someone were looking for serious power for burping on a budget, I would say go for it.. The amp puts out all of it's spec'd power and more. But it won't live below 1 ohm, it's a serious current hog and it is way too large, so it's very limited compared to others..

In the pre owned price range, you can't beat what the Sundowns are being offered for. At $700 a pop for a nice pre owned Sundown, it's money well spent.. I'll take one of those over the Fosgate T30001BD any day..


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