Taramps Bass 1200 Review: 1 Ohm Rating, Draw and Fuse

A single subwoofer with dual 2 ohm voice coils can be wired to a 4 ohm final load in series, or a 1 ohm final load in parallel. Wiring two of those coils in parallel to reach 1 ohm is one of the single most common configurations in car audio, precisely because it lets one amplifier deliver its highest rated output to one subwoofer. An amplifier that is only rated and stable down to 2 ohms simply cannot be pushed to that 1 ohm load safely, no matter how the subwoofer is wired.

The Taramps Bass 1200 publishes its headline number at 1 ohm and states it is stable there, which means the rating on the box is the rating you actually get with a common dual 2 ohm subwoofer wired in parallel. Run the numbers for your specific subwoofer's coil configuration with our subwoofer wiring calculator before assuming your setup lands at 1 ohm.

Using RMS watts divided by the product of an assumed 80 percent class D efficiency and 14.4 volts, the Bass 1200's published 1,200 watt rating works out to roughly 104 amps of continuous draw. Under NEC Table 310.16 at 75 degrees Celsius, that draw exceeds the roughly 85 amp ampacity of 4 gauge wire and sits comfortably within the roughly 115 amp ampacity of 2 gauge wire, so 2 gauge is the realistic minimum for a short run, with 1/0 gauge, rated around 150 amps, being the safer call on a longer run to the trunk.

The exact fuse value should sit at or below the ampacity of whichever gauge you choose, not above it. Our amp wire gauge calculator and amp fuse calculator factor in your specific run length rather than giving one number for every install.

Not automatically, and not as a first step. A capacitor stores a small reserve of energy that helps for a fraction of a second during a transient bass hit, but it does not fix the underlying cause of dimming headlights, which is almost always a weak ground, undersized wiring, a tired battery or an alternator that cannot keep up at idle. The more effective order to work through is a big 3 upgrade first, a clean ground second, a second battery third, and a higher output alternator fourth, with a capacitor considered only after those steps if voltage dip is still visible.

Our big 3 upgrade calculator and capacitor calculator both walk through this in more detail if dimming is the actual problem you are trying to solve.

Anyone running a single dual 4 ohm subwoofer wired to a 2 ohm final load will not see this amplifier's full 1,200 watt figure, since that rating is specific to a 1 ohm load; check the amplifier's 2 ohm rating separately if that is your wiring plan. Buyers whose electrical system cannot support roughly 104 amps of additional draw, meaning a weak alternator, an undersized battery or stock thin gauge wiring, should address those items first or this amplifier will simply starve for voltage under load regardless of its rating.

Anyone shopping purely on the headline wattage number without checking their subwoofer's own RMS rating and coil wiring is also likely to be disappointed, since a 1,200 watt monoblock paired with a subwoofer rated well under that figure just leaves output on the table, while pairing it with a subwoofer rated well above it means the amplifier becomes the limiting factor in the system rather than the speaker.