Rockford Fosgate T2500-1

For over 25 years, Rockford Fosgate has been known for building famed and in many cases, legendary high power amplifiers, and it seems there is no end to this tradition. Now, from one of the original founders of serious car audio power comes a new, formidable subwoofer-driving powerhouse.

The Rockford Fosgate T2500-1 amplifier is part of the widely acclaimed Power Series. The new for ‘09 design brings a marriage of Rockford’s patented Class bd technology and a polished, and more importantly technically significant cosmetic design. With power output levels rated at 1000, 1800, and 2500 watts into respective 4, 2, and 1 ohm loads the T2500-1 should have plenty of power for basically any application. But for those Fanatics who live by the old RF motto of “Too Much Is Just Right”, the T2500-1 is also a strappable design, allowing you to drive a single woofer coil with two of these beasts! While the model is new for 2009, the cosmetic changes are evolutionary, rather than revolutionary but incorporate some cool changes when compared to the previous year’s models. Most notably, there are stylish and well executed power and voltage meters built into the top cover of the amp, and while invisible when shut off, they can put on quite a show when the amp is at full song. The power meter is basically a cool bit of bling with no real significant purpose, but the battery voltage meter is quite accurate and does a great job of letting you know the condition of your electrical system, which as you read on, you’ll find out why it’s so important.

Measuring 22 inches long, but only 8 inches wide and 2 inches high, the Power Series amplifier’s size belies the amount of power on tap, by incorporating a technology that Rockford Fosgate calls DTM or Dynamic Thermal Management. What this means in real terms, is that the amplifiers can be driven hard for long periods of time, without worry about thermal protection shutoff spoiling the party. The key to this technology is a method of constantly monitoring the amplifiers temperature and operating conditions, and controlling the output current to provide longer playing times. In practice, the system works very well, and is virtually undetectable while listening to music.

Other nice upgrades from last years amps include panel mount style RCA’s for both input and output signals, and easier to connect power and speaker terminals, which are still all found on the long front edge of the amplifier. And speaking of terminals, the engineers at Rockford Fosgate clearly understand the kind of current this much power requires, both on the input and output side of things. The Power and Ground terminals now easily accommodate 1/0 wire, and the speaker terminals will accommodate 8 gauge speaker wire. The set screws that retain the cables are now a hex head style, and are thankfully finally all the same (4mm) size! This is the type of fundamental feature change that makes life simpler for installers and shows that even a large company like Rockford pays attention to feedback from the install bays around the world.