Ok I was informed that if you try to run a 300watt rms sub off a 200 watt rms amp you would burn them out. Now I know you want to try to match the rms levels for best sound but burn out at lower levels? I have almost always ran mu subs a lil on the low side, am I doing something wrong?
underpowering a sub will definately wear it down slightly but that is depending on the brands (i.e. jensen 500 watt amps are very different from JL 500 watt amps). I would say what you have is fine (depending on brand) just dont try to push a W7 with a 100 watt amp
companies also sandbag, some exagerate, so if you're really worried about it it is best to test your amps output
Originally posted by prophesized that is completely false. there is no way you can hurt a sub by underpowering it.
I've heard of it happening before so I don't know :\
Alpine... they're riding their name... the headunits are still pretty good, the type r subs are pretty decent too... the amps... not so sure about. But they're just not what they used to be.
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1995 Silverleaf Metallic Camry LE Automatic beater
Originally posted by Stealth I've heard of it happening before so I don't know :\
the person might have turned the gains up too far to get as much power to the subs as he could and then ended up clipping the amp and sending much more power to the subs then he intended. thats how the myth that underpowering subs can blow them got started.
"Underpowering a speaker is likely to damage the voice coil due to the excess heat created by distortion. This distortion, called clipping, is created when the amp is not able to supply the power demand when the volume is turned up. If you turn the volume up very high without the power to back it up, you'll end up clipping the signal coming out of the amp. The speaker will try to reproduce this clipped signal, and if played under these circumstances for any length of time, the speaker will not last very long."
-- Crutchfield
"When an underpowered amp is used to power a speaker, the listener tends to turn the volume up higher in order to get more output of the amplifier. Eventually the amplifier runs into its limit and begins to distort. This distortion can cause the output from the amplifier to become DC for short periods of time and DC signals of even low power can destroy a speaker. Underpowering a speaker in this way can be more dangerous than overpowering it! Also more power is usually necessary when powering subwoofers because of their large size and excursion"
-- CarAudioWiz
notice i said what he was talking about is probably fine, just dont get to excessinve as in my example (100 watts to a W7 = )
thats right about the clipping but you cant really say the speaker is underpowered when an amp clips because the amp sends out much more power then what its rms rating is.
Like I said before I was running this amp with 2 Kenwood 12s and I never had anytrouble. I thought that overpowering a sub was bad but I do see that in some cases underpowering it could cause problems....but do you want to run a sub at rms contious?
Thanks Shawn
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"I am not a complete idiot, some parts are missing!"
well its bad if the sub cant handle the extra power.
but lets say you have a DD 9917. it easily takes a couple kilowatts for daily driving. then lets put it on a 100 watt rms amp. if you turn the gains on the amp up all the way, turn your head unit up all the way, and turn every available bass boost control up all the way, you will have a very very clipped signal. the 9917 would still be able to take it (even though it would sound horrible) because the amp probably wouldnt even be putting out 1000 watts. put the same clipped amp on a 100 watt rms sub and it will blow it.
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