# Too Much Power??



## djbreal87 (Jun 24, 2012)

I need some help settling an argument, it is very simple but I appreciate the input.

I am trying to convince my friend that you can have a lower rms sub, on an amp that puts easily triple the subs rating. For example a subwoofer that is rated for 500rms, put onto an amplifier wired for 1-ohm making 3,000rms. 

As long as it is tuned properly, and tuned low, the output of the amplifier should be low enough as to not blow the sub. Atleast that is my thinking, I understand 3000rms is a tad extreme but is my logic sound? or am I missing something?


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## pjhabit (Aug 12, 2008)

> The amount of power an amp is actually putting out depends directly on what you're playing and how loud you're playing it. In other words, if you're playing the Backstreet Boys at 90dB, it doesn't matter whether you're amp is capable of 10 watts, 100 watts, 1,000 watts, or 1,000,000 watts, the speakers are getting the exact same amount of power and are under the exact same amount of stress no matter what amp is powering them (so long as it's not clipping).


How Much Power is Too Much Power?


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## edzyy (Aug 18, 2011)

You don't "tune" low

You set the gain to output maximum without hard clipping.


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## SkizeR (Apr 19, 2011)

yes it is ok to put more than rated to a speaker. but 3000 watts to a 500 watt rated sub would toast it.


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## djbreal87 (Jun 24, 2012)

What if the gain and bass boost were zero? thats what im getting at. If you turned everything down as low as it could go on the amp and whatever eq you are using, and having the volume on your head unit at say 10, your amp wont be putting out 3000rms. 

But if like someone suggested you tuned the amp just below clipping, yea you would destroy that little sub, but if you did all the things I stated above, wouldnt sub be fine? There would be almost no output from the amp. Im not trying to keep everything musical, or even usable, but just showing that you can do it, even if its extreme over kill lol


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## qwertydude (Dec 22, 2008)

You could have a 10,000 watt amplifier connected to a 500 watt subwoofer. There's no rule saying you can't simply turn down the gain to limit the power.

I don't know where people get the notion that a 3000 watt amp is constantly putting out 3000 watts to subwoofers, such a silly notion.


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## djbreal87 (Jun 24, 2012)

And thats my argument lol The amp might have the capability to do X amount of RMS but that doesnt mean it always is. And this is the point im trying to make lol Music is dynamic, the signal changes, its never the same, and you can change how the amplifier takes that signal and what it does with it.


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## captainscarlett (Mar 15, 2011)

I remember a PWK video where he states that he got X,XXX watts into a DD sub rated at a few hundred watts (paraphrasing). Within the passband it was more than able to do it, outside the passband the rating would drop 

watch from about 2:00 mins






But I also reminded that Pete ran his Sundown SA-12 (rated @ 600 watts) from a Digital Designs M4a @ approx 3,000 watts.


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## SkizeR (Apr 19, 2011)

If you turn down the gains of a 3000 watts amp then it's not going to get 3000 watts. And a lot of music these days has constant baselines that push subs and amps to their full potential a lot more than other types of music

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk


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## t3sn4f2 (Jan 3, 2007)

The gain dial on an amp is not a wattage throttle. There is no 0-10 with it. It a relative volume control. You set it relative to the intensity of the signal coming from the previous source. If the previous source's average output, when playing music of low dynamics, has an output level that is too high for the potential of your speaker/amp combo. Then you lower the *gain* dial to put them in a comfortable range. If the output level is too low, you add *gain* to give you the needed *gain*. Think of it as a resolution setting on a computer monitor. You pick on setting that conforms to the range of media that you will be viewing. To low a resolution (ie excess gain) you get things cut off the screen (ie clipping/overdriving). You set it too high, everything fits but its too small to perceive details at the viewing distance (ie you can't get enough volume from your setup)

The dial can only act as a wattage limiter if you set everything before it to put out the most voltage it can ever put out under every circumstance possible. Then you know that nothing can every cause the amp to put out more. But then you don't leave yourself ANY *gain* to use for low level recordings or tracks that are VERY dynamic in nature. Where you need to overdrive/clip the amp/speaker combo to get the output needed.


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## Loudy (Nov 10, 2010)

I don't have much to add to what was already stated but ratings from manufactures are not always the "be-all, end-all" either. Headroom is a good thing too.

On a side note, a couple of years ago I fried an Orion NT2 12" DVC inside a Decware Deathbox run from a Europower EP1500. That sub is rated at about 600 watts RMS and I was feeding it from an amp rated closer to 1,400 watts RMS. It took about an hour of abuse before the magic smoke arrived. However, it was in this arrangement for years with no issues before user error set in. A 15" Dayton Titanic replaces this sub at home and it is doing just fine. (Rated at 800 and being fed from the same amp).


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## JCsAudio (Jun 16, 2014)

I have a JL Audio CP108LG W3V3 micro-sub. If you go to JL Audios website and look under specifications for this the 4 ohm w3v3 subwoofer they give you a range of RMS power 8W3v3-4 - Car Audio - Subwoofer Drivers - W3v3 - JL Audio They give a range of 125 watts to 250 watts RMS that this subwoofer can handle with 160 watts being the sweet spot. So since I listened to the thought that putting an amplifier on that has more power than what the speaker is rated for is ok, I went and bought a Pioneer GM D8601 mono amplifier rated for 300 watts RMS. Let me tell you with that amplifier the subwoofer sounded like crap. It had very muddy bass and sounded like the woofer was being over extended and uncontrolled. Unhappy with this amplifier I hooked up my over 20 year old Alpine 3548 two channel class AB amplifier and bridged it so it was supplying that perfect sweet spot 160 watts RMS. when I hooked up that Alpine 3548 I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Tight (for ported) clean powerful and accurate bass. This little micro subwoofer just sounded awesome with almost half the power that the Pioneer was putting out. That was 6 months ago and I returned the Pioneer and left the little Alpine in place because the power it put out matched the manufacturers specifications and it was perfect. I believe that the 300 watts RMS was just too much power and this makes me believe that pushing a speaker with more power than it's rated for is not a wise thing to do.


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## thr_wedge (Jun 4, 2014)

Its like too much beer. Everybody gets what they want and the party never stops, except there's always that one guy who tries to drink the keg by themselves and ends up in a ditch.


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