CamaroX84

I have a 240 watt amp in my car right now. My friend is selling me his 12" 600 watt sub for real cheap. I have heard that you can actually blow a sub if it is underpowered. Is this true? Thanks.

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1984 Camaro Sport Coupe - Rebuilt 355 S/D TPI L98, Crane 2032 CompuCam, Crane adjustable fuel pressure regulator, MSD Blaster coil, custom burned PROM, stock TPI intake, Accel 24# injectors, gutted air box with K&N filters
F41 Suspension Package, 700R4 Tranny, TCI Breakaway torque converter, 3.27 Posi Rear
Hooker Shorty Headers, Catco High-Flow 3" Cat, Flowmaster 3" American Thunder Cat-Back

Best 1/4 Mile Run:
13.847 @ 95.91 MPH

1992 1LE B4C Police Camaro RS - 305 TPI 5-Speed

deadtrend1

iTrader: (1)

Never had i heard that one. It one to have too much power to blow a voice coil out.... but, to have too little power ..... umm ... I think your fine. Besides, if you running a 240 watt amp or whatever it is .. thats pretty decent .. a 600 watt sub means 600 watts of power it can handle at max, but your allowed to have under that.

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91 Firebird .. 305 TBI .. 5 speed
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9177

Its not the under powering that can cause it to blow it when you try to get more out of the amp then you cause it to clip. Im sure someone else can explain it better but mainly don't try to make it perform like 600 watt amp then you shouldn't have ant problems.

DJSexay

too little power does not blow a speaker.

This myth started because people would get a wimpy amp, say only 50 or 75 watts, and then crank the gain up to compensate. With the gain cranked, major clipping would occur, and blow the speaker. When this customer replaces the little amp with a bigger one, and sets the gain properly, the sub does not blow, so people make the association that too little power blew the sub.

sales guys love this myth, as it allows them to pressure the customer to a bigger, badder amp, telling them that too little power may blow the sub.

mike

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CamaroX84

Well, it's a 280 watt 4 channel amp, meaning 70 watts per channel. Now lets say I use two of them to power the rears, and the other two for the sub. That's 180 watts of power for the sub. What I've heard from two different people now, one being a salesperson and the other a personal friend, is that the sub will try to draw too much power from the amp that it does not have, and it will burn the amp, not the sub. 180 watts to 600 watts is a huge difference. Any other thoughts? Thanks for the replies.

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1984 Camaro Sport Coupe - Rebuilt 355 S/D TPI L98, Crane 2032 CompuCam, Crane adjustable fuel pressure regulator, MSD Blaster coil, custom burned PROM, stock TPI intake, Accel 24# injectors, gutted air box with K&N filters
F41 Suspension Package, 700R4 Tranny, TCI Breakaway torque converter, 3.27 Posi Rear
Hooker Shorty Headers, Catco High-Flow 3" Cat, Flowmaster 3" American Thunder Cat-Back

Best 1/4 Mile Run:
13.847 @ 95.91 MPH

1992 1LE B4C Police Camaro RS - 305 TPI 5-Speed

9177

The amp will only put out what it is set to by the gain adjustment and volume controls. Thats like saying putting a highflow exhaust system on a car will damage the engine be cause its trying to make the engine produce more power that its capable of.

DJSexay

the only way a sub can damage an amp is if the impedance of the sub (ohms) is lower than what the amp can handle. Most amps run at 4ohms, so if the sub is 4 ohms, then it will be fine. Even if you have a 10 watt amp! An amp with properly set gains will never blow a sub from too little power.


sub draw too much wattage ? that's a funny one.

mike

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Mike92RS

What kind of sub is it? Is it 600 watts max or rms? Also, as long as the inpendence of the sub is within range of the amp with it's gains set properly, it wont hurt the amp at all.

- Mike

CamaroX84

Lol, DJSexay, I don't know jack **** about stereo systems. I've only spent time and money on my motor, and now I've finally come around to learning about and changing my stereo. The sub is 600 watt peak. Okay, so, will the sub sound okay even though it's underpowered? Thanks again.

DJSexay

no worries, I don't know jack about alot of things .

yeah, the sub will be fine.

mike

CamaroX84

What about for quality of the sound? I plan on having 2 of the channels (so 140 watts) going to the sub. This sub will sound okay even though it only has 140 watts going to it? Thanks everyone for all your help.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

It'll sound fine. Well, assuming the speaker sounds good. If you replace a 1,000 watt amp with a 10 watt amp, the sound doesn't change until you try to overdrive the amp. It just doesn't go as loud.

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DJSexay

I have about 200 watts going to my 12W4 in my daily driver. 200 is not much more than 140 ( as far as an audible difference), and my setup sounds fine to me. Granted, it is in a trunk, so in a hatch it would sound louder, but it definately is audible. Not ground shaking, but i can crank it and feel it.

mike

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