Originally Posted by WiLL

1. When looking at subs or amps, dont look at the MAX wattage numbers. Always look at the RMS numbers.

2. When you are buying an amp and sub, you want the RMS numbers to be as close as possible. But this does not always happen. So you either have an amp that will provide too much power, or an amp that provides too little power (according to the RMS).

When you have an amp that provides too much power, this is not always a bad thing if the number is reasonable...such as feeding a 350 watt sub with 400 watts or giving a 500 watt sub 600 watts. This is not going to blow the sub. Of course this is assuming that you wire the amp correctly and set the gains and any other adjustments correctly.

When you have an amp that provides too LITTLE power, this is not always such a bad thing either. A lot of people say that it will destroy the sub. It wont. It is in this situation that the user can possibly destroy the sub. When you have an amp that provides too little power, people usually want to turn up the gains and volume to make the sub louder. When you do this, the limits of the amp is getting close. If you push it any harder, then it starts clipping the signal. Then the sub goes byebye.

So I say that it is better to have an amp that provides too much power, rather than an amp that provides too little.