Which amp should I buy?
I have Altec components: 40w rms (guessing) 80 max and Pioneer 6x9s: 40w rms 120 max.
Planning on adding a sub and a small amp for the front components.

US Acoustics 4/3/2 65wx4 for $130, or I can get the JBL 80.4 that is 40wx4 and also goes 2/3/4 channels for $140

 

US Acoustics...great bang for the buck.

 

Would they kill my speakers? 40w rms.

 

Just keep all the gains to minimum and u'll be fine... having alot of headroom is a good thing... if you try cranking it up. your ears will giveup before you have a chance to kill the speakers..in most cases

 

I agree go with more power. I have 50 watts to my components and im upgrading to 85. Its almost always better to have more than less. If you are pushing the amp rated for power less harder, it will distort and blow the speakers even though its rated less than what your speakers can handle. Tweeters are especially prone to blowing becuase of distortion cause they are much more fragile. Clean power is what you want.

 

Aaaah so distortion from being underpowered is worse then overpowering speakers, becuase it can be controlled through gain. Cool. Thanks soooo much.

I've heard JBL's are usually underrated and outperforms it's numbers all the time? Think that is true?

 

I read one article where they said distortion was like twice the power. So if you distort 50 watts i could be like 100 watts to the speakers if its distorted. Most respectable amp companies underrate their amps. Some "cheater amps" will make twice or more than rated power. They under rate them so they can keep you in a lower power class in compititions. Most are like 10 or 20 watts more or less. If its like a 1000 watt amp its probably 100 or so or maybe more. The spec sheat on my phoenix gold xs2200 rated for 200 watts does 240 or so.

 

I'm getting the US Acoustics then.