Featured Skar DDX12 / Taramps 2000.1

cadedickens said:

overall it seems to handle the power just like it’s bigger brother EVL model can.. but for now !?!?!? or for good !?!?

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Subs can handle Peak Power for short bursts like when the bass hits. Between notes is when the heating of the voicecoil stops so the sub does not reach the critical melting point. If you do a bass track that has that extended note, then you could really cause some damage.

Amp dynos are running sine waves with more than enough steady current to keep said amp happy, In a vehicle the average joe is using a lot less power than they think.

Impedance rise. If you clamp the amp output you will see you aren't seeing anywhere near that power in real life.

RMS is the thermal limit of constant power the driver is rated for, exceed it can/will damage the goods.

That said, let's get to the heart of the matter: output.

For perspective, I offer up the following on efforts to increase output only through increasing wattage. This is asssumes your driver can handle the wattage to begin with.

To double the output, to the ear, that is, when the ear perceives that the volume has doubled, requires that there be a theoretical increase of 9db - and that is in a perfectly silent listening environment (not a vehicle cabin).

To accomplish a doubling of volume to the ear requires an 8-to-1 increase in power, as in going from 2000 watts to a paltry 16000 watts.

The breakdown is as follows, and again, this is in a perfectly quiet, noise-free environment.

2k to 4k watts - +3db
4k to 8k watts - +6db
8k to 16k watts - +9db

The reason I bring this up is that, as has already been mentioned, it's not a straight shot of wattage to the driver, even if you could get all of the amps' output to that sub, reactive resistance (rise), voltage fluctuation, dynamic headroom changes the equation/need, supply and demand, constantly because music is dynamic, it's not a constant signwave.

Music has peaks and valleys in the sound level that require different levels of power; this is the dynamics. Headroom, which is the ability to play at a constant level, is the unused wattage in reserve to handle the peaks when called upon during loud and mostly low-frequency passages.

If you are at max output, there is nothing left to cover those dynamic peaks, and if called upon, the amp will clip trying to cover the spread, which will damage the woofer.

I have a +50% rule that I live by that has served me well over the years. Total RMS (constant thermal limit of the combined drivers' RMS) plus 50% is the target of the amplifier power I wanted to push my subwoofer.

At 2k, you're already at double the RMS (constant thermal limit) of that 1000-watt RMS sub, pushing anything more than 1000 watts to it (constant music program), with plenty of extra power waiting in the wings, you WILL damage the subwoofer.

At the end of the day, you'll likely never even hear the difference an extra 300-500 watts will give you as reactive resistance (rise) gets progressively higher (as the term "rise" would indicate), and exceeding the RMS (constant) is ill-advised - the specification is there for a reason.

You cannot build reactive resistance out of the subwoofer, so the only way to sensibly get more output with the 2k, or let's say you manage to get 2.8k, would be to double the size of the box and get another 12" sub.