Can someone please explain RMS/Max

[Damien8 10+ year member]

Okay, I was just wondering about what good wattages are when matching subs and amps, if i have a 1200W RMS amp, should I bridge and hook up two 12" 1000W RMS subs?

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[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

You could power two 1kW-rated subs off 1.2kW RMS...however, they'd be only receiving 600W each and could be underpowered in the enclosure. You have two options at that point - increase the enclosure size, lowering Qtc and increasing the efficiency (meaning they reach Xmax with less power) or increase your power.

 

[Damien8 10+ year member]

how high of an amp should i put with them?

 

[Damien8 10+ year member]

i'm just worried about blowing the subs with too much power to them, i'm not too sure about all this, but i figured if i underpowered them i'd be fine

 

[smgreen20 10+ year member]

If you underpower them you could run into clipping the signal. In time that = death to a speaker. How much power you ask??? 2 subs times/at 1000 watts each = 2000 watts. Find an amp that does 2000 wrms at ? ohm load you're going to give the amp.

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

If you underpower them you could run into clipping the signal. In time that = death to a speaker.

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Underpowering doesn't kill speakers...people do //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Sending them less power than RMS isn't in and of itself a bad thing. Overdriving the amp to compensate for the lower power, like you said, is.

 

[tplaya07 10+ year member]

Ideally, you would want an amp that does around 2000RMS at whatever the final ohm should be according to the subs. It would however be much easier if you told us what kind of subs you had, and what voice coil configuration, and also what kind of budget you had in mind if you wanted to get a new amp.

Also, like Jack said, you can use the 1200RMS amp for both of them and be fine. Just use the gain setting tutorial at the top of this forum to properly set them. That way you dont have to worry about sending a clipped signal from your amp, and damging your subs.