Why on earth would you think that stretching a rubber band 1" is worse than trying to stretch it 20 ft? That's kind of the analogy you could use here..
When you have your volume knob down on your stereo you are sending LESS power to the speakers than when it's turned up.. more power means more movement means more loud.. so, you are implying that playing your radio at low volumes will HURT it.. On the other side, you say that shoving a 450 lb bowling ball up your arse is better than stuffing a marble in there (claiming it's better to 'overdrive' the speakers).. Personally, if something had to go there I'd rather a marble.. just me..
RMS is (supposedly) continous power handling.. what it can take as a MAX indefinately (or for long periods of time anyway).. MAX is what it will hold for a VERY SHORT time before all the component parts that make it up decide to go their seperate ways (or melt together as it could be).. If your speakers have an RMS of 500 watts (actual) sending them 600 for more than a very short time will blow them.. sending them 100 watts for a week won't bother them at all..
I have no idea how you managed to blow a sub sending it a LOT less than it's rated power, unless that sub was either defective or way overrated..
I'm actually suprised that people don't get this.. Once someone defines RMS and MAX, it's a straight forward logic problem.. I'm dyslexic and I don't even get it backwards //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif