OK, I'm a bit perplexed. I was running my ID8 (rated at 150W) of my Jensen amp (rated at 170W) and I set the gains based on how it sounded. I got that thing pounding pretty hard, sounded great, never heard distortion. Sub died, one of the coils either broke or burned out.
I got the sub replaced and now want to run it off my Profile CL640 (225W). I went through the gain setting procedure with a 50Hz test tone and set my gains to an output of ~175W (26.5V) with the sub level at 10 (max), volume about 3/4, and my equalizer off. Now I can't even hear the sub. With the music I play, mostly stuff like DMB and Rusted Root, I can only hear the sub if I open my trunk and listen from back their, while the tone will play very loudly.
Now I'm afraid to set them by ear again because I'm not sure if I blew my first sub by going that route, but by following the tutorial I might as well not have the sub at all. What should I do? By the way, the sub's mounted in ~0.3cuft sealed box and wired at 4ohms.