How much over RMS is ok??

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

i think the rms is 400 on my DD 8's...i've ran 1700rms on them without any problems....so a good speaker should take about 4 times its rated rms easily....

 

[JBGabriel 10+ year member]

It really depends on what woofer and what kinda power your putting to it. You can usually get away with more than rms you just have to be smart about it. Usually your sub will tell you how much power is to much. If it starts to get stinky, bottoming out, etc. than turn your gain down.

 

[efm80 10+ year member]

do you guys think enclosure effects what subs can handle over their rms rating??? If so, how?(bigger the better, ported, sealed, ect..)

 

[JBGabriel 10+ year member]

Enclosures can have an effect on impedeance rise which is directly related to how much power the sub will see.

 

[DidUHearThat? 10+ year member]

Depends on the operator as much as anything.

 

[Saint211 10+ year member]

Boxes typically raise the power handling capabilities to an extent by providing rear loading(aka pressure) on the sub cone. Free-air... subs have less power handling. Like someone mentioned it also affect impedence rise.

Think about it..... having a chamber of air that compresses behind the cone is almost like having a harder spider...

I know some folks dont like pioneer but I once had 4 10" subs rated at like 120 RMS... I gave them 1k with bass boost and high gains trying to pop em. They got stinky a few times and even one time made a horrible noise. I thought I popped one or two. But I never did blow them. Ended up giving them to my brother.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

The RMS rating of a sub is thermal power handling only. The box affects this only in regards to impedance rise. The rear loading affects the mechanical power handling of the sub which isn't related to the rated power.

As far as how much power you can run to a sub, you can run RMS continuously. That means a sine wave. That amounts to a continuous heating of the coil. The sub is rated to shed that amount of continuously applied heat. Music isn't continuous. Depending on the music, you can use an amp rated for considerably more than the sub rating without any problems. While I usually run considerably less than rated power because it's enough for my use, but I have run 2x rated power to a good sub on music, and know for a fact that it was seeing that power on peaks.