Is my friend lying to me?

[streetbeater 10+ year member]

My friend says that it is much better to overpower your subs than underpower them. apparently when they are underpowered a distorted signal is sent to your subs and when they are overpowered clean power is sent to them? is there any truth to this? from what i searched i see that it is bad to overpower?

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[morgans432 10+ year member]

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 

[revrider1 5,000+ posts]

Lying friends ****

 

[Rashaddd 5,000+ posts]

lol..

 

[x2o 10+ year member]

No, the myth behind underpowering your subs will blow them is easily debunked.

It's not sending lower power, it's having an amp that is rated below the sub and the USER turning up the amp past it's highest clean signal, trying to get more then the amp can give. This produces a clipped signal, which is a square wave. This will actually heat up the sub much quicker then clean power and will basically cause death to your subs.

The reason he says "Overpowering" is better, is because buying an amp that can put out more power will allow you to run the amp at a lower gain setting, which can gaurantee your getting clean output.

 

[Gilliz 10+ year member]

Punch your friend in the face ; Yeah, he's that stupid.

 

[Louisiana_CRX 5,000+ posts]

I'm running 3000 daily to a DD 3510 it is rated at 1200 watts...plays better now than when I bought it 6 months ago....

 

[IDSkoT 5,000+ posts]

Well, if you underpower a sub... what the hell do you think happens when you turn your volume down?

SUBS HAVE TO BE AT 100% ALWAYS OR THEY GO *poof*

 

[streetbeater 10+ year member]

ok well some replys sounded contradicting but what x20 sounded pretty legit. thank you for the help

 

[streetbeater 10+ year member]

well i run 2 18" fi q's with bp power with a zx2500.1 is this bad the amp was rated at 2702

 

[RipDaJacka]

No, the myth behind underpowering your subs will blow them is easily debunked.
It's not sending lower power, it's having an amp that is rated below the sub and the USER turning up the amp past it's highest clean signal, trying to get more then the amp can give. This produces a clipped signal, which is a square wave. This will actually heat up the sub much quicker then clean power and will basically cause death to your subs.

The reason he says "Overpowering" is better, is because buying an amp that can put out more power will allow you to run the amp at a lower gain setting, which can gaurantee your getting clean output.

This man proves ur friend is NOT lying.. ur friend just doesnt know the whole truth behind his statement..

that, or he just isnt telling u his logic completely

 

[dB Dom 10+ year member]

He is kinda right if the same maximum volume is desired. If you underpower you will try to make up for it and probably clip the signal. If you have enough power on tap then you will get the same desired results with a cleaner signal. That is assuming your subs can handle the extra power.

 

[x2o 10+ year member]

ok well some replys sounded contradicting but what x20 sounded pretty legit. thank you for the help

Lol, because everybody that told agreed with your friend in this thread is just lying. It's a funny little thing CA.com likes to do to new guys with questions like this. I always try to answer honestly though, since I've seen some people believe the lies posted and it wasn't pretty.

 

[benchambers80]

I think his friend means having an amp more powerful than required. Which will prevent clipping if you set the gains right. If not then smoke.

 

[x2o 10+ year member]

And no he was not "lying" per say, but he was not truly correct. The principle he is conveying does apply, but the reasoning he has behind it probably is not true. He probably doesn't know all the info about clipping and distortion and sine waves vs square waves and all that.

Underpowering a sub with a PROPERLY SET AMP and a clean signal will NOT do any harm to the sub. That is what should be taken from this thread.