somebody define powerhandling.
you guys seem to be throwing this around without considering whether its electrical powerhandling or mechanical powerhandling
electrical is how much you can feed it before you melt the coils...
mechanical is how much it takes to make a sub bottom out. this is TOTALLY dependent on the box.
with sealed boxes, the smaller the box, the more power it can handle mechanically. electrically (aka thermally), the power handling doesnt change.
with ported boxes, as you drop in frequency (ABOVE tuning frequency), you GAIN mechanical powerhandling, but drop in thermal (only slightly), because the box is keeping the sub from moving too far, but the lack of movement prevents cooling, which causes the electrical powerhandling to drop. when youre at your peak tuning frequency, is when you have the least thermal powerhandling, and the most mechanical powerhandling. as you go BELOW tuning frequency, mechanical powerhandling drops, but electrical stays about the same (youll just bottom the hell out of it with tons of low frequency signal). it actually goes up a little bit, but its irrelevant, as you cant get much output down below tuning...and risk damaging your sub.
the L7's will handle over 1500 watts rms in a ported box IF youre playing tones above the tuning frequency...AND you dont play the tones long (aka BURPING)...if you decide to play below tuning, you will blow the sub with MUCH less power. if youre doing spl, i suggest ported. if youre wanting sound quality, i suggest ported, but not as much power, and tuned to about 26-30 hz instead of 48-50 with spl setups.
eric