Over powering Subs

[JuiceTin]

Say you have sub with 1000watts RMS
How many watts could you give it before it blows?
Does it depend on the brand?
Is there a good rule of thumb to by?

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[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

Ahhh just turn it up until it smells and then turn it down some....

No there are a ton of factors and not a rule of thumb.

 

[Doxquzme Premium Member]

/\ Agreed /\

If you have a sub/amp combination, post it and there are many in here that will give you guidance on how they work together and why. As the pops said, no hard and fast rule that applies generally speaking.

 

[winkychevelle 10+ year member]

Depends on the cooling design of the sub as well as the coil size

2.5inch coil is usually maxed at 1500w with good cooling
2.75inch can usually reach 2kw with good cooling
3inch we have seen 2.5kw
4inch we have seen some quite large numbers.

This all bears in mind the the power is clean, the coil is long enough to have the surface e area to dissipate heat, and the sun has the mechanical capability to control the cone.

Generally you only gain 3db everytime you double power. This varies due to vehicle acoustics, impedance shift and box rise but

If you have

140db 1000w
143db 2000w
146db 4000w
149db 8000w

You can see how power can destroy a sub long before the 10db you need to by ear double the volume. 3db is considered the minimum change in volume we can hear in the bass region.

A more efficient box design is more often than not the better route to go over power especially for people who are new to car audio

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

You can hear the destortion in the subs and bottoming out within the enclosure usually and smell the coils getting too hot. Thats when you need to tone it down and run some test tunes and set things up properly to handle the power and environment the subs are in as well. Always start out easy on the settings and work your way up. Takes time and worth the sfforts. That is what I do myself if I dont do the math with a DMM ect. and go by ear and smell. I think Ive done pretty decent over the last 25 years by ear alone

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

My experience says that for most people, usually, overpowering subs doesn't really gain much, especially for daily or music. Actual power levels to the sub can vary wildly while playing music, so things like sub box size and tuning and cab resonance and whatever the weather is like that day can all change actual wattage to the sub, so overpowering a woofer is quite a complicated equation. In some cases, overpowering by a little bit seems to help by maybe limiting amp stresses, where the amp doesn't have to be turned up all of the way, but too much and it can be really easy to blow subs as all the variables change, like what song you're playing, the way any change in air changes resonance frequencies. How much power you have is going to be largely based on frequency based impedance, and it can vary so widely. That's something I tried to account for box designing was somewhat of an average impedance change, where I tried to limit how much stress the amp sees from sub movement, and limit that to get more consistent power across a certain bandwidth for the music, if that was needed/wanted. It's a balancing act of all the factors, lol.

Pure SPL is just a whole different question with overpowering.

I would say if you want to overpower your subs by a ton, just get better subs that can do more bass more efficiently with that power, stronger motor, etc, and make sure your box is always the best. Box design has a massive impact on woofer power handling, so keep that in mind. I tend to tune almost solely by ear.