Don't see how you can smoke an R with that little power... unless you had massive clipping.
I doubt you saw more than 300 actual watts to the woofer...
I send 1500 ACTUAL watts to mine daily... and yes, I beat on em DAILY... and no problems thus far?
Im sure its in this thread somewhere... but I said before the type R relies alot on its cooling system to keep it goin, if you clip it you screw that up.... remember its still just a 2" coil.
Use it right and its *the* loudest low note woofer I have ever tested...