which is better?

[luvinthebass 5,000+ posts]

matching rms or goin over?

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[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Better?

Running a speaker at its rated RMS is always better than overpowering it, though depending on the driver, going over by a little probably won't do anything. That is, if it's unclipped power.

There's nothing wrong with going under RMS, as well - again, assuming an unclipped signal.

 

[luvinthebass 5,000+ posts]

wut do u people do usually with this, post how u power your subs, thanks. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif i was bored lol

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Umm...I power my sub with an amp //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

my PG Tantrum 1200.1 is rated to do an unclipped 1.4kW...I have the gains set so it's sending around a kilowatt to the '12a.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Depends on the box, etc etc.

Also depends on if you mean actually overpowering, or just using a "larger than recommended" amplifier. Because many people will, for example, use a 750w amp to power a 500w RMS subwoofer....but then they say "I just set my gain a little lower", which in turn means the amplifier isn't outputting full power, and hence they are not actually overpowering their subwoofer at all.

Likewise, you surely wouldn't want to overpower your subwoofer when running a large sealed box or running them IB.

Also depends on how the power handling was rated. Is it just the thermal capacity of the coil? Or some other method?

See, this can become quite an involved question.....LOL //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

I don't know if you care or not, but another thing you run into with overpowering subs is power compression - basically, as you reach a driver's rated power level, sending it more power simply doesn't give you the gains in output that it once did. You reach a point of diminishing returns.