there's some serious mis-info going on in here that I'm sure the "technicians" that frequent this place would have a heyday with, but I'll point out a couple things.
First thing - a clipped wave doesn't contain DC, it's high frequency AC.
Max power isn't the thermal or mechanical limit of a speaker. It's nothing. Really. Nothing. That's why everyone says it's meaningless -- it is.
The reason it's meaningless is because there is no set defenition for the term - every company defines it differently. Some take the time to define it in their own terms, but comparison wise it is of no value because chances are the next company defines it differently if they define it at all.
RMS power IS a thermal power rating, and you don't, by any means, NEED to drive a speaker with an amp equal to its rms rating for optimal performance.
The fact of the matter is if you drive a 1000w sub with a 500w amp it's going to be REAL hard to cause damage because even fully clipped it's not likely a 500w amp can produce enough power to threaten either the mechanical or thermal limits of the sub. And if it approached that degree of clipping even the most newb ears could recognize it sounds like shit.
If you were to do the same thing with a 1000w amp the likelyhood of damage would increase drastically because an amp that size would produce well over 1000w when clipping at high volume.
And while it's become accepted that running a sub with an amp HIGHER than the sub's rms rating somehow reduces the chance of damage, the theory is bogus.
