Too small amp?

[Dreamcatcher013]

Hello.

I have a question for you Steve.
I'm a member of a facebook site about car audio here in Norway, and someone needed help finding right amp for his two 400rms 4ohms woofers.
I told him that he should find a monoblock 800wrms or more at 2 ohm's. bechause if the amp is too small, it can go hot and may hurt the amp and woofers.
Then a lot of other guys said that it was inpossible to kill a woofer with an amp that is to small.

Am I right, or them?

Personaly I like to have a bit more rms wattage on my amp than my woofers, then the amp don't need to work (overtime)

What are your thoughts about this?

Hope my enlish was understandable:)

[Jessica]

low power wont hurt anything, what do you think happens when you turn down your volume?

People make up for low power by turning up the gain too high and that causes clipping which kills amps and subs.

[Broke_Audio_Addict]

It is not possible to damage a woofer from under powering it.

What usually happens is that people want more from the small amp so they crank the gain thinkg they will get louder and introduce clipping which causes the problems you are referring to.

I also prefer to have more power available than is needed.

Headroom is a good thing.

[Dreamcatcher013]

It is not possible to damage a woofer from under powering it.

What usually happens is that people want more from the small amp so they crank the gain thinkg they will get louder and introduce clipping which causes the problems you are referring to.

I also prefer to have more power available than is needed.

Headroom is a good thing.

What usually happens is that people want more from the small amp so they crank the gain thinkg they will get louder and introduce clipping which causes the problems you are referring to. <- That was what i meant to say

[Dreamcatcher013]

low power wont hurt anything, what do you think happens when you turn down your volume?

People make up for low power by turning up the gain too high and that causes clipping which kills amps and subs.

I know that low power don't kill unless you crank the gain, thats why i think it's better to have more or same power as the woofers.

Easy for people that don't know anything about audio to crank it up.

[Jessica]

Hello.

I have a question for you Steve.

I'm a member of a facebook site about car audio here in Norway, and someone needed help finding right amp for his two 400rms 4ohms woofers.

I told him that he should find a monoblock 800wrms or more at 2 ohm's. bechause if the amp is too small, it can go hot and may hurt the amp and woofers.

Then a lot of other guys said that it was inpossible to kill a woofer with an amp that is to small.

Am I right, or them?

Personaly I like to have a bit more rms wattage on my amp than my woofers, then the amp don't need to work (overtime)

What are your thoughts about this?

Hope my enlish was understandable:)

point 1, (underlined) this statement by itself is wrong. If gains are properly set amp will be fine. Any amp with the gain cranked big or small will suffer the same effects as you describe

point 2, (bolded) This statement is wrong. ok, sure, a 50 watt amp on a 5k sub would never do any damage even if the gains were cranked but compensating for power by clipping can damage a sub and or an amp.

So, as usual on the internet, pretty much everyone was wrong in some sense.

[Dreamcatcher013]

Hello.

I have a question for you Steve.

I'm a member of a facebook site about car audio here in Norway, and someone needed help finding right amp for his two 400rms 4ohms woofers.

I told him that he should find a monoblock 800wrms or more at 2 ohm's. bechause if the amp is too small, it can go hot and may hurt the amp and woofers.

Then a lot of other guys said that it was inpossible to kill a woofer with an amp that is to small.

Am I right, or them?

Personaly I like to have a bit more rms wattage on my amp than my woofers, then the amp don't need to work (overtime)

What are your thoughts about this?

Hope my enlish was understandable:)

point 1, (underlined) this statement by itself is wrong. If gains are properly set amp will be fine. Any amp with the gain cranked big or small will suffer the same effects as you describe

point 2, (bolded) This statement is wrong. ok, sure, a 50 watt amp on a 5k sub would never do any damage even if the gains were cranked but compensating for power by clipping can damage a sub and or an amp.

So, as usual on the internet, pretty much everyone was wrong in some sense.

(underlined) You saying that it will and will not damage amp and sub? or am I reading it wrong?

[Broke_Audio_Addict]

That's exactly what he is saying because it won't always damage something in every situation.

Still not a good thing though.

[Dreamcatcher013]

That's exactly what he is saying because it won't always damage something in every situation.

Still not a good thing though.

Ok

Would you guys be on my side and say that going for a same wattage amp and sub is the best way or at least the amp is a tad bigger?

cus every time I have seen somebody that have killed their amp or sub, they have an amp that is quite smaller than the sub.

Not often the other way around.

[Jessica]

to clarify, car audio is rarely black and white. There are a lot of factors that contribute to a proper setup.

Yes, it is better to have an amp that is equal or greater in output to the speakers it is hooked to.

You gave good advice, and they should have backed you up by explaining why it is bad to use too small of an amp. But this is the internet and everyone is an expert. I've been wrong more times than i can count so dont worry about who is right or wrong on some facebook group. You will never win an argument unless you are the cool kid, its worse than highschool.