Front Stage -vs- Rear Stage

[sodfamily]

Is there a rule of thumb or anything out there that says if you have X watts on your sub (rear) you should have at least X watts up front to balance it out. I hope this isn't a stupid question, but it has been bothering me for some time. A couple of local shops say it dose not matter. But to me it seems that if you have 2000watts on the subs and would think you want decent power up front so they are not being drowned out.

[Ray]

power is irrelevant, efficiency ill play the role there along with displacement of the drivers.

for instance I have 2400rms on my subs 2 12's and have only front stage 6" 4" and tweet running 160rms per side, and mine sounds very balanced.

[raytard]

i, on the other hand, have 1500rms to subs and 600rms to front stage (2 sets of components), it sounds great

used to be 1200rms to 2 sets of components, a coax, and 4 super horn tweeters, which sounded pretty darn good as well,, but it was more screaming highs and less SQ

obviously if you have nuts power to subs you need something up front to balance it, just work and see what you can get away with. hell, 4 4in rockford power coax off of deck power kept up with 1200watts of subs halfway decently in my car, but 600 watts and 2 sets of components is sooooooo much better

[sodfamily]

Thanks guys that helps me out. I wanted to do either a Sundown 100.4D or a RF T400.4 and either one would be pushing a pair of MB Quartz RVF210 and a set of MB Quartz 164 add a sub for a three way setup...

[creyc]

This is an impossibly complex question to answer. Here are a few reasons why.

Musical "tastes". What sounds good to you? I doubt most bassheads would be satisfied with a "flat" response as measure by an RTA.

Speaker type, quantity, and system efficiency. 2-way mids and highs? 3-way? Passive, active?

Crossover points and subsonic will play a HUGE role. Some subwoofer setups are setup to play from 80Hz down. Some from 50 and down..likewise with the midbass. Where do they pick up?

Ultimately it will be something you'll need to experiment with and find out for yourself. Worst case scenario, just buy more power than you need and adjust till it suits your tastes. I personally enjoy retaining my near perfect hearing, so I don't even TRY to match my mids and highs with the bass.