Is Exceeding RMS Safe?

[MrSkippyJ]

THat won't actually change anything. 300 watts/2 speakers is still 150 watts a speaker. and the speakers you said you are using are a component set, are you talking about using the whole set or just the 6.5 woofer? The total power handling for the set is 100 watts, the power handling for each speaker is lower.

I'm using the whole component set, but they wire into an electric XO...the XO only has one input, and it is at 4ohms...so it only has 1 set of wires from the amp...

You should be just fine hooking each set up to it's own channel. It is more power than they are supposed to take, but you can just set the gain lower to compensate. Just be smart with the volume and gain setting and you should have no problems. No need to run more than one set per channel now until you have more speakers.

[UnderLoK]

Gotta set of mid drivers that are rated at 100w RMS. My amp is puttin out 150w RMS at 4ohms, and 300w RMS at 2ohms. Would it be safe to wire it to 2ohms, or hell, even 4ohms?

That rating makes it sound like it's 300 bridged so you need to provide a 4ohm load to each side of the amp. Amps being exactly 1/2 the power and double the ohm load is too convenient.

If I were you would run 1 per channel and be done with it. They will scream.

[fr34kout]

If you have 2 speakers on 1 channel ,and it will be a 2 ohm load ,and at 2 ohms your amp will put out 300 watts.Then each speaker will be getting 150 watts .So weather you use 2 channels at 2 ohms or the 4 channels at 4 ohms,you will still get the same amount of power to each speaker. An amp runs cooler and more efficient at 4 ohms than 2 ohms.Also keep this in mind ,if you have a class a/b amp its probably 60% efficient .So at 100 watts you really are only getting 60 ,and thats probably rated at 14.4 volts ,and your car wont stay at that voltage so that will bring down the power of the amp also.Hope this helps .

That's not how efficiency works. If an amp is 60% efficient and is rated to put out 100 watts @ 4 ohms per channel, it means that 100 watts @ 4 ohms per channel is 60% of the current that it draws. You will get the output out of the amp regardless of the efficiency, however a less efficient amp will have to draw MORE power to make the same power.

Edit: Feel like clarifying with an easy to understand example. Say you have a sub amp rated to do 1000 watts @ 1 ohm, but it is only 50% efficient. That does NOT mean you will only get 500 watts out of the amp. That means the amp has to draw 2000 watts worth of power to send 1000 watts to your sub. The other 1000 watts is basically lost as heat.

Edited January 8, 2011 by fr34kout

[Bakerman]

Zeus Series 4/3/2-Channel Car Amplifier

RMS Power Handling @ 4 Ohms: 150 watts x 4

RMS Power Handling @ 2 Ohms: 300 watts x 4

Bridged Power Handling @ 4 Ohms: 600 watts x 2

EDIT:

And it comes with a bass knob...so if its distorting at 300w, it should be safe to turn it down with the knob right?

Edited January 8, 2011 by BakermanINC

[Bakerman]

If you have 2 speakers on 1 channel ,and it will be a 2 ohm load ,and at 2 ohms your amp will put out 300 watts.Then each speaker will be getting 150 watts .So weather you use 2 channels at 2 ohms or the 4 channels at 4 ohms,you will still get the same amount of power to each speaker. An amp runs cooler and more efficient at 4 ohms than 2 ohms.Also keep this in mind ,if you have a class a/b amp its probably 60% efficient .So at 100 watts you really are only getting 60 ,and thats probably rated at 14.4 volts ,and your car wont stay at that voltage so that will bring down the power of the amp also.Hope this helps .

That's not how efficiency works. If an amp is 60% efficient and is rated to put out 100 watts @ 4 ohms per channel, it means that 100 watts @ 4 ohms per channel is 60% of the current that it draws. You will get the output out of the amp regardless of the efficiency, however a less efficient amp will have to draw MORE power to make the same power.

Edit: Feel like clarifying with an easy to understand example. Say you have a sub amp rated to do 1000 watts @ 1 ohm, but it is only 50% efficient. That does NOT mean you will only get 500 watts out of the amp. That means the amp has to draw 2000 watts worth of power to send 1000 watts to your sub. The other 1000 watts is basically lost as heat.

Im glad u clarified that...i been thinking it backwards all this time...

[fr34kout]

And for the OP, as long as you are sending your speakers CLEAN power and don't push them too hard, they should be able to handle more than RMS. The question is how much more than RMS, that's the hard part. Me personally I'm running Image Dynamics XS 6.5" comps in my front doors. My SAX 100.4 is bridged to each speaker, so each mid + tweeter combo is seeing around 300 watts when the RMS is 125. I've blown 2 sets of these speakers though. The first set was my fault, the HPF on my deck didn't get turned back on so they were playing full range and blew on the drive home. My second set was Oscoped with a -6db test tone @ 1khz and blew the same day. I'm on my 3rd set, I turned down my gains about 1/8th of a turn and play my deck at 35/40 instead of 38/40 now. No problems for about 6 months.