Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio 380watts to a 250 peak ok??

It is not underpowering the speaker that "blows" it, it is either sending too much power to the driver, or sending a clipped signal (for an extended period of time) to a driver that will cause failure. Ususally, though, if one has an amp with too little rated power, they end up trying to push more out of the amp than can be done cleanly, thus sending a square wave to the sub. Correct ME if I'M wrong.

ummm yeah, I didn't mean to make you guys get all pissy with eachother. LoCo, the speaker is rated at 4ohm and the amp bridged at 4ohm is rated at 380watts so I'm just kind of waiting for a unanimous decision on if I should buy the kenwood amp or not.

Clipping causes an amp to put out up to 2x its rated power, which leads to overpowering, which leads to exceeding mechanical and thermal limits.

You could run a 100w amp fully clipped to a 300w sub forever with no damage.

Underpowering will never blow a speaker. User error, not adjusting the power according to the box being used, not setting gains correctly, etc will all blow speakers, but in the end, all of them will be caused by exceeding mechanical and thermal limits.