Myth Busted! Underpowering

Thanks nouse, I told you not to tell me so !

I actually had fun doing it but really wanted to see that sub explode or burn up. But it just wasn't gonna happen, period. Someone was in the "lab" with me building a custom overhead console and I was deriving particular pleasure in annoying the crap out of him. (As I stated this 15 watts of "raw" power was playing the sub quite a bit louder then expected). But since he required my help he was more or less forced to put up with it. And I was explicit that the experiment was not going to end until something gave, even if it meant running it for weeks at full tilt..lol

Anyhow, additional thanks for the "backup" on tips at work, that was much awaited as I knew you would be familiar with what I was talking about, and you exceeded my expectations. Similar to your signature, we should never under estimate the power of human stupidity.

Have a good one.

Thanks Steven, that was interesting reading. Brought back some recent memories, am I right? No wonder so many of you seemed a bit "perturbed" back during our little "debate". I can see you have been there before.

As far as what Killer experienced, in his defense I also have had "strange" experiences with Alpine subs, but I sell the type R's. They do seem to blow often, even in sealed enclosures, and I can smell the voice coil burn.(I love the smell of resin and gasoline but voice coils STINK). I basically stopped promoting them. The subs are rated pretty high in power handling and I believe the amps I use have fair ratings. I don't know what happened to Alpine but "back in the day" I was doing very well in competitions using thier 8'' subs, they were incredible and indestructable.

I will need to do a little research unless someone knows why these Alpines are toasting so easily. I know some are mentioning JL audio, but I once recieved a free 10w6 and it took me 10 years to destroy it. Those are good subs, I can't see anything but age or extreme overpowering ever damaging one of those.

Good report.  Thanks

Killer, if your speakers blew they were not underpowered.  If you used a 150 watt rated amplifier and drove it into full clipping, it simply put out enough energy to fry the voice coil on the sub.  Simple.  A 150 watt amp could produce as much as 450 or so watts peak in full clip mode.

It is always too much power that kills speakers.  The listed ratings on a particular piece of gear have nothing to do with it.  Proper setup is the key, and/or proper power measurements using an oscilloscope.

Steven, you may have found the hidden factor. Atleast it explains the JBL amp, not the MTX. The deck has 8V pre-outs. if the JBLs couldnt handle that, then that might have been the problem.

I want to thank everyone again. Your patience and knowlegde is what encouraged me to find out for myself, otherwise I would have never given second thought to what I used to believe was fact.

I feel alot more confident now to help others who have the same misconceptions about this topic, as well as debate with plenty of backup. I also feel I can do a better job setting up a system. I was always telling people that they shouldn't use a particular sub because they don't have an amp with enough power. I was fearful it would cause damage and now I know the facts about how to set it up correctly without worrying about "underpowering". I have been converted thanks to many of you.

I think my sub and amp sales/installs will increase as well once I share this knowledge. Just about everyone I work with was convinced that we didn't have amps powerful enough for our subs. I know for a fact that is not the case thanks to everyones input here.