Can my amp damage my subs?

i have a rockford fosgate 200/2 amp. not 100 percent sure on the specs. didnt get it that long ago. but i have 2 12'' kicker comps in a ported box. ive heard from alot of people that it could damage my woofers, but then from some that it cant?

someone help me out.

Yes u can damage your subs if u don't have enuff power just hook one up

depends on what that amp can put out. kicker comps are 4 ohm 150 watt rms. im pretty sure i blew mine. just dont crank the amp all the way up.

whats the rms on the subs?

match the ohms on subs to ohms of amp.

The RMS watts on the amp (per channel) should match the RMS rating of the sub that is on each channel.

Over powering and under powering lead to shitty performance and poor sound. 8 out of 10 kids will ever be able to tell though.

i honestly dont know what the rms on my subs are. i bought them for 200 bucks. with a 200/2 rockford fosgate amp.

This thread is full of weak advice.

Ohms are important. If the sub is a 4ohm, you'll be fine on just about any amp.

All Cars amps and Subs used to be 4ohm, a lot of new ones are going to 2ohm, but not all. Some subs are 2ohm rated, most are still 4ohm (For example the Alpine catalog is full of subs rated at each Ohm). You can run a 4ohm sub just fine on a 2ohm rated amp. You won't damage anything at all, just your overall DB will be less because it takes more power to push through the sub. That's why everybody went to 2ohm in the very place, to push more power through the subs. In fact some Amps are 1ohm stable. These are usually mono bass amps.

But if your amp is rated at 4ohm, and you run a 2ohm sub (or more likely 4ohm subs in Parallel to make 2ohm), and certainly the amp will be running very hot and probably not last very long.

The RMS rating of the subs are not dramatically important as long as the signal is clean, you can run the at a lot higher then they are rated for. But that's were it gets tricky. It's not just the signal noise rating of the amplifier. It's everything from the wires you ran, how you ran them, and how pushed to the edge everything is. Head unit cranked, and amp gain maxxed, and there will be a lot of noise introduced, the subs won't endure this for very long.

Don't stress your wattage levels, just make sure the subs aren't 2ohm if the amp can't handle it. Run some nice wires, good RCA's, keep the amp set up in Stereo and run 1 sub a channel, you'll be sound as a pound. Almost all Fosgate amps can handle 2ohm when running 100x2, but if you bridge it down to run mono 200x1, it's likely only 4ohm stable. So if you tied the subs together and made them 2ohm, you are going to hurt the amp. I'd be surprised to find any sub on the market that can't take 100w continuous.

If your not sure the amp specs, look up the model number on the interwebz.

he doesnt even know what his subs are.

I think youre information is too complicated.

12" kicker comps only have 150rms. 300 watts. 4 ohm. junk.

i remember I used to only have a 10 inch 300W RMS pioneer sub and it was great.

Heretic wrote:

This thread is full of weak advice.

+1

The concept of blowing a woofer by under powering it is ridiculous, anybody that thinks it's possible should at least try to get a rough understanding of how speakers work. Provided that your gains are set correctly (and thus giving clean power), your subs will be fine, just not as loud as they could be.

The way you could possibly put strain on your subs is by trying to compensate for a smaller amp by cranking up the gain or using bass boost which can give off a clipped signal (aka distortion). This can make the voice coil get hot due to it getting more power than it's RMS rating (thermal power rating most of the time), usually causing it to cook itself.

This is a really dumbed down version of what's actually happening, if you want to know more look up thermal power rating or clipping. But in short, no you can't fry a sub from having too little power.

barker wrote:

Heretic wrote:

This thread is full of weak advice.

+1

The concept of blowing a woofer by under powering it is ridiculous, anybody that thinks it's possible should at least try to get a rough understanding of how speakers work. Provided that your gains are set correctly (and thus giving clean power), your subs will be fine, just not as loud as they could be.

The way you could possibly put strain on your subs is by trying to compensate for a smaller amp by cranking up the gain or using bass boost which can give off a clipped signal (aka distortion). This can make the voice coil get hot due to it getting more power than it's RMS rating (thermal power rating most of the time), usually causing it to cook itself.

This is a really dumbed down version of what's actually happening, if you want to know more look up thermal power rating or clipping. But in short, no you can't fry a sub from having too little power.

boom nailed it, a small amp can wreck subs by clipping and cooking coils, if your gains are not set right, which i can almost promise they are not since your amp is underpowered for your subs so you prolly have the gains and freq cranked to compensate.

either turn the gains and freq to a reasonable level and accept the performance the amp puts out or buy a better and bigger amp

also from my experience when I use to sell kicker, those subs can handle a CLEAN 250 watts each all day and survive, assuming they aren't hammered when cold because they use a formed foam surround and not a rubber one.