question about RMSes

[dave9382]

I know someone mentioned to me that If I had a sub and was hooking it to an amp that wasnt pushing it enough power I could hurt it.. say a 1000 watt RMS subb to a 200 Watt amp..Does the same hold true for the speakers in the door panels? I just put in 2 new components rated at 100 RMS and 2 new rull ranges at 60 RMS but am just running them off the head unit pushing 17RMS. I dont have to get an amp do I? I dont think I do I think it is different than the subwoofer situation but I just thought Id ask people here...Thanks, David

[binary]

RMS is just a measurement that shows how much power the speaker can handle consistantly. Many companys will say 800watts peak! And then write in tiny letters 25Watt RMS. Always go by the RMS for the actual strength of a speaker.Exceeding the RMS limits on a speaker with a more powerful amp is obviously a good way to fry a speaker when you crank it up. More power than the speaker can handle = dead speaker and/or amp.Underpowering a speaker with a good amp will not harm the speakers because even when cranked to 100% it should produce a clean electrical feed to the speaker. Underpowering a speaker with a cheap amp can damage speakers - if the amp shorts out or distorts at high volume it could still damage the speaker. The electrical signal could be so harsh that it ends up wrecking the speaker or if the amp shorts it could easily surge the speaker with more power and fry it.That being said - I would consider the delco head unit a good setup. I've had mine at 100% and it was clean. As always, your milage may vary! I would consider your setup fine. Just keep in mind - it could be louder if you added an amp. Something for a future project maybe?Also remember to double the dB of your stereo you need to increase the wattage by 10x. So unless you're going for obnoxus amounts of sound - you should be fine for a fairly loud stereo.Filtering frequencies from speakers that can't handle them also helps a great deal. Taking the highs and mids away from subs, and taking the bass from midrange and tweeters will allow your stereo to get even louder - safer.

[HamiltonAudio]

FWIW:RMS stands for Root Mean Square and is simply a way of averaging continuous power output. Speakers are rated for THERMAL POWER HANDLING - if a speaker is rated for 60wrms, it will play happily up to 60 wrms of clean power. Properly crossed over and setup, it will likely take 100 wrms of clean juice all day long.Your component set will work just fine with deck power, but will not be delivering the performance you paid for. If you even put 30 or 40 wrms of clean amplifier power on those components, you'd find they came alive in a big way.I don't know why this UNTRUTH in car audio exists, but underpowering a speaker will NOT BLOW IT UP!!!!! How? If you put 200 wrms on a 1000 wrms sub, ur applying 1/5th its power handling - how does that make sense??Where the issue comes in is when people put 200 wrms on a sub that really needs 600 wrms to shine. To compensate, they overgain, apply bass boosts, eq's, etc. All of these will badly clip the signal - its CLIPPING THAT KILLS THE SUB - NOT THE LACK OF POWER. anyway - leave it to common sense - at ur power level, as long as you do't push the deck into clipping, the speakers will live long, happy lives. Power is your friend bmoney

[dave9382]

ya thats what i thought. im probably gonna get an amp to push about 75W by 4 should be ok for both the 100RMS components and 60RMS full ranges I think

[HamiltonAudio]

It will be plenty sir - get quality power (not $50 ebay stuff) and something with adjustable crossovers on all channels and you'll do just fine!bmoney