Got a noob audio setup question.

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Old 02-13-2014, 10:56 AM
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Got a noob audio setup question.

Hello all, I was wondering if its better to have more watts at the amp than what the speakers are rated for? I am going to buy a used amp from a friend the amp outputs 60rms per and my speakers are rated at 55rms and 30 rms.
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Old 02-13-2014, 11:07 AM
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No it's not a good idea.
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Old 02-13-2014, 11:15 AM
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Originally Posted by OneManArmy
No it's not a good idea.
Oh so having the built in receiver 22rms is better than driving it with 60rms? I tried googleing it couldn't find much.
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Old 02-13-2014, 11:16 AM
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Originally Posted by ikearu
Hello all, I was wondering if its better to have more watts at the amp than what the speakers are rated for? I am going to buy a used amp from a friend the amp outputs 60rms per and my speakers are rated at 55rms and 30 rms.
No, not a good idea at all.
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Old 02-13-2014, 11:17 AM
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Thanks people thats what I thought. Don't wanna blow my speakers up.
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Old 02-14-2014, 11:10 PM
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Old 02-14-2014, 11:23 PM
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Not unless you have high end stuff.
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Old 02-14-2014, 11:40 PM
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Originally Posted by ikearu
Hello all, I was wondering if its better to have more watts at the amp than what the speakers are rated for? I am going to buy a used amp from a friend the amp outputs 60rms per and my speakers are rated at 55rms and 30 rms.
I know a good bit about sound systems, and I'll tell you what, your question is confusing to me... If the amp your using is an off brand POS, then you will be fine if the amp says some bull...about 3000watts... If it's an alpine amp and it's rated for 1000watts rms, than that's a powerful amp for some subs or door speakers..

It comes down to how good the door speakers are at the end of the day. Make sure you have a good wiring job, and a comparable deck and you should be ready to go.

This is not a professional opinion as I'm not an audio expert. But someone who has spend plenty of money on wasted speakers and stuff..

FYI this is all based off your original post. I don't feel like reading the later dated posts because I don't care very much. Pm me with any other questions.
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Old 02-15-2014, 01:46 AM
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^^^ agreed. I'm a big audio junkie and push my speakers all the time.

The high end stuff is underated. They do that for competition wise. I have a sundown sa-12 600 rms and push 900-1k watt daily on a fosgate 1500d. Mb quartz components speakers 55 rms pushing 75 watts.

You just have to watch your gains and put in high pass filter (hpf) on your amp and control your head unit settings.
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Old 02-15-2014, 07:47 AM
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Distortion kills speakers, not power. Don't be stupid and play your stereo so loud that it sounds like crap and you'll be fine.
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Old 02-15-2014, 04:30 PM
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Originally Posted by jdblock
Distortion kills speakers, not power. Don't be stupid and play your stereo so loud that it sounds like crap and you'll be fine.
Sort of. If you feed a speaker with unclipped wattage above its rating, it will still fry most likely, though it is FAR more likely to be damaged by too little power. When an amp starts to clip, it tries to draw more and more current to reproduce the signal correctly and at some point it can't deliver any more than it is physically capable of. That spikes the output and actually sends too much power to the speaker causing the drivers to heat up and die.

When you use a more powerful amp, you really aren't using 100% of the actual output 100% of the time, so having more power than the speaker is rated for is rarely an issue.
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Old 02-15-2014, 07:45 PM
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It's actually better to buy an amp that's a little over powered and run it at less than max gain, so that you aren't maxing out the amp 100% of the time that you use it.

Or you can just buy the accommodating amp for the power level you need. My front separates run 100 watts RMS each and I just bought an amp that will do 100 watts x2 @ 4ohms. Perfect!
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Old 02-16-2014, 08:54 PM
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My amp pushes +/-1000 watts at 1 ohm. My alpine type r 12 is wired in @ 2ohms. All is well.
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Old 02-17-2014, 02:15 AM
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Just installed said speaker amp tonight to replace one on its way out. Oh dear god.

If you have the extra money, install an audio processor. I run an Audison bit 10 and it just completed my entire system. I was having some issues reaching low-mids with my setup (Alpine type x pro separates a set of of DD 12's) and the bit 10 really grabbed exactly what I was missing. I also relocated my tweeters to my dash and put a solid amp on the speakers. It's simply incredible. Of course the whole car is sound deadened which helps immensely too, but this just really pulled everything together.
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Old 02-17-2014, 09:08 AM
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Originally Posted by pigboat_2
Just installed said speaker amp tonight to replace one on its way out. Oh dear god.

If you have the extra money, install an audio processor. I run an Audison bit 10 and it just completed my entire system. I was having some issues reaching low-mids with my setup (Alpine type x pro separates a set of of DD 12's) and the bit 10 really grabbed exactly what I was missing. I also relocated my tweeters to my dash and put a solid amp on the speakers. It's simply incredible. Of course the whole car is sound deadened which helps immensely too, but this just really pulled everything together.
I need to sound deaden my entire car. One of these days u need to help me make it a sound beast.
My sub sounds great but the stock door speakers have bass only when the subs not on.
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