Sub Purchase Advice Needed

[matt09]

Some people may remember my post asking if anyone has an Ascendant Audio Avalanche 15 Subwoofer. I have now found someone willing to sell one, however the person ran the sub at 1000 watts for one month, the info below

he ran the woofer at one ohm on an elemental designs nine.1. thats 1100 watts rms at the most to a dual 2 woofer that is 800 watts RMS underated. no damage would be done to the woofer in that situation unless he clipped the amp, which i know wasnt done because it belonged to my best friend and i did the install.

Is anyone able to assure me that the speaker will not be damaged as my knowledge is limited and I am naturally paranoid in buying a sub rated at 800w which has had 1000 fed in.

I would appreaciate any replys.

Thanks.

[Cal Weldon]

When you get right down to it, you're better off having an amp that's bigger than the woofer can handle. It's a common recommendation in PA drivers and the reason is rather simple. It's still up to you to make sure you don't overdrive the woofer anyway and by using an amp that's clean past the drivers' rated power, you won't run the amp into clipping.

[geoffstgermaine]

No one can assure you that the speaker isn't damaged other than the seller. However, there is no reason to think that an 800W driver is damaged just because it was powered by an amp rated at 1100W. There's a couple of reasons for this. The driver is rated at 800W rms which means it can handle a constant power of 800W, applied all the time. Once you increase it to say, 900W it can handle the power without damage for a shorter period of time. Also, it is unlikely for a subwoofer to be receiving a high amount of power, even 800W for an extended period of time. Music and movies are dynamic and IME, people are often shocked at how much volume is produced by even 1 W of power. The point it, it is unlikely that the driver was employed receiving an 800W signal for extended periods of time. Additionally, the driver can handle a higher peak power, that is a power that is applied for a very short period of time. It isn't uncommon for the peak power handling to be 3 or 4 times the rms power rating and I would assume that this driver can handle more than 2000W peak. I imagine that the peak power is related to the mechanical limits of the driver while the rms power rating is related to the thermal limits of the voice coil. I would assume that 800W signifies where the voice coil will come into thermal equilibrium at a temperature that is near the limit of it's operating range. 900W would eventually damage the voice coil if the 800W rating is accurate.

Like Cal says, it's not uncommon to have an amplifier that can provide more power than the driver can handle. It is up to the operator not to be stupid with it.

[matt09]

Thanks very much for your detailed post I understand all of what you say except for the fact that it will not be driven at high wattage alot of the time. Because it was used in a car, I presume bass music would have been played meaning the sub would have been driven throughout at high wattage. I realise that there is a peak power rating for which speakers can survive but if the gains were set high on the amp then it could have frequently been sujected to it's wattage limits. Lastly, I know how amps don't normally push out their stated wattage, do you recon that although rated 1100 watt it would only even push out around 900 max?