if i hook up my 1400 watt speaker to a 200 watt amp, will my speaker blow? please help?

Question

if i hook up my 1400 watt speaker to a 200 watt amp, will my speaker blow? does anyone know what will happen and maybe why? please help.

Answer 1

toss the 200 watt amp in the trash can, or use it to power your door speakers or something.

That 200 watt amp is most likely only pushing 100 watts rms, and that is pitiful for a sub.

If you hook the emp up to the car, you will try to get the most out of your amp. The sound quality will be nill...the amp wont last long and will overheat quickly......and you will be totally wasting the 1400 watt subwoofer.

Answer 2

If both ratings are in RMS watts, or Peak watts, than there is most likely no way you could blow the subs, even if you ran the amp in hard clipping.

If the amp is a 200w rms amp and the subs are 1400 watts peak, than you might be able to blow them with hard clipping.

Basically if you are not an idiot with your gain control, and don't play your bass all distorted, It will be fine.

If you'd prefer to be an idiot with your gain control, than playing the amp at a hard clip will eventually either overheat / burn up the amp, or if your speakers can't handle more than about 4x the rated output of the amp, one of your speakers could possibly overheat first.

The moral of the story is that small amps don't burn out subs, idiots behind the gain control do. If you can't tell clean bass from distorted bass, than you should trade in your "hi fi" system for a full range speaker with a whizzer cone.

P.S. Kicker is asuming an idiot behind the gain control. Test the theory, take 2 subs, underpower one and turn the gain all the way up so it sounds like crap. Overpower the other one, and just to be sure, the head unit needs to be set to the same level, and the gain all the way up on the big amp. Bet you the sub lasts less than 10 minutes. If it's a cheap sub, it will probably last less than 5. Clipping kills subs, not under powering.

Answer 3

As long as the resistance of the speakers is not too low relative to the output rating of the amp you should be OK, given that you do not push your amplifier into distortion. The speakers may not reach their full potential but that should not damage them. If your ratings were reversed, I'd worry about the potential for blown speakers.
Typical amps want speakers in the 4 to 8 ohms range. Lower resistance (impedance) numbers on the speakers demand more power from the amp.

Answer 4

No, I have a 100 watt amp pushing 2 300 watt subs at full gain and it sounds fine. Of course if you push any electronic device to the max it will have a propensity to break, go for it, just don't go too crazy on the amplifiers gain setting.

Answer 5

It will be fine just as long as you don't crank the gain.

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Answer 6

No it will not blow ... do not turn the gain all the way up the distortion level will suck! ... you will be under powering the sub but as long as you don't blast it with the gain all the way up you'll be fine.

No worries!

Answer 7

not only will the speakers not be pushed to their full potential it is very harmful tho the speakers to under-power them by that much. Kicker Audio's website states tha under-powering a sub or speaker is worse for it than over-powering it.

Answer 8

it won't. U only suffer from under power and the speakers potential won't be explored to maximum. That's all. :)

Answer 9

no the amp will over heat trying to push the sub