controlling amp power

[kronos98]

i've got a 300W rms amp (US Acoustics 2100) to power 2 infinity reference 1020w (250w RMS) subs. how do I control the power coming from the amps so they don't blow my subs?

[prophesized]

keep the gain low. do you have one amp for both subs or one amp for each sub.

[kronos98]

the sub has a bridged output at 300W, so i'm going to be powering both subs with it. is there anything else i can do?

also, will 300 watts kill my subs? they say they have a peak power rating of 1000W, but what the heck does that tell you? how much room do i have over 250 watts?

[prophesized]

i assume you mean your amp has a bridged output of 300 watts, right? you would only be giving 150 watts to each sub so you dont have to worry about blowing them.

[kronos98]

i have the subs (4 ohms each) hooked up in parallel, which would mean that the amp is running at 2 ohms and 300 watts.

should i be hooking them up in series?

maybe i should have just gotten a smaller amp.

yeah, so i've got the amp gain turned almost all the way down. can i still blow the subs? they're hitting really hard, harder than i would have expected. on my head unit, i have the bass set to 3. i tried 5, but it shakes the whole car violently.

what's going on? i mean, i have no problem with the subs being AWESOME! i'm just really afraid i'm going to lose my babies!

[prophesized]

ok if you amp is only putting out 300 watts then each sub is getting 150 which is 100 less than their rms. even if you clipped the hell out of the amp you probably wouldnt blow the subs.

smaller amp? if anything, you should have gotten a bigger amp.

[Gunman]

[kronos98]

ok. so what you're saying is that if i have the subs hooked up in parallel, each sub will STILL just get 150 watts? that's odd, because i thought that if you ran the subs in series, that's what would happen.

when two 4-ohm subs are hooked up in parallel, then the subs are effectively providing 2-ohms of resistance. if two 4-ohm subs are hooked up in series, then they provide 8-ohms of resistance.

this is basic physics. P=IV. power is equal to the current times the voltage. ok, i think i just answered my own question.

sorry, i'm an absolute idiot. because there are 2 subs, the current flow gets cut in half, meaning the voltage stays the same, but the wattage drops. i was just a little confused.

so there is no way in hell i can blow these subs with this amp. it's hard to imagine that the system sounds so good underpowered.

thanks a lot for you help, guys

[ZXLNT]

So how are the hooked up now? In series with the amp bridged or just in stereo. In series with the amp bridged would probably be best way. Pretty lucky you didn't blow the amp with a 2ohm load with your amp bridged. Most amps dont handle a 2 ohm load bridged very well.. Ones that do cost lots of $$$$$$