Very emberassing: Amp and deck wattage relation

[RobMinhas]

Hi guys, I'm sorry to ask this dumb question....I'm actually embarrassed to ask it but the way I'd have to search up the question has not given me very good results....same with the search option here on the forum.

So I received a free 300W Amp and a 300W 12 inch Sub for free and now I'm looking to put them in. There is already wiring done for a 2x100W amp that was "professionally" done and wired that Im' just going to switch over. The problem is, my deck says 200W on it. Nothing more specific then that, it just has 200W written at the top of the deck. My question is, will it work out fine if I use an amp+sub combo with higher Wattage then the deck?

I'm very paranoid with wiring and electronics because even if something looks like it works fine, it might not be, and I also don't want to screw anything up.

Thanks in advance guys.

[SuperK]

the deck has it's own amplifier in it. if you're using an amp you're bypassing the deck's amplifier and can be ignored.

Remember that you really wanna pay attention to the RMS wattage of the AMP, per channel. that will give you a better indication of what kind speakers you are looking for. Some of the cheap amps will advertise a 1500w amp, that only puts out 125 watts rms/bridged. pretty lame.

[RobMinhas]

the deck has it's own amplifier in it. if you're using an amp you're bypassing the deck's amplifier and can be ignored.

Remember that you really wanna pay attention to the RMS wattage of the AMP, per channel. that will give you a better indication of what kind speakers you are looking for. Some of the cheap amps will advertise a 1500w amp, that only puts out 125 watts rms/bridged. pretty lame.

This is the actual amp in question:
http://store.mtx.com/caraudio/archive/m ... xa6001.cfm

I'm just putting one 12 ' speaker in on this AMP because I already have some aftermarket speakers wired through stock wiring up to the deck so i'm pretty sure I'm good here. Thanks for the info!

[SuperK]

the deck has it's own amplifier in it. if you're using an amp you're bypassing the deck's amplifier and can be ignored.

Remember that you really wanna pay attention to the RMS wattage of the AMP, per channel. that will give you a better indication of what kind speakers you are looking for. Some of the cheap amps will advertise a 1500w amp, that only puts out 125 watts rms/bridged. pretty lame.

This is the actual amp in question:
http://store.mtx.com/caraudio/archive/m ... xa6001.cfm

I'm just putting one 12 ' speaker in on this AMP because I already have some aftermarket speakers wired through stock wiring up to the deck so i'm pretty sure I'm good here. Thanks for the info!

You're golden. the deck's 200watts will be completely unrelated to your 300watt sub/amp setup.

[RobMinhas]

The amp is fried Not sure what's wrong with it but once everything is plugged in properly it just heats up and throws sparks around where the speaker cables are supposed to go. The speaker only has a whining sound coming from it. I plugged my amp into the speaker and it worked fine.

[RobMinhas]

Another embarrassing question here: Is it alright if my speaker wattage exceeds my amps? I'm looking at running a 300W Sub with a 200W amp. I'd assume it would be fine but I just want to double check.

[SuperK]

what kind of sub is it? You'll be fine.

[im2bad4ya]

Another embarrassing question here: Is it alright if my speaker wattage exceeds my amps? I'm looking at running a 300W Sub with a 200W amp. I'd assume it would be fine but I just want to double check.

No problem. If you had a amp powering a speaker that's rated lower, it's a different story. You wouldn't want to drive the amp hard or you blow the speaker.

[RobMinhas]

what kind of sub is it? You'll be fine.

It's an MTX sub. I don't remember all of the specific details right now.

Another embarrassing question here: Is it alright if my speaker wattage exceeds my amps? I'm looking at running a 300W Sub with a 200W amp. I'd assume it would be fine but I just want to double check.

No problem. If you had a amp powering a speaker that's rated lower, it's a different story. You wouldn't want to drive the amp hard or you blow the speaker.

I see. Is it possible to blow out an amp by doing something regarding mismatched Wattages?

[im2bad4ya]

I see. Is it possible to blow out an amp by doing something regarding mismatched Wattages?

To be honest, you're making this more complicated than it should be, and I understand the "I'm nervous, just triple checking" but when it comes to speakers and amps, it's not that difficult to figure out. Just take a breather, and honestly, don't sweat it.


You can't blow the amp from normal usage. Amp's tend to "blow" if they get too hot so make sure you mount it so the fans or heat sink of the amp aren't being blocked. People will usually bolt it to the center of the back seat, so it gets fresh air from all directions.

So let's say you have a 300W amp x 200W speaker. you can only drive the amp to put out 200W of the speakers limit. Best way to do this is play something bass heavy. Turn the amp up until the clip light "dances" with the kick pattern of the song. If the clip light stays continually lit, you're driving the amp too hard, you will blow the speaker.

Now let's say you have a 200W amp x 300W speaker. you can drive the amp to the max and the speaker will only put out the rated 200W power of the amp.

Either way, it's never a good idea to max out the amp. I give myself a buffer between 10%-20% from max or less if I can, and whatever extra dB's I need I turn it up on the head unit. Usually newer head units will have a menu for the volume control for the subs only, in the same menu you control bass, mids, treble, etc.


So in all, you CAN blow the speaker by mismatched wattages, not the amp. Since you're only dealing with one sub, no need to sweat impedance (ohms). But if you had to, you can find info on that too, google search.

[Ryan]

In the best scenario(but not harmful if other way around), speaker RMS wattage < amplifier RMS wattage.... has nothing to do with deck wattage.

A more powerful amp is ALWAYS better, you will get better sound quality out of it if its operating in a range that is comfortable for it.

As a bonus, you'll always blow the speaker first, which is 10x less expensive than the amp.

Keep an eye on how you're wiring the speakers in so you don't undershoot the minimum resistance.