I'll let you audio experts fight this out

[grandwazoo]

Been working on my stereo upgrade, and in doing so have gotten some advice here and also friends and at the audio store.

Several times I have received the warning that having too small of an amp can damage your subwoofers. I've asked them how to explain why, and never got a reason I could buy. My argument was that a volume knob is an attenuator which reduces output wattage, and if a small amp blows speakers that would mean that unless you listen to your amp at full blast all the time, you will blow your speakers.

So I looked around a bit and found a pretty good site with this page:
http://www.bcae1.com/2ltlpwr.htm

What's the concensus?

 

[BlackBeauty]

If someone spends money on amps, speakers, power wiring, install, etc, then they expect performance. When the amp does not put out enough power, that person will still want performance, and will turn the gain and bass boost up to max. And they will also turn up the volume louder. Louder to the point where the sound is distorted, but hey, at least it's louder now! The distortion is bad, and so is clipping. Prob. the best explanation is the part about clipping on the link you provided.

 

[6APPEAL]

Power does not kill speakers, distoration/clipping kills speakers. I can't think of a single system I've built over the past 10 years that the owner has killed any speakers. Every system has had more rated power from that amps than the speakers were rated for. The system in my truck is a prime example. The sub is rated for 220 watts and the sub amp has been power tested to 450 watts.

 

[SilverSleeper]

Nice website there. Lots of good info.
There is nothing wrong with a small amp. Ideally, you want to match your speakers and amps. What hasnt been mentioned here yet, is input voltage and properly matching your gain to your input voltage. You can overdrive an amp with too much input gain. Many people set up their system using gain controls as a volume knob. If low is loud, then just turn it up and it will be louder, right?
McIntosh has this feature called powerguard. It actually compares the input wave to the output wave, and if clipping is seen, it will automatically reduce the input gain. It is totally transparent, and you cannot even hear it.
My point is, that if you do have a small amp, you cant just turn up the gain on it to compensate for the low power. I think that people that set up their own systems will do that without realizing what can happen. You are better off getting a more powerful amp, and reducing your input gain to achieve the same volume levels.

And yes, power can kill speakers. As stated on that website, speakers can be pushed past their thermal power handling limits. I have seen 4 subs that have had the coils melted. This does not happen as a result of clipping, but the inability of the coil to disperse the heat generated.