Amp power to Speaker power?

[squirrel]

I just need some clarification on how the wattage between amps and speakers works.

ie If I have 4 speakers in the car which are 40W RMS then what power of Amp do I get? Does the RMS wattage of the amp need to be less than that of the speaker? or the same, or more?

I am looking at 4 channel amps with 4 x 50W RMS, is this too much for the speakers?

Hope you can help.

[S11EPS]

You should aim to roughly match RMS figures of amps and speakers.

Therefore, if you have speakers that quote power of 40wRMS then your amplifier should be a minimum of this amount.

But going for a more powrerful amplifier initially, your system has a bit of 'headroom' allowing you to run your amplifier at less than full chat (which will give anicer sound) and will also give you upgrade options to your speakers, without the need to upgrade your amplifier.

[squirrel]

Thanks for the advice!

Is there an upper limit to the amp power then?

[Dizzie]

get a amp that's more powerfull than your speakers and turn the gain right down. you won't damage your speakers then and the sound won't clip like a smaller amp would. I was once told this in this example.

Drive a mini 100 miles at 100mph and it'd do 100mph for about 10 minutes and then blow up. Drive a ferrari 100miles at 100mph and it wouldn't bat an eyelid! Same with amps and speakers. More power down turned down. ie, bigger engine running slower than flat out.

I had 40w RMS speakers in the front and they ran great at about half gain with 55w RMS through them. I bridged my 4ch amp to 2 channels, but even when the amp right down the speakers couldn't take it. maybe 110w RMS was a bit much.

Your headunit should run about 75% of it's volume range flat out. So my kenwood has 0-35 range. max volume should be 27 ish. That's what i was told. above that and the sound quality suffers.

[squirrel]

Thanks for the help, its really useful asking these questions.

I have decided on the setup I want, would anyone be able to check it over and make sure its ok before I buy the rest?

Head Unit - Sony CDX R6559 - already bought
2 x Infinity Reference 6402cf 6 x 4 @ 40W RMS - already bought
2 x Infinity Reference 4002i 10cm @ 35W RMS - already bought
1 x Infinity Reference 1030W 10" Sub @ 250 RMS, or Sony XS-L101P5S @ 300W RMS - not bought yet
1 x Sony XM-504Z 4 channel amp @ 4 x 50W RMS - not bought yet
1 x JBL GTO-75.2 2 channel amp @ 1 x 260W RMS - not bought yet

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[dj g]

what about a 1600 sub what amp should i use i also would run 300w 4x6's