Originally Posted by Nate
but a lot of times underpowering a speaker can damage it worse than overpowering a speaker. B/C underpowering it will sometimes cause distortion, and then there goes your new component set.
The only distortion that comes from underpowering a speaker is when you send the amp into clipping, generating a square wave, and sometimes 2 or 3x the output. If you set your gains right or dont crank the volume, underpowering is not dangerous in the least. I've run my ed12a on a 500/1 for about a year now... 12a is ~1000 wrms... 500/1 sure isnt. If you put a high rms speaker on a lower rms amp, with set gains it should never harm it.