“You need an amp that will match up in terms of handling power. You don't want a amp that's more powerful than the speakers so you don't blow the speakers”
That is the most inaccurate and wrong Statement I’ve heard in years. That shows a serious lack of understand of audio knowledge. Oh Boy
Yep, If a speaker is rated at 1000 watts, you need a minimum of 1000 watts. and some manufactures recommend up to twice or even 3 times the power rating of the speaker. EV recommends my MTL1-x subs rated at 1200 watts use an amp rates at 2400 or 3600 watts to power them properly. But with that much power at hand, you need discipline and not over power them.
Think of it this way. A VW bug will go 100 mph but it is maxed out and can't go any faster. A Porch 911 can do 100 mph and it's still just idling along and the motor has plenty of power to go faster with ease.
If you power a 1000 watt speaker with a 1000 watt amp and push it to just below clipping, it has no head room for the peak signals so they hit the limiter and the nice round sign wave becomes squared off causing clipping. It's the square wave that clips and blows the speakers.
If you drive a 1000 watt speaker with a 2000 watt amp, and you push it to 1000 watts, you still have another 1000 watts in reserve before it starts to clip, so those peaks can be played effortlessly with no clipping keeping the speaker safe from the square wave that destroys speakers.
But this is where discipline comes in, it will sound clean pushing a 1000 watt speaker with a 2000 watt amp will sound clean with no distortion and it makes it hard not to keep pushing it harder.
Most people are use to when a speaker amp combo is matched they push it till distortion starts to be audible and they know it's maxed out, But this leaves no room for peak signals to be played without going over the clip limit. With twice the power you can push the speaker to a 1000 watts and it will sound clean and have room for peak signal to be played long before it come anywhere near clipping, so even the peaks sound clean because your still not clipping the amp.
But this only apply's if you push a system to the max. If your only running the rig at half power then you still have some head room left for peak signals to be played cleanly. But if you push your system to the max, it's best to double the amp power so you have some head room left to work with.
Clipping means your smooth sign wave is squaring off. and changing the DC power to AC and thats what blows speakers.
You can blow a 1000 watt speaker with a 300 watt amp if you let it clip all the time.
