I recently got the following setup installed:

-1 12" Kicker CVR = 400 W RMS
-Exile X600.2 amp http://www.exilecaraudio.com/2007/pr.../?model=x600.2

I have Alpine cda-9886 HU, and i was wondering, if the overpowering by the amp can do any harm and how ?? Secondly, the amp had to be screwed on top of the box (after figuring all options), so any suggestions of other possible places to place the amp as i am trying to avoid putting the sub there !!

Forgot to check with the guys about the bridge and the ohms concept, can someone briefly explain the relation between them !! And How does the gain on the amp actually work !!

 

1. What voice coils do you have on the sub. if you have dual 2-ohm vc's, you're fine bridging the amp, if it's hooked up right. check out places like the12volt.com for wiring options/diagrams. now, if you have dual 4-ohm voice coils, you should be able to hook one channel of each amp to each voice coil. this should send 150 rms to each voice coil, when they should be able to take 200.

2. as for overpowering the sub, you're fine as long as you watch your gain setting (read keep it down).

3. the gain knob adjusts how sensitive the amp is to an input signal.

 

Also if you are gonna use a ported box instead of a sealed you want want to run less than 400W to the sub as they are easier to damage with no air trapped in the box to cushion the sub when it returns from it's excursion. And overpowering is fine as long as you turn the gain down like matt said, underpowering is what kills subs way more
good luck and post more info of your sub so we can help you out with wiring etc...

 

thnx 4 the answers guys, well the sub stopped bumping alltogether for some weird reason, so the guy at the shop replaced the exile amp for mtx tc-2002 amp. now the amp is just running 200 rms at 4 ohms. it pounds way louder but now the sub is being underpowered, which according to the guy is not tht much of difference !! pls advise !!

 

it's actually worse on a sub to underpower it compared to overpowering it... i know it sounds kinda weird, but you should definitely look into a bigger amp... since your amp is running bridged at 4 ohms, your sub is a dual 2-ohm voice coil. you should definitely look into an amp pushing around 400-500. A rockford fosgate 400.2 or 450.2 bridged would work well, along with a whole host of 400rms monoblock amps... I have a 450.2 I'm thinking about selling... if interested pm me

 

thats whats up

 

^^matt is right, maxing out amps will usually cause "clipping" of the audio signal going to the sub. sending a clipped signal to a sub is very harmfull to it, and will damage it faster than anything. also the amp you are running is a class AB amp, which is not commonly used for subs, they are reliable and have lower distortion, but run pretty hot(usually used to power your regular mids and tweets). But you should be using either a D class(very high efficiency, produce less heat, draw less current, more distortion but at higher frequencies that your sub wouldn't play anyways) or a class BD(about the same efficiency as the class d amp with the sound quality of a class B amp)

but basically just get a higher powered amp, as even a modestly priced one will be better than running that amp all out and making only half the power that the sub needs