Will an amp with a lower power rating than the speakers burn itself out?

Question

I'm talking significantly less power than the speakers.... Say for example my amp puts out 15watts RMS per channel and the speakers are rated at 100-150 watts rms. Would the amp just under power them, or would the amp burn itself up trying to power the speakers?

Answer 1

No. Your amp will not burn out. An amp rating is the output power it will deliver, while the speaker rating is the power it will absorb. In your case, the speaker will absorb less power so what you are thinking will not happen. The speaker will burn out if the amp rating is larger than the speaker rating.

What you should be concern is the large difference in power rating. Your system efficiency is low. The speaker will not give its design music output. You will notice this when playing music. The sound will be distorted as you turn the volume high.

Answer 2

You are basically correct, it can cause damage.

Using an underpowered amp is more damaging than an overpowered one, and may result in 'clipping' where the amp runs of of steam trying to drive the speakers, click on the guide in the attached link.

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/...

Answer 3

the amp would just under power the speakers, but if the amp is only 15rms  i wouldnt even put it on, your head unit puts out that at least.

Answer 4

The best method is to more closely match the speakers max output to the amp with the speaker side having a heavier wattage rating.

You never want to send heavy amounts of distortion to Any speaker. So you will need to monitor that closely. But who knows if the ratings are on the same scale or not. These can be fudged by the manufacture easily.

Be that as it may, if you want a expert definitive answer from qualified persons you need to include the EXACT model and manufacture to said EXPERT.

Answer 5

"isitme" is right - don't worry about the amp, worry about your speakers.

If you don't push the amp into distortion, you will be ok.  If you like it loud, and you are constantly hearing distortion out of your speakers, then you may damage your speakers even with a 15 watt amp.  Distortion is what blows speakers.

Answer 6

No...

If you pour  2 gallons into a 100 gallon tank, the 2 gallons won't break the tank...

It should be fine.