I'm going to be picking up a couple of 10 or 12" brahmas in september. I have 2 questions. First off, my current amp puts out 500 watts at 4 ohms, with that in mind, should i run sealed or ported...and how much air space? and if ported, what should i tune the box to? in a year or so i plan on getting the USAmps USA-3000 which will give each brahma 1500 watts. i was talking to a guy the other day and he said that the brahmas only handle 1600wrms at certain frequencies near the tuning frequency...is that true? should i just get an amp that gives them 1000 watts each? thanks for your help -Cody
Cody, Good to see you back my friend. Mine sees 1700 watts daily. Not for the feint of heart I assure you. I have had them sealed and ported with this power and never had an issue. Their powerhandleing, like all drivers, is subject to install. As a general rule, I reccomend 800-1200 watts (your thought on 1000 apiece sits pretty in the middle there) per. They really don't need that much, but it seems everyone wants a beefy number to throw at thier friends. The motor topology really offers great motor strength throughout excursion, so we don't see them getting weaker at greater excursion with less power that is common with almost every other driver. This makes them tremendously efficient for their enclosure size, and extremely versitile.
Thanks Seth. The guy I was talking to said he wasn't too happy with his brahmas (the first generation) because he had to send them back twice to get reconed. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to have a similar problem from putting so much power to them. What about the recommendations for a box with 550 watts? I'll definetely be hitting you up for a couple of 10s in late August/early September. B) -Cody
