Car audio question on a amp?

Car Audio Question-subs, amp, speakers?

• I know very little about car audio to be honest. I'm about to buy an 03 tiburon base so the stereo will be ok, but not great. I was thinking about putting a system in. I was thinking about buying a 12'' pioneer sub, w/ pyle 2-channel amp. My questions are would the stock speakers be able to handle that or should I also look into buying speakers? Also, the sub produces max 1400 watts, which the amp does as well. Is this what I should go by to determine how powerful the bass/sound would be? Or should I look into something like the nominal power, ohms, etc.? Thanks.

• Answer:

  Do not even bother reading 'max' power ratings on amps, subs, and speakers. They are 100% meaningless. The max rating says how much power a speaker can take (or an amp can produce) in a single hit. It CANNOT take this amount of power constantly, it will blow. Considering music is constant, you can see how this figure is useless. The RMS (nominal) figure is a much better representation of the 'average' amount of power a speaker can take. 400w from a speaker is a joke, let alone 1000. Take this for reference - I don't have an amp so my speakers are getting powered from the headunit (about 20w RMS), and it will hurt your ears after a car trip. 70w RMS is a good loud value for your speakers (get an amp to match). try aim for around 400w RMS with the sub and monoblock combo. Any louder than that and you won't be able to hear anything in a couple of weeks, so you'll have wasted your money :)