Underpowering sub, is it bad?
 

Hey everyone,

So I've got a Pioneer Champion series 12" sub that has dual 2 ohm voice coils (so either 1 or 4 ohms right?). The RMS rating for the sub is 1000 watts and I've got an amp from my previous truck (a Clarion DPX1800) that can do 800 watts RMS at 1 ohm. Is that close enough to the RMS rating of the sub that it will sound good? And will being close, but not quite hurt the sub at all? I ask because it would save me some dough to use the amp I've got instead of getting a new one that can do 1000 watts RMS, as those can be kinda pricey. I don't want to damage anything for the sake of saving a few dollars though. Thanks!

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It can hurt your sub if you try to overdrive it with the limited power that you have to offer. The voice coils can get incredibly hot with larger distortion ratios that can be put out. That's what causes breakdown. Heat is not your friend.
To avoid this, tune your amp appropriately.

Also it does depend on the enclosure as well. If you have a fairly large ported enclosure then 800 watts will be fine. If you are running a small sealed box then you may need more power to effectively power that baby.

If set up right you'll be perfectly fine. Power handling rating is the max not the nominal rating of a sub.