i have a kenwood radio deck. and a 10" pioneer subwoofer. is a 300w jvc amp big enough to make it hit hard?

No way to answer that without knowing the power rating of your sub. Power handling is determined by the size of the coil windings, not the size of the sub. I have 350 against a sub rated for 400, it pounds plenty.

would that be the watts? my sub is 800 Watts Max Music Power
150 Watts Nominal Power Handling

The nominal is the one that counts, thats the load it can handle continuously. Yes a 300 watt JVC will not only make it pound, it could fry it. Its puts double what the sub is rated for. That doesnt mean its not cool to use it, just dont get happy with the volume control.

okay. thanks =]. just as long as i dont crank the volume and crank the bass up i should be fine

the speaker enclosure makes a big difference as well. sealed versus ported.

I'm a big fan of a sealed box. You can really drive up the SPL'* (sound pressure level) that way.

A ported box imo is sloppy sounding and releases to many decibels at once and the bass is not very deep..just load.

Back in 1996 when I competed with 'Audio Gold' I won first place for SPL'*

Could make a girl'* hair dance.
Ahh the old days...now to get my wifes hair to dance I have to work out with her...if you know what I mean

Todd.

Like John said just don't get too happy with the volume.

You could also if your worried about blowing your sub, turn your gain level way down on your amp...and certainly do not bridge it than either.

If its a well built pioneer sub, not a walmart brand, it will handle it no problem

I had 2 Memphis 400w max Power Reference Single Voice Coil Subs in a split box in my truck being ran by my 600C 600w dual channel Memphic amp, bridged to 1ohm mono (meaning both subs got all 600w together) and they held for 2 yrs before i sold the truck and another 2 for one before my friend blew it on his 1800w audiobon, the other just blew 5 months ago at 7 yrs of age... and it was a hard life for it

brand and setup makes the difference on what it can handle, but i would say the 300w amp would push it just fine if its pioneer premier, might blow it if its walmart pioneer... just be careful with the settings, start low and work your way up, and never let it run if the sub sounds distorted, that will blow it quickly

that seems strange to me that Pioneer would have a max rating at 800 watts and an RMS of 150

most of the time I see things with RMS in the middle to just below that of the peak rated power, either the RMS is under-rated or the peak is over-rated

Pioneer'* are always off the hook with their max rating, LOL. Maybe they mean for millasecond bursts

Here'* a sampling of them to show what I mean, they rate their subs max watts at 4-5 times nominal.

car stereo, marine audio, car security
Dont know if they are fibbin, have an overload circuit, or ???