I dont fully understand RMS beyond its the constant power something can take or give. My issue is I dont want to kill my speakers by hitting it with too much power. The way I understand how to set the gain on the amp is by the RMS of the amp, however, if that RMS is much higher than the speaker, wont you kill the speakers if you turn the volume up to max based on the amp being set by its RMS? Shouldnt the amps gain be set based off the RMS of the speakers so you dont kill the speakers when you bump it? Am I wrong in my thinking? If I am wrong, how do I monitor/check the watts coming out the amp at a given volume so I know how far I can turn up the volume safely?

 

Unless you can't hear yourself think, you are likely putting out well under 10 watts to the speakers



You don't monitor power real-time



You don't set gains to power level, you set them to balance output between different speakers on different amps



Get quality amps and speakers with approximately-the-same power ratings. When it sounds like sh*t, turn it down. If that wasn't loud enough, upgrade. This is all the worrying you need to do, EVER, on this topic.

 

Distortion will kill the speakers before too much power, usually.

 

You're more likely to kill speakers by under driving them. Cranking the volume with a much lower power amp that what the speakers are rated for will cause distortion and death.

 

What you said is true, just the way you said it leads to confusions. It's not "under driving" itself that kills them, it's the fact that you are "over driving" the amp by pushing volume higher than it can handle and causing distortion. If you are not turning the volume/gain into distortion levels, running speakers that are rated for more power than the amp won't hurt anything. You're always "under-driving" speakers when you turn down the volume.



Anyway, in the OP's case the speakers are rated lower than the amp. Like Stocker said, turn the volume/gain up until you can hear distortion, then turn it down a bit from there (I'd say 10% or something like that).

 

By the way, RMS is simply another way of measuring the amplitude of a wave. You could measure from one peak to the next, or you could measure the root-mean-squared of the wave. Different numbers, but as long as you compare the same measurement from one device to the next you'll be okay.