Ok Ok Ok....I've been crusing through this board this morning and I'm trying to clean some posts up.
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Ok skully, now i dont know what the specs are on your amp but from what you said you have a 1000 Watt amp. If the manufacturer has called this a 1000Watt amp then if you run one speaker on each channel then I highly doubt that you will get 500watts per side for the simple fact that a manufacturer usually describes an amp according to its bridged output. That said the bridged output is the combination of each channels output at 2ohms roughly. I doubt you have 2ohm speaker cabinets. Which means you wont get 500W each side.
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The controls on an amplifier do not regulate how much power or watts the amp puts out. They regulate the input needed to achieve full power.
ie: I turn the knobs all the way up..that means i need X amount of volume form my mixer to make the amp put out its full rated power. If i turn them half way up then I will need 2*X amount of volume from my mixer. Get it? those knobs on your amp only regulate how loud you have to turn your mixer up to get full power from the amp.
General rule of thumb, power your speakers with 2* their RMS value. If they are rated at 250W RMS then power each with 500W.
If you are worried about blowing speakers then make sure you:
-keep all meters out of the red
-reduce bass going to these speakers (since they are only monitors) the bass is what will really eat up your power. this will allow you to get more volume on the cabinets before the amp clips.
-do not let the amp clip (this will surely fry your speakers especially if the drunk host of the party decides to drop the mic) there goes your speakers.
hope this helps...feel free to drop anymore questions