There are 2 camps when it comes to clipping, so educate yourself and believe what you want. Fact is clipping creates distortion and I'm sure we all agree that we want clean output. Making sure that amp see's a 2ohm load is paramount in setting up the properly optimized system. Why pay for a 598w RMS amp if you only try to get 299w RMS out of it?

I know, I have done my research, and I'm not trying to be an asshole about it. Just stating what I was told by JL and RF.

And read what the other guy posted about the gain settings.

:iagree: to an extent. But As Southark stated earlier in the thread....Always a smart Idea to go big on amplifier power, that you can pull back on, which lessens the chance of clipping, and speaker destruction. As opposed to trying to get BIG off a small amp.
Steve Meade designs has an awesome piece out there called the DD-1.
It is used to set your amplifier gains correctly to match your head unit. It also detects distortion, which you can use to see exactly what volume setting your head unit starts to distort at. you hook this to your head unit, and it sees distortion at, say 35 out of 40 clicks, you KNOW to never turn that knob past 35. Simple.
It is 10 times easier to use than an o-scope, and 10 times less in price.
I recommend them to anyone who is serious about their systems. $150 for piece of mind, and a truly optimized setup.

Clipping is when you reach the output limit of the amp and it starts putting out DC (the top of the waveform is clipped off or flat). In addition to sounding bad, this can cause overheating of the driver coils, which can quickly destroy the small coils of a tweeter or mid-range (drivers aren't designed to handle DC). Since woofers typically have much more massive coils, overheating is not as big of a problem but clipping should still be avoided. As others have mentioned, if you set up the system properly, clipping will be minimized.

I ended up going with the p3d4 10, that way I could use the amps full potential. Thanks everyone for the input

You made a great choice. Just make sure you use the correct enclosure for the sub to capture all it's performance.:tup:

What are the preferred enclosures now days? Back in the day, a air tight (un-ported) enclosure as big as you could get was best. Now, after looking at rockfords website, it looks like ported is the preferred way to go.

I know both work, and maybe ported is better with some frequencies, but they need to be "tuned" last I remember.

As a rule-of-thumb, a ported enclosure will be more efficient and give better low-end response. But the enclosure has to be designed/built properly.

A Q&D web search turned up this: Subwoofer Design Theories

This is true. And building a ported enclosure yourself is a somewhat daunting task for a first timer for sure. there are many variables that will have an effect on your speakers performance and/or introduce unwanted noises.
Sealed boxes are more forgiving to the builder, and will play a flatter frequency response throughout its range, but lower frequencies may suffer. processing will help with that problem to an extent, and honestly, the untrained ear would never notice.
Remember that every sub will have its own design parameters, (box volume for sealed, ported ) and they must be followed for optimum performance. Some subs will only perform in one or the other.