It does not have the cooling to run full tilt that far over the rms for long periods of time. Scott and I were talking about this last night on the phone. People have to remember, the Xcon is a high end, higher power SQ biased sub woofer. If you really want to push it past it's stated limits, then maybe option for a different driver. Don't get me wrong, the Xcon can take some power, but it is not worth taking it to its thermal limits. Yes, music is dynamic, and under normal conditions it will not see the full brunt of that power, but we cannot say it is ok because people will think that they can go for it and we will have a slew of fried Xcon's come back because people will clip the crap out of their amp or play test tones or some reworked heavily distorted bass track trying to impress their friends and the coil reaches thermal. The Xcon coil can take some serious power, it just does not have the cooling to take the abuse like a BL or BTL etc. Was not meant to. Think modern overhung tribute to the old RE XXX and Crystal CMPx2. Hope that all makes sense. There is nothing wrong with some headroom, just don't want people to be under the impression that it is good to throw a real 2500 at the Xcon daily, and that to remember it is an SQ sub woofer first and foremost. We (SSA) like having an EXTREMELY low failure rate, all so far that I know of were user abuse above and beyond design intent of the sub woofer. The Xcon is for those discerning listeners that like to be able to crank it if they want or have more wattage then most. Those who worry about really peaky response, I always option them to the BTL. /rambling