Big Powered Subwoofers. Who Wins the Shootout?

From what I have been reading in the pro audio forums, I believe the opposite is true.
To my knowledge the newer Yorkie 18's (both passive and powered) now have B&C woofers since sometime around 2010 iirc, which are a significant upgrade in wattage from the RCF's.
The LS808 (passive version of the 801) that I have been considering is now rated at 700w rms whereas the older RCF version was rated at 400w rms.
Apparently the newer B&C's will take a lot of abuse and are preferable to the RCF for that reason.

Whether that is also an upgrade in sound quality or not I am unsure as I have no experience in comparing the two.

RCF make incredible woofers and 400 watts RMS is enough for any 18" driver. Why on earth would you want to have to buy a MORE powerful amp to get the same output? That is ludicrous! B&C also make incredible woofers but I doubt Yorky is bucking up for them. I am pretty sure they switched to Eminence woofers though and not B&C. I know my old passive SW800's had beautiful RCF drivers.

Again, just what I'm reading on the pro audio forums. You can google search "ls808 driver" and reach your own conclusions. Yorkville also doesn't do a very good job of updating their parts list either so it's hard to tell from a date what's actually in there, but from my research I believe there have been 3 different speakers to date. The first being the RCF at 400w rms, the second a B&C at 600w rms and the current unit which is also a B&C and is now rated at 700w rms.
Maybe if a rep or dealer is lurking here they can chime in and confirm?

As far as power is concerned, just because the drivers have a higher rating and maybe you can push them more doesn't mean it actually requires more amp power. Look at the sensitivity ratings on subs and that will give you an indication of how much power is required to achieve similar sound pressure levels and at 105dB@1W@1m, the Yorkies get quite loud with very little power.
Compare this with the JBL SRX718 which off the top of my head iirc has a sensitivity of 99dB@1W@1m and as a result is fairly power hungry to achieve similar spl.

Again this is for the passive 808 but have read they are the same driver as the 801 powered so sensitivity specs should be similar even though Yorkville doesn't publish them for the powered version.

Yeah but a higher wattage woofer would take make power to get it to its maximum output so I am thinking that the 400 watt woofer would need less power since it is working more efficiently. I don't play the 'more power handling the better' game...

Remember this one? LA400 Bass Horn Subwoofer - EAW: Eastern Acoustic Works