How many watts is it pushing?

Question

i have a car stereo like all aftermarket stereos which put out 50x4 watts peak... if i was to fade all of the music to only the rear speakers would it be pushing 100x2 peak to the rear?

Answer 1

No. It will still only be 50 watts per speaker.

Answer 2

It depends on how the amplifier is constructed. Many class-D and variations and digital amps actually do "move" power from one output to the other. If it's a basic bi-polar integrated amp, no, it does not do that. You are still looking at 25W per channel. If it's a class-D which has become very popular, it may "move" power around, although I doubt it, that is not normally implemented in mobile applications.

Next is actual power. If you were to measure the actual power output of that unit it likely only produces a Watt or two continuously.