What is the differnence between Peak power and RMS power?

Question

Im getting confused, because im looking to buy an amp for my 4 speakers that run at 270 watt peak power and 90 watt RMS. the amp i was looking at runs at:

RMS Power (4 Ohm): 4 x 60 Watt / 2 x 180 Watt

Max Power (4 Ohm): 4 x 120 Watt / 2 x 400 Watt

or would somthing like this be better:

Power @ 4 ohms 4 x 150 WRMS

Power @ 2 Ohms 4 x 250 WRMS

Power Bridged 2 x 500 WRMS

is it better running at RMS or peak?

Answer 1

Its Always Better Running RMS Power Because It Continous. Always Focus On Rms Not Peak. Peak Doesnt Mean S**T Just Picture It Not There. Rms Counts The More Rms The Better. Peak Power Is Basically The Highest The Speaker Can Go Before Blowing & And If You Want Your Speakers To Last Go By Rms. Match The Amount Of Rms Of Your Speakers With The Same Amount Of Rms On Your Amp. If Your Amp Has Higher Rms Than Your Speaker You Will Have To Turn The Amp Down So You Dont Blow Your Speaker. But If Your Speaker Has More Power Than You Amp You Wont Get Full Preformance. Also If You Underpower Any Speaker By Alot Of Rms It Will Go ''SOUND DEAF!''

''Hope This Helped!''

Answer 2

only look at RMS watts on all your system. this is the amount of power the speakers can take / amp can produce all day long.

peak is refered to the amount of power they could take for short seconds. IF a speaker is given constant peak/max power, it will blow and the coils will be burned/melted.

Answer 3

You always want to match RMS power, RMS or Root Mean Square is the amount of constant power the amp can produce. The RMS power on a speaker is the thermal limit of the speaker, how much power it can handle constantly without over heating.

Competition teams often feed a sub many times the rated RMS for short "burbs", subs can handle this but not for long.