THE GUIDE TO A BETTER SOUND SYSTEM

There are a few guides on eBay about Audio Equipment that are not really accurate, but never the less the main point has been clearly put accross that MAX - PEAK POWER - PMPO Speaker power ratings should be ignored (So should amplifier ratings in this manner)
The rating you need to be intrested in is the RMS value (Root Means Squared) the Max, Peak, Music Power, PMPO ratings are not illegal or missleading if you understand that they are just different ways of measuring a products ability. One guide claims that if you buy a 300W RMS speaker you can run it at 300W all the time, this is not correct. There are many factors to consider, one is that the RMS figure is claimed by each manufacture under Lab Testing, but its deeper than this as you can have 2 speakers both rated at 300W RMS but one will sustain more punishment than the other, one may distort sooner. The ratings are achieved by sending a White or Pink noise through the speaker for a set period of time, this time can vary and also so can the frequency of this. A pink or white noise sounds like a FM radio thats not tuned in, that hissing sound, this basically has a rather flat curve to it if you look at its signal, where as live or recorded playback music signals are nothing like this what so ever. The bass is the most demanding signal, and if you add bass using a bass control on a mixer or amp you are increasing this signal and the amplifier basically amplicates a what is already distorted signal as the curves are choped off as the signal is too large, this means that even at 50W RMS output your 300W RMS speaker will distort.
As you can see there is more to all the MAX, PEAK, RMS talk than one can imagine, if you buy a pair of speakers off eBay say 300W max Each yes they are probably 150W RMS, but even expensive brands would struggle to produce this constant, you have to consider many other factors, amplificaction can

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