What is the difference between RMS wattage,Nominal wattage and watts peak power; in terms of amp and speakers?

I am new to the car audio seen and just bought a new pair of Pioneer 6×9" speakers that are 400W peak power and 80W nominal. I do not know what I have here in means of power. Could someone please explain or show me where I can find what all of the numbers and stuff mean when it comes to playing with speakers, amps and subs? And what kind of AMP is recommended to get the most out of these bad boys?? My front speakers are currently Pioneers as well. They are 220W max power and 50W nominal. Here is a link to the 6×9"s on the web:

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/detail/0,,2076_4069_35255_tab=B,00.html?compName=PNA_ProductDetailComponent

Here are the front speakers:

http://www.epinions.com/pr-Car_Speakers_Pioneer_TS_A1680R_Car_Speaker_TS_A1680R/display_~full_specs

Thank you to everybody who attempts to help this lost audio nebie.
What does it mean when it says this for specs on an AMP?
2 x 150 watts RMS at 2 ohms stereo
2 x 100 watts at 4 ohms stereo

let me break it down for you easy
RMS means thats what the speaker well hit with no distortion or getting heat up in other words clean music and sound .. and peak means its max as in the moust amount it can take but it has distortion as in sounds nasty thats on speakers now on amps rms is what the amp is going to give you max means thats all the amp well give you but can sound realy nasty example
400 watts rms @ 4 ohms
800 watts rms @ 2 ohms
1000 watts max @ 1 ohm
ok so you see if you wire your system to hit at 4 ohms you gonna get 400 watts RMS period dont matter if the amp says 1000000 watts on the box if the manual say it thats what your getting and running of music…. and the ohms are the type at 4 ,6 and 8 ohms your gonna get more bass and less noise 2,1 ,1.5 ohms you gonna get more noise(voice, rythem and highs on the music) less bass.
so ppl get there things all mix up saying they are running 4000 watts systems and all that.. when realy they are running like 1000 or so only SPL competitions have realy large amounts of power. unless they know what they are doing .

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6 Responses to What is the difference between RMS wattage,Nominal wattage and watts peak power; in terms of amp and speakers?

  1. musicman70913 says:

    never look at the peak power, thats what retail uses to sound liek theyre product is better, always look at rms, rms is average power. basically peak power is the highest amount of power the speaker can take until it blows, and there is no better information source that crutchfield.com
    References :
    http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/S-N5mv1go6Nhu/learningcenter/car/

  2. Weston says:

    peak power is the amount of power a speaker can handle without risking damage…..RMS stands for "Root Mean Square", which is fancy mathematical formula for finding the average amount of power an speaker can continuously hold…..Nominal wattage is used to simplify the measurement of the efficiency of a speaker
    References :

  3. sparky3489 says:

    Peak power is an arbitrary number with no real standard of measurement.

    RMS (root mean square or nominal power) is as close to true power as you can get. Always use RMS watts when figuring a system.

    See my site for more info – http://spkrbox1.spaces.live.com
    References :
    A.A.S. degree in Electronics/Industrial Electronics with 25 years in the mobile audio/consumer electronics field

  4. snoopy says:

    let me break it down for you easy
    RMS means thats what the speaker well hit with no distortion or getting heat up in other words clean music and sound .. and peak means its max as in the moust amount it can take but it has distortion as in sounds nasty thats on speakers now on amps rms is what the amp is going to give you max means thats all the amp well give you but can sound realy nasty example
    400 watts rms @ 4 ohms
    800 watts rms @ 2 ohms
    1000 watts max @ 1 ohm
    ok so you see if you wire your system to hit at 4 ohms you gonna get 400 watts RMS period dont matter if the amp says 1000000 watts on the box if the manual say it thats what your getting and running of music…. and the ohms are the type at 4 ,6 and 8 ohms your gonna get more bass and less noise 2,1 ,1.5 ohms you gonna get more noise(voice, rythem and highs on the music) less bass.
    so ppl get there things all mix up saying they are running 4000 watts systems and all that.. when realy they are running like 1000 or so only SPL competitions have realy large amounts of power. unless they know what they are doing .
    References :

  5. Raffi Kiraz says:

    listen to snoopy!! he knows better, he is also the computer expert, and i am the artificial computer expert, rofl!!
    but i agree!! rock ON!!!
    References :