Help understanding Stereo Power

RobWNY wrote:
Which of the following stereos for RV's offer the most power to drive the speakers. Assume there will be 2 inside speakers and 2 outside speakers. Also assume that I already know that none of these are good and I would be better off going with an aftermarket setup. I'm just trying to understand the power spec since it's so vague on web sites and in manuals. I know RMS means Root Mean Square and refers to continuous power and the spec to look at rather than Peak power output but which one are company's referring to if they only state one and aren't specific like the Jensen.

Jensen JWM6A has 3 Zone/8 Speaker Outputs with a Power Output of 6W X 8

iRV34 says Total Continuous Power Output 50W and has three zones

Furrion DV3300 States 4X40W on the webpage but in the manual states Maximum Power Output 4X24W RMS and has 2 zones.

Unfortunately, the companies are not required to use one value to rate their power output. The most accurate power spec would be the one rated RMS at a stated THD across a frequency range into a stated load (ex. 20W RMS @1% THD, 40-17K Hz @4 ohms). If the units you are comparing do not list the spec with the same values it would be almost impossible to directly rate them.
Also, power and volume are not directly related. The volume is also a function of efficiency of the speakers. It does not take a lot of power to produce a loud sound with the right speaker types.
Typically any unit producing a true 10 watts of power will fill a room 12 x 12 with enough sound to drive you out. It all depends on your quality of product.