Sub/amp power question

What exactly are the differences in peak power and RMS power of car audio speakers/subs/amps etc. I believe rms power is the one to pay attention to and not fancy peak power figures, but why?

Peak power is what the equipment can handle for a split second. Ever seen that thing in america where they compete to see who can get the most BHP out of like a 1.6 civic? They get nutts figures, like 600bhp or whatever, but the engine goes pop in the process.

RMS is the figure the gear is rated to and can handle all day long. It means route mean square, and should reflect the max power, but this is hardly ever the case. TBH, just ignore any gear than only gives you max figures as it will be wank.

My subs were 500wrms each, or 1500w max. My amp driving both was 1.1kwrms, or 1.5kw max. This was a perfectly matched setup, however if you just looked at max figures, I would have basicly needed an amp for each sub, which simply wasnt the case.

What gear are you looking at getting? If your going for a big system using the right cabling and power distribution will make a big difference. Having it all set up correctly is also a huge thing, and is something 90% of people get wrong. My system was only 1kwrms, but still achieved 139db, I've seen systems with 3 times the power produce lower DB ratings due to poor design.

Any questions just ask me, I've built quite a few systems in the past and helped out alot of people with theirs as well (including fixing crap advice from others who think they know their stuff).

Thanks for that, I wasn't really looking at getting anything in the near future, its just we were talking about car audio in college and the topic just sort of came up as one of my classmates has just had an edge active 12inch sub and a pair of vibe 6x9s put in his polo, it sounds quite nice tbh.