VERY basic question regarding RMS, can i get advice?

[chunkdude]

so im very new to car audio. i recently bought a new deck, its a panasonic thats otuputs 4 X 50, im guessing thats peak. it says it meets a CEA-2006 power rating standard thing of 18W RMS X 4. im looking to replace the stock speakers that came in the car, its got 6 X 9's in the back and 6.5 inches in the doors in the front. so what i am wondering if what speakers wattage i should be looking for. Im not running any amplifiers, i just want half decent basic sound.

so yeah on all the speakers im looking at, they have a reccomended wattage rating (usually between 30 and 70) and a peak wattage. so for my very basic setup, what reccomended wattage should i be looking for.

for instance what will my sound be like on speakers rated at 30 RMS vs. ones rated at 70 RMS.

thanks, again i apologize as this is probably the most basic thing but i cant seem to get a clear answer on this anywhere.

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[reed dollaz 10+ year member]

it doesnt matter if your speakers are 30 or 70 RMS, your headunit isnt powerfull enough to make the difference. i suggest you buy a component set, and put an amp to them.

 

[Atimm693 10+ year member]

Just about any speaker will sound ok at best off HU power. I highly recommend you amp them. However, if thats not in the cards right now, you should be able to get away with powering them off the HU. Obviously a 70 RMS speaker isnt going to perform the best off only 10-15 watts. It all depends on the speakers sensitivity size VC etc.

 

[chunkdude]

okay so to rephrase, if im just running it off the head unit, will i get the same sound if i use speakers rated at 30 and speakers rated at 70, or will i get better sound coming from one end of the spectrum.

also if im not using an amp will i still get distortion at higher volumes, right now on the crap speakers on the car theres quite a bit of distortion at louder volumes.

also when im picking out speakers aside from RMS, what specs should i be looking at to get the best bang for my buck? thanks for the quick replies so far

 

[Atimm693 10+ year member]

You should get less distortion if you run say 30 RMS speakers, a speaker with closer rms to the rms to the HU should render better results (less distorted, louder, better sounding overall). A 70 rms speaker will most likely distort easier because of the lack of clean power. You can get away with it, but you run a higher chance of distorion and or clipping from the HU.

Running an amp should definetely lessen distortion and get louder. Much cleaner

power.

For picking out speakers just stay away from junky brands (legacy, pyramid, pyle etc.) and stay with the better stuff (pioneer, rainbow, mb quart, id, cdt, AA, and a/d/s.)

 

[Stel 10+ year member]

Look for speakers with a high sensitivity if you're only using HU power.