nice one, Gregoose.
Being on the inside in a brand, and being exposed to product competitive matricies and then tearing down the products to determine what amplifier raw components they possess, it is clear that some use conservative wattage RMS ratings, some use peak, and some use what we call "marketing watts". This type of a claim is something like, the amplifier chipset could have done that much power, except the board doesn't have a power supply with enough juice to ever get the final output to be near that level.
Ironically, in contrast to car audio, the most popular bass guitar amplifier and cabinet combo in the world is the Ampeg SVTCL 350 watt tube amplifier, with a cabinet containing eight 10" woofers. It is so obscenely loud that you can't turn it up anywhere but in a venue that seats over a thousand people, and even then it will probably be too much. 350 good watts of power can output enough volume and sound quality to astound pretty much anyone. People who say you need a thousand watts plus in order to have sufficient bass in a car are dealing with poor enclosure designs, inefficient drivers, amplifiers that deliver nowhere near the rated power, and other compromises.
