Question Speaker RMS. How important is it?

[kingoftown]

There a few 2.1 speakers from well known brands of 40W RMS and one particular model of 48W rms from a known but not a very good brand. At least as far as my experience goes with it. However, I've read RMS wattage is one spec that one should look for while checking speakers. Which one would be better?

 

[USAFRet]

RMS is only a small part of the equation.

40W with low distortion is far far far better than 48W with worse distortion.