Yeah, if the stock unit is 20ish, then you want to find something that's 20ish RMS.
If you're the only one who drives your car, it really doesn't matter because you should be able to hear when it starts distorting and is therefore harming the stock speakers. OTOH, if you havea girlfriend/wife/kids who drive your car, you are definitely safer finding a 20 watt RMS CD player.
On another note, there is an external amp on the stock unit, right? In that case, you should see how it is powered. If it is powered by high level output (speaker-level), then the receiver's power output may matter, but if it's powered by low-level output (2v or 4v RCA), then the power output of your receiver doesn't matter. Call Circuit City or Best Buy and talk to the install guys about the interface between the cd player and the amp -- they should let you know.
Sorry -- I wish I could give you more info as I do know a lot about car audio, but I just haven't yet installed anything in the Boxster, so can't help much.
|