your wrong there m8

rms power is always lower than peak power in any ac signal.

See

http://www.myhometheater.homestead.com/RMS.html

and

http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_2/chpt_1/3.html

For example, in a pure sine wave (which music i'snt so is hard to calculate exactly but is similar) the rms value is always 0.707 of the peak power irrespective of the amp you are using.

Ive just had a look at the Mackie site and they quote rms which is a good thing and has answered my original question. I dont know if all manfs quote rms as in the cheaper home/car markets some of them quote peak powers to make themselves look a better spec than they are.

http://www.mackie.com/pdf/m1400_ss.pdf

cheers