The difference between continuous and program is:
Continuous is normaly the
RMS rating where the
power handling is calculated when feeding one continuous tone eg 1004KHz at a given input
level.
The
RMS value is the one to work with. (
RMS = Root Mean Square. It is basicaly is a way of stating the
level of an AC signal that would be needed to provide the same heating
power of a DC supply into the same load.
Program is where you
play a music
track as opposed to a continuous single tone. Because the peaks vary in a piece of music this
rating is usually set higher then continuous because the peaks only occur occasionally the
amplifier can handle it for short time.
Basicaly ignore everything but the continuous which should be given as watts
rms. The others really don't mean much. For instance I have small bookshelf speakers rated as 1000 Watts Peak Music
Power Output. Yeah right.
The rule of thumbs for amps is that for the
speaker rating in watts
RMS the
amplifier power rms should be within the range 1.8 to 2.2 times greater then the
speaker.