I am wondering before I buy this used from a pawn shop:
Would a Sherwood RX2030R (40 bucks) receiver play loudly with 2 Kenwood JL1104 15 in House Speakers (170 bucks)?
Would it give enough kick for my frat house? I am trying to stay around 200 bucks on budget. But if I need something more expensive becuase it works, then so be it I guess.
Other reciever options include: PIONEER VSXD608 ($90) JVC RX517VTN ($80) KENWOOD VR2O7 ($90) SONY STR-DE415 ($100) TECHNICS SAEX140 ($90) YAMAHA RXV390 ($90) KENWOOD KRV6070 ($80) SONY STRD515 ($90)
Out of all the reciever options you listed I would go with the Pioneer for sound quality. Of all the big box brands only Pioneer, Denon and HK can play music well. The rest of the multichannel ones just don't cut the mustard. Good luck. Personally back in college I bought a used vintage Pioneer that had 65RMS per channel and found some efficent speakers with 12 inch woofers. To put it bluntly it shook the windows. Don't be afraid of 25 year old Pioneer receivers if they are being sold by a reputable source. I still have the speakers and I gave the receiver to my brother who went off to school when I was finishing up. The receiver still works and it honestly has a better sound than most of the new multichannel units on the market today. So stay with a 2 channel set up and you should be able to find a good receiver for around $75.00 and then speakers could run you the other $125 buying online. Try Ebay and AudiogoN for used stuff. Try to find some JBL monitors if you can as they will play loud enough to break most city noise laws.
Also, if the speakers are geared for 180W, how many RMS per channel will be enough to still rock the house? Would a 65RMS per channel work in this case? I'll do some reading on the board on this if I don't find an answer.
DJ, Like Peter said, you need to be looking at speaker sensitivity for loudness. You're barking up the wrong tree by even considering a speakers 'alleged' max wattage rating, or receiver RMS.
If you want loud speakers, look into some used Cerwin Vegas on ebay. You could probably get a massive old pair on the web for practically nothing that will go loud enough to cause many of the 'weak of heart' to soil their pants.