SethAZ 

I'm trying to figure out why rides uploaded from my Garmin Edge 500, paired with my new Stages L/R power meter, are showing higher power output figures than my Fenix 5 paired with the exact same power meter, for the same rides.

I've done three rides with the power meter so far, and I paired it with both the Fenix 5 and Edge 500 and uploaded both recordings of each ride so I can see how they compared. On the first ride the Edge 500 was giving me 200W avg. power over the hour-long ride, while the Fenix 5 reported 185W avg. for the same ride. I looked into the settings on both, and I had auto-pause configured on the Edge 500 but not the Fenix 5. I set up auto-pause after that on the Fenix 5, and ensured that the two units were configured as closely the same as each other in every way I can find. The settings aren't going to be perfectly identical, but very close.

The second and third rides showed a smaller power difference between the two of around 5-8 watts. Anyone have any idea how that might be? My ego wants to believe the Edge 500's slightly higher power readings are the most accurate, but I have no idea whether that's true, or the Fenix 5 recording of the ride is closer, or whether the truer figure is something in between.

I suppose it doesn't really matter. I should just pick one to go by, and if it's at least consistent with itself over time, any changes in power output should be reflecting the results of my training accurately, whether the actual power figure is truly spot on or not.

Anyhow, if anyone has experience with different gps units recording different power outputs from the same power meters over the same rides, and figured out why that might be, I'd be interested in hearing about it.