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Car Audio Discussion
General Car Audio
is there a difference in sound vs wattage, power, and rms?
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<blockquote data-quote="fly_marlin" data-source="post: 8383899" data-attributes="member: 660781"><p>Additionally, below are links to pretty good papers on SQ:</p><p></p><p><a href="http://glasswolf.net/papers/sqtheory.html" target="_blank">GlassWolf's Pages</a></p><p></p><p><a href="http://glasswolf.net/papers/frontstage.html" target="_blank">GlassWolf's Pages</a></p><p></p><p><a href="http://glasswolf.net/papers/sqsystem.html" target="_blank">GlassWolf's Pages</a></p><p></p><p>One of the first things I can recommend for you is to never think of scenarios in a vacuum as there will also be variables that will change the outcome. People above have touched on good points. I'll sum some things up for you. More power is generally good. Well, within reason. I generally buy amps that are rated (RMS power) higher than my drivers. For example, my I have 150w midrange speakers and my amp is capable of delivering over 200w at that impedance. My subs are 1200w total and the amp driving them is 2000w. As mentioned earlier, this yields healthy headroom for your drivers. As you double the power, you get +3db or so in volume increase. I've always said that providing more power does much more for sound quality than it does for loudness. For example, if you have a 1000W woofer and give it 500W, it will definitely move. If you give it 1000W, it will still move and you won't notice a significant increase in loudness, but you will notice the difference in its performance. It will play with more authority, especially in the low end. The lower the frequency, the more power it takes to reproduce it at the same output level. Also, you can't really compare subwoofers with different power ratings. Simply put, a 1000W sub will generally have more "stuff" in it than a 500W sub, so chances are it will take a bit more power to get it to move the same amount as a lower rated sub. You can read up about speaker dynamics on your own to find out exactly what all these components are. Sensitivity can be looked at this way: if 2 subs have the same sensitivity, given the same power, box, etc - ideally, you can expect them to produce the same SPL. Again, this is not always true as they will also have different Fs (resonant frequency) and even with the same power, one may be slightly louder than the other at certain frequencies.</p><p></p><p>Enclosure you stick the woofer in as at least as important as the driver itself. The larger the box, the more efficient the system is and the less power it can handle. That's why box design is paramount.</p><p></p><p>As far as power ratings go, and this was mentioned earlier, there is not a central authority governing these. There is such thing as being CEA-2006 compliant to assure the purchaser of an amp that the advertised parameters are indeed true, but not all companies subscribe to that. That's why Boss audio can claim to have a 5000W amp for $150. They know guys in the community test their crap, but they don't care - there are enough Joes out there to justify them not caring. Generally, smaller companies that you often see mentioned on this and other forums, are more trustworthy. They rely on us and word of mouth. They know equipment gets tested and they care.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="fly_marlin, post: 8383899, member: 660781"] Additionally, below are links to pretty good papers on SQ: [URL="http://glasswolf.net/papers/sqtheory.html"]GlassWolf's Pages[/URL] [URL="http://glasswolf.net/papers/frontstage.html"]GlassWolf's Pages[/URL] [URL="http://glasswolf.net/papers/sqsystem.html"]GlassWolf's Pages[/URL] One of the first things I can recommend for you is to never think of scenarios in a vacuum as there will also be variables that will change the outcome. People above have touched on good points. I'll sum some things up for you. More power is generally good. Well, within reason. I generally buy amps that are rated (RMS power) higher than my drivers. For example, my I have 150w midrange speakers and my amp is capable of delivering over 200w at that impedance. My subs are 1200w total and the amp driving them is 2000w. As mentioned earlier, this yields healthy headroom for your drivers. As you double the power, you get +3db or so in volume increase. I've always said that providing more power does much more for sound quality than it does for loudness. For example, if you have a 1000W woofer and give it 500W, it will definitely move. If you give it 1000W, it will still move and you won't notice a significant increase in loudness, but you will notice the difference in its performance. It will play with more authority, especially in the low end. The lower the frequency, the more power it takes to reproduce it at the same output level. Also, you can't really compare subwoofers with different power ratings. Simply put, a 1000W sub will generally have more "stuff" in it than a 500W sub, so chances are it will take a bit more power to get it to move the same amount as a lower rated sub. You can read up about speaker dynamics on your own to find out exactly what all these components are. Sensitivity can be looked at this way: if 2 subs have the same sensitivity, given the same power, box, etc - ideally, you can expect them to produce the same SPL. Again, this is not always true as they will also have different Fs (resonant frequency) and even with the same power, one may be slightly louder than the other at certain frequencies. Enclosure you stick the woofer in as at least as important as the driver itself. The larger the box, the more efficient the system is and the less power it can handle. That's why box design is paramount. As far as power ratings go, and this was mentioned earlier, there is not a central authority governing these. There is such thing as being CEA-2006 compliant to assure the purchaser of an amp that the advertised parameters are indeed true, but not all companies subscribe to that. That's why Boss audio can claim to have a 5000W amp for $150. They know guys in the community test their crap, but they don't care - there are enough Joes out there to justify them not caring. Generally, smaller companies that you often see mentioned on this and other forums, are more trustworthy. They rely on us and word of mouth. They know equipment gets tested and they care. [/QUOTE]
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is there a difference in sound vs wattage, power, and rms?
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