How much loudspeaker wattage do you need for your surroundings?

Selecting the ideal model of wireless outdoor speakers offered by Amphony Corp. is difficult whilst faced with a large array of various technical jargon and specs, for example “sound pressure level”, “output wattage” and so on. You may not even fully understand the most fundamental of these terms, like “speaker output power”. I am going to clarify the term “speaker power” a bit more in this commentary. “Output power” is one of the most basic terms describing speaker performance. However, it is often misunderstood. A few makers also in the past have used this term in a confusing manner in order to hide the real performance. If you are considering to buy a couple of loudspeakers in order to set up in your house, you will often be faced with a number of odd terms describing its performance. But how do those numbers relate to how the loudspeaker sounds and how are these to be interpreted? Let me now go ahead and clarify the wattage rating of loudspeakers.

“Wattage” is sometimes also known as “Power” or “loudspeaker output power”. To put it in a nutshell, “wattage” relates to how much power your loudspeaker can endure without damage. The bigger this number usually the louder your loudspeakers. If you have a small room then you don’t need much more than a few watts. If you wish to set up loudspeakers outside or in a live concert then you will require several hundred watts of power. The majority of loudspeakers are going to show increasing audio distortion as output power increases. Thus, you want to get a speaker which has bigger output power than you will actually need. This is going to guarantee that you will never drive the loudspeaker into areas of high distortion. Several specs will show the power in “Watts peak” whereas others will give “Watts rms”. “Peak” means that the speaker is able to tolerate the power for a brief amount of time only whilst “Watts rms” means that the loudspeaker will constantly endure this amount of power. The peak specification has been somewhat abused by vendors stating huge peak audio wattage while their loudspeakers are in fact tiny and unable to handle more than only several watts rms power.

Today most speakers will state rms power that provides a better hint of the speakers’ true performance. Then again, please ensure that your loudspeaker has enough headroom in order to avoid clipping of the audio. This is because at certain points in time the audio will show peaks of power that by far surpass the normal power of the signal. Please note that often the peak wattage that your audio amplifier can deliver to your speakers depends upon the impedance of your speakers which is typically between 4 and 8 Ohms. Amplifiers have a limited output voltage swing resulting from the fixed internal supply voltage. As such the highest output wattage of your amp is going to differ depending on the speaker impedance. The lower the loudspeaker impedance the higher the highest power your amplifier can provide. Usually maximum power is given for a 4-Ohm speaker impedance. Though, ideally the manufacturer of your amp is going to publish which speaker impedance the amp can drive. Please note that a number of amps cannot drive loudspeakers with extremely small speaker impedance.