Hiya,

If I get a 200 watt head unit, and it says 4 x 50 watt, does that mean each speaker (4 of em) must be at least 50 watts each?

if I only hook it up to two speakers, does it mean I must use two 100 watt speakers to make it up to 200 watt?

Enlighten me :)

Thank you

well, techincally to ge thte best performance, yes.. but remember the head unit's power output is always rated in MAX not RMS... so it's proberly more like 4x20WRMS and finding speakers that low is pretty rare. i always reccomend getting an external amplifier what is capable of at least 4x50WRMS and then find some speakers that will match that.

The maximum power figures of a head unit have always been a little misleading. In order to remedy this there is now a new true power rating method coming into play now that most of the larger manufacturers are complying too.

You’ll find that as head units begin coming out this year they’ll be rated at their RMS. The new Alpine decks are all rated between 4 x 11 and 4 x 21 watts (which formerly would have been 4 x 60). :)

It’s a terrific way of getting the truth about products out there and has been long overdue in my humble opinion...

Fhrx,

Nothing new there mate, it's just the difference between Peak Momentary Power Output (PMPO) and Root Means Squared (RMS).

where

RMS = PMPO / sqrt(2)

Esentially PMPO is saying "This is the maximum possible under the precise exact conditions (read: not going to happen)
and RMS is a mathematical average over tme "This is what you are getting 99% of the time"

-Dan

i think he means that HU manufacturers are now quoting RMS power for their HU instead of the MAX power they used to.

personally i think thats a great idea. i think everything should be described as its rms power. i'm no audio guru, but i do my part to help my friends and trying to explain y some amps and stuff are actually more powerful then another with a bigger number is a nightmare.

Thumbs up to all manufacturers that use RMS power ratings!


Tim

True, in a way it is simply stating the head units RMS power but even that can be fudged to appear better. Things like:

What voltage do we measure it at; 12.2 / 13.7 / 14.4 etc?
What frequency?
What resistance?
What THD levels?

There are a million different ways to rate power output of amplifiers (internal or stand alone external) but I was insinuating that this new method might be the best yet of getting some sort of nominal standard.

Here's hoping... :D:D

... it's just the difference between Peak Monentary Power Output (PMPO) and Root Means Squared (RMS)....

For a moment there I thought you were trying to say Peak Monetary Power Output.. which can only be a measure of the amount of extra money people are prepared to spend for misleading power ratings :lol: :lol:

:roll:

[quote:b073bd1c62="Grecy"]... it's just the difference between Peak Monentary Power Output (PMPO) and Root Means Squared (RMS)....

For a moment there I thought you were trying to say Peak Monetary Power Output.. which can only be a measure of the amount of extra money people are prepared to spend for misleading power ratings :lol: :lol:

:roll:[/quote:b073bd1c62]

heh.. fixed the typo in my original post, but it didn't update in your quote.

-Dan