A peek at some critical specifications of wireless speakers

Picking the ideal type of wireless speakers made by Amphony is not easy whilst faced with a big array of various terms and specs, such as “sound pressure level”, “output wattage” et cetera. You might not even fully understand the most simple of these terms, such as “speaker output power”. I will explain the term “speaker power” a bit more in this article. “Output power” is one of the most fundamental terms describing loudspeaker performance. Though, it is often misunderstood. Some vendors also in the past have used this term in a deceptive manner in order to conceal the actual performance.

Loudspeaker specs are sometimes difficult to interpret as they are not completely standardized. Thus it can be hard to figure out the true performance of the speaker just by glancing at the specifications. A decent method though is to do a listening test before purchasing your speaker. During this test you ideally want to set up the speakers in a comparable environment as your application. Let me now proceed and clarify the power spec of speakers. The power of the speakers is shown as “wattage”. This describes how loud your speaker can sound. Based on your application, you can go with a small speaker tolerating merely a few watts or a larger one tolerating a few hundred watts. Many smaller home speakers merely can be driven with several watts power which usually is sufficient for a small room. If you intend to shake your walls then you clearly wish to choose a loudspeaker that has up to several hundred watts. Most loudspeakers are going to exhibit rising music distortion as output wattage increases. Thus, you want to get a speaker which offers bigger output power than you are going to in fact require. This is going to assure that you are going to never drive the loudspeaker into areas of large distortion.

There are 2 common methods to show speaker power. These are “peak power” and “rms power”. “Peak power” describes how much wattage the loudspeaker can endure for a brief burst. Then again, “rms power” shows how much wattage the loudspeaker may endure for a longer amount of time without being damaged. The peak power rating in history often led to producers stating big wattage ratings for small loudspeakers. On the other hand, in practice these loudspeakers would not be able to endure bigger amounts of output power for longer amounts of time. Music and voice is not uniform regarding volume. As such the peak power rating is nonetheless important, although not as important as the rms power rating. Ideally the speaker is going to show both the rms and peak power spec. Having a large peak power rating will make sure enough headroom for power peaks which are common in audio signals. Having an adequate amount of headroom is crucial because music signals differ a great deal from sine wave signals that are used in order to measure rms wattage. Brief bursts of large power are often found in music signals. These peaks will drive the loudspeaker into high distortion unless the peak power is high enough. Please note that often the peak power that your amplifier can deliver to your loudspeakers depends upon the impedance of your speakers which is generally between 4 and 8 Ohms. An audio amplifier that has a set internal supply voltage will have a maximum output voltage swing that is restricted by that supply voltage. If you are driving an 8-Ohm loudspeaker then your amplifier must deliver twice the output voltage than when driving a 4-Ohm speaker in order to deliver the same amount of power to your loudspeaker. Usually maximum power is specified for a 4-Ohm loudspeaker impedance. Though, ideally the producer of your amp is going to show which loudspeaker impedance the amp can drive. Please note that some amplifiers cannot drive speakers with very low speaker impedance.

A Few Suggestions For Choosing Wireless Loudspeakers

Modern wireless speakers are going to by nature waste a certain level of power they consume. Choosing pair of wireless loudspeakers with high efficiency could minimize the level of squandered energy. I will teach you some little-known details about efficiency to help you choose the perfect type.

The less efficient your cordless speakers are, the more energy is going to be wasted which results in many issues: Low-efficiency cordless loudspeakers are going to waste a certain amount of power as heat and therefore are costlier to run when compared with high-efficiency models due to their greater power utilization. Wireless loudspeakers with small power efficiency routinely have a number of heat sinks to help dissipate the wasted power. These heat sinks use up a reasonable amount of room and make the wireless speakers bulky and heavy. Further more, they add to the expense of the cordless loudspeakers. Low-efficiency cordless speakers further need a great deal of circulation around the cordless loudspeakers. As a result they cannot be put in close spaces or inside air-tight enclosures.

Wireless loudspeakers that have small efficiency have to have a bigger power supply to output the same amount of music power as high-efficiency versions. An elevated level of heat triggers further stress on elements. The life expectancy of the cordless loudspeakers might be lowered and dependability can be compromised. High-efficiency wireless speakers in contrast don’t suffer from these issues and can be built small. While buying a couple of wireless speakers, you can find the efficiency in the data sheet. This value is generally shown as a percentage. Different amplifier architectures deliver different power efficiencies. Class-A amps are amongst the least efficient and Class-D the most efficient. Standard power efficiencies vary from 25% to 98%. Getting an amplifier with an efficiency of 90% for instance will mean that 10% of the energy that is utilized is wasted whilst 90% would be audio power. Then again, there are several things to note regarding power efficiency. To start with, this figure depends on the level of energy that the amp is providing. Because each amplifier will require a specific amount of energy, regardless of the level of power the amplifier delivers to the loudspeakers, the amp efficiency is higher the more energy the amplifier provides and is normally specified for the maximum power the amplifier can handle.

In order to measure the efficiency, usually a test tone of 1 kHz is fed into the amp and a power resistor connected to the amp output to emulate the speaker load. Next the amplifier output signal is measured and the wattage determined which the amplifier provides to the load which is then divided by the total energy the amp utilizes. Since the efficiency depends upon the audio power, usually the output power is swept and an efficiency graph created which can show the amp efficiency for each level of output power.

While switching (Class-D) amplifiers have amongst the highest efficiency, they tend to possess higher audio distortion than analog audio amps and lower signal-to-noise ratio. As a result you will need to weigh the dimensions of the wireless speakers against the music fidelity. Nonetheless, the latest wireless speakers that use switching-mode music amps, similar to Class-T amplifiers, provide music fidelity that comes close to that of low-efficiency analog amps and can be built really small and lightweight.