RMS, Peak? HUH?!

[jdavis]

Hey ya'll,
I just got a pair of PA speakers, and i had a question. They're rated at 120 Watts RMS, 240 Watts Peak. So, my question is, which one?! How loud can I expect them to be? What's the difference in RMS and Peak...thanks...

***Justin***

 

[Tekker]

RMS = Continuous power
Peak = uh.....peak

All it means is that your speakers can run at 120watts continuously and take smaller (shorter) "peaks" up to 240watts without damaging your speakers.

Hope that helps

-tkr

 

[Track Rat]

RMS=Root Mean Squared. If a signal has an amplitude of 1 Volt Peak to Peak, the RMS value is .707 volts. Or something like that. I think.......

 

[Roel]

That depends on the signal...

The idea is that, to measure the power your speakers have to handle, you look at the amplitude of the signal.

So, you take the mean value of that amplitude. That would be a nice estimate, right? If that signal would be positive all the time, it would be. But it goes negative every once in a while. So this would give you a value near zero.

Now if you take the square of the amplitude, that's always positive. Offcourse, after taking the mean of the square value, you need to take the root out of that again. And for a nice sine, that would be 0.7-something.
And that's how the amazing R.D. Meself invented the amazing RMS value of a signal... You gotta love the man!

 

[darrin_h2000]

Just think of it as 70% of peak.

and stay the hell away from products that use a peak, or peak to peak rating to sell thier amps or speakers. In my experince if rms isnt used the product is usually trash. This is common with swapmeet car stereo crap.

root mean square is the common spec when it comes to efficintcy of power.

you may see on the back of an amp that is rated 70 watts say that its 200 watts by the cord but that rating has to do with consumption not output power.