Amps don’t put out watts, they put out voltage. Speaker cables deliver voltage to speakers where it goes through crossover and coils all of which adds impedance, or resistance, which is good since without it the circuit would be a dead short and fry the amp.
So we have voltage, and we have resistance, which is good because this means we have amps which is current flow.
Which brings us to watts. You wanted to know about watts. Watts are units of power or work. Volts times amps equals watts. Its a silly thing invented by a guy James Watt who wanted to quantify the power of his new invention called the steam engine. Started with horsepower, how many horses it could replace. Wouldn’t happen to be interested in measuring that, would you? Too bad, its a fascinating story. They all are.
Anyway, watts changes with impedance. Speaker impedance varies from speaker to speaker. Impedance even varies within the same speaker depending on frequency. You see the problem, surely? In order to measure watts in any meaningful way we are going to have to know the impedance. Now you know why every amp power rating is such and such watts at such and such ohms. Its never just watts. Its always watts into ohms.
How in the heck are we gonna measure that?! Well, we’re not. We’re gonna measure the voltage and call it good. Which is what they do. Because really when it comes right down to it none of this has the least little thing to do with sound its all about cool stuff for guys who drool over cool stuff to have something to drool over.
So you hook up a volt meter across the speaker wires and watch the needle swing. The more old-timey the meter the better. And there’s a whole lot of things in this world I know, more even than you can imagine, but why guys drool over these meters is one I never will understand. They just do. And the more old-timey the better. The current gold standard for old-timey is Steampunk, which if you can nail that you can get a cool five figures for your three figure amp just like Danny D'. So go for it. And don’t forget to regale everyone with your new found encyclopedic knowledge of speaker power measurement. Preferably sans drool.
So we have voltage, and we have resistance, which is good because this means we have amps which is current flow.
Which brings us to watts. You wanted to know about watts. Watts are units of power or work. Volts times amps equals watts. Its a silly thing invented by a guy James Watt who wanted to quantify the power of his new invention called the steam engine. Started with horsepower, how many horses it could replace. Wouldn’t happen to be interested in measuring that, would you? Too bad, its a fascinating story. They all are.
Anyway, watts changes with impedance. Speaker impedance varies from speaker to speaker. Impedance even varies within the same speaker depending on frequency. You see the problem, surely? In order to measure watts in any meaningful way we are going to have to know the impedance. Now you know why every amp power rating is such and such watts at such and such ohms. Its never just watts. Its always watts into ohms.
How in the heck are we gonna measure that?! Well, we’re not. We’re gonna measure the voltage and call it good. Which is what they do. Because really when it comes right down to it none of this has the least little thing to do with sound its all about cool stuff for guys who drool over cool stuff to have something to drool over.
So you hook up a volt meter across the speaker wires and watch the needle swing. The more old-timey the meter the better. And there’s a whole lot of things in this world I know, more even than you can imagine, but why guys drool over these meters is one I never will understand. They just do. And the more old-timey the better. The current gold standard for old-timey is Steampunk, which if you can nail that you can get a cool five figures for your three figure amp just like Danny D'. So go for it. And don’t forget to regale everyone with your new found encyclopedic knowledge of speaker power measurement. Preferably sans drool.