How Does a Car Stereo Amplifier Work?
Introduction Car stereo amplifiers are used to boost the incoming signal from the head unit or stereo, and direct the new, more powerful signal to the speakers. These amplifiers are very complicated and different qualities exist. A cheap amplifier will advertise peak power only or will double the number of watts put out by each channel for a “total” power rating, which is misleading. How They Work Through a series of inductors, transistors, conductors, resistors, rectifiers and capacitors running through a computer-like circuit board, the electrical signal coming into one end of the amp is boosted and released out the other side to the speakers. RMS vs. Peak Power The RMS, or root mean square rating of an amplifier is approximately 70% of the peak output the amp is capable of. For this reason, simply advertising the peak power of an amplifier is not the correct way to do it, because the amplifier is only capable of these numbers for split seconds. To figure out the actual output of an
