How does power relate to loudness?
Though the rated power and the relative loudness of an amplifier are directly proportional to each other, one is not an exact indicator of the other for many reasons. The two we will cover here are which power rating is actually used, and how efficiently that power is delivered through a speaker. Manufacturers have through the years resorted to different ways of expressing the power ratings of their amplifiers. From a marketing stand point, big numbers sell products.
Though the rated power and the relative loudness of an amplifier are directly proportional to each other, one is not an exact indicator of the other for many reasons. The two we will cover here are which power rating is actually used, and how efficiently that power is delivered through a speaker. Manufacturers have through the years resorted to different ways of expressing the power ratings of their amplifiers. From a “marketing” stand point, big numbers sell products. For example, a Fender Twin Reverb could be classified in any of these ways: 100 R.M.S. and/or Continuous watts 150 E.I.A. watts 220 Peak Music watts 250 Pulsed Program watts 500 Peak watts 1000 Peak-to-Peak watts Notice, these are all ways to put a “different” number in front of the word “watts”, and yet they indicate the same thing with respect to the relative loudness of the Twin Reverb amplifier. So now you can see that not all “watts” are the same, unless “specifically” stated by the manufacturer. (In fact, they shou
