Power or lack of it...

[gianni]

Just curious,

Has anyone here ever tried using a multimeter across your speaker terminals to get an idea of how much power your speakers are really using? I know this method is not exact and complicated by the fact of the varying impedance. But it should give you a rough idea.

My speakers are 4 ohm, around 89 db sensitivity. They are high passed at 80 hz with the lower frequencies going to the powered sub. I know this set up will lessen demand on the main amp.

Given all of the above, I'm still surprised at how little power is used. Usually not more than a watt or two. Any body else? It would be interesting to see what others are averaging with various configurations.

[Gianluca]

A voltmeter cannot messure the voltage across the terminals as the frequency is not within the voltmeters range. A voltmeter is designed to messure AC voltage at 60HZ not 20000HZ. Maybe DC amps could be better but agin varying frequency and voltage, and the fact that refresh rate of a voltmeter is low. Ociloscope would be the best bet.

Gianluca

[gianni]

Sorry meant multimeter but your point is well taken. Has anyone here with more appropriate equipment tried this? It would be interesting to see what percentage of these ever more powerful amplifiers we are really using. I know peaks and low bass will draw more power. But what do we typically use?

[littlesaint]

Sounds about right actually. An 89 dB speaker would only need about 5 watts to produce 86 dBs at about 10 feet. Which as perceived by your ears, depending on frequency, can be quite loud. However, to get up to 100 dBs it needs 100 watts. This is important for lower and higher frequencies as our ears are less sensitive there and require a higher SPL to perceive the equivalent loudness of midrange frequencies.