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What does speaker sensitivity

I'm playing folk music in a coffee shop. How much amplifier power do I need? Our rock group will be playing in a seat concert hall. How many watts will we need? I just bought some PA speakers.


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WATCH RELATED VIDEO: How to Measure your Speaker's Sensitivity (Part 1 of 2)

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I'm playing folk music in a coffee shop. How much amplifier power do I need? Our rock group will be playing in a seat concert hall. How many watts will we need? I just bought some PA speakers. I want to play them as loud as they can get without blowing them up. Which amplifier should I get? First, define your goal. Do you want to power some loudspeakers so they play as loud as possible without burning out? If so, all you need to read is the section below.

Do you want to achieve a certain loudness in a certain venue? If so, skip to the section called Power vs. You can determine this by looking at the speaker's data sheet. Look for the Nominal Impedance spec.

Typically it will be 2, 4, 8 or 16 ohms. It might be called IEC rating or Power capacity. If you can prevent the power amp from clipping by using a limiter , use a power amp that supplies 2 to 4 times the speakers continuous power rating per channel. This allows 3 to 6 dB of headroom for peaks in the audio signal.

Speakers are built to handle those short-term peaks. If you cant keep the power amp from clipping say, you have no limiter and the system is overdriven or goes into feedback the amplifier power should equal the speakers continuous power rating.

That way the speaker wont be damaged if the amp clips by overdriving its input. In this case there is no headroom for peaks, so youll have to drive the speaker at less than its full rated power if you want to avoid distortion. If you are mainly doing light dance music or voice, we recommend that the amplifier power be 1. The amplifier power must be rated for the impedance of the loudspeaker 2, 4, 8 or 16 ohms.

Here's an example. Suppose the impedance of your speaker is 4 ohms, and its Continuous Power Handling is W. If you are playing light dance music, the amplifier's 4-ohm power should be 1. If you use much more power, you are likely to damage the speaker by forcing the speaker cone to its limits.

If you use much less power, youll probably turn up the amp until it clips, trying to make the speaker loud enough. Clipping can damage speakers due to overheating. So stay with 1. This section will suggest how big a power amplifier you need to fill a venue with loud, clear sound. Basically, the louder the sound system and the bigger the room, the more power is required.

Loudspeakers with high sensitivity need less power than loudspeakers with low sensitivity. The list below recommends the total amplifier power needed for several applications. Each application has a range of power based on the desired loudness and the typical loudspeaker sensitivity. Although a rock concert in an arena could be powered by 15, watts allowing only 6 dB of headroom for peaks, you'll often see large touring sound companies using 80, to , watts total.

That much power is needed to handle to dB peaks without any clipping, and to power extra speakers for even coverage of a large area. If one loudspeaker won't handle the total power required, you need to divide the total power among multiple loudspeakers and multiple amplifier channels. For example, suppose you need watts to achieve the desired average loudness, but your speakers power handling is watts continuous. You could use a power amplifier of watts per channel.

Connect two loudspeakers in parallel on each channel. That way, each speaker will receive watts not considering the change in amplifier power at different impedances, and not considering cable losses. Note that if you parallel two speakers, their total impedance is halved. For example, two 8-ohm speakers in parallel have an impedance of 4 ohms. In that case, each speaker would receive half of the amplifier's 4-ohm power. On the Crown website is a calculator that determines the amplifier power required to achieve the desired SPL at a certain distance.

It also accounts for the number of dB of amplifier headroom needed for audio peaks. Text accompanying the calculator gives the equations used. Click on the following link to go to Crown's power calculator: Calculator.

To use that calculator, you need to know the loudspeaker sensitivity, peak headroom, listener distance, and the desired SPL. Let's examine each factor. The sensitivity spec can be found in the loudspeaker's data sheet. Bigger speakers generally have higher sensitivity than smaller speakers, and high-frequency drivers have higher sensitivity than low-frequency drivers. Because music has transient peaks that are 6 to 25 dB above the average level, the power amplifier needs to produce enough power to handle those peaks without distortion.

For example, if you need watts continuous power to achieve the desired average SPL, you need 1, watts continuous to handle 10 dB peaks, 3, watts to handle 15 dB peaks, and 10, watts to handle 20 dB peaks. Clearly, the peaks require far more power than the average levels. In the calculator's Peak Headroom field, enter 6 dB for rock music that is compressed or limited, or enter 20 to 25 dB for uncompressed live music.

If you can live with some short-term clipping which may be inaudible, enter 10 to 15 dB. This is the distance from the loudspeaker to the farthest listener.

If you are using several loudspeakers that extend into the audience, this distance is from the nearest loudspeaker. For example, if the audience is feet deep, and you have speakers at 0 feet and 50 feet, the listener distance is 50 feet. If you don't know this distance, you can make a rough estimate from the typical values below.

Be sure to enter the distance in meters m. Coffee house: 16 to 32 feet 4. Listed below are typical sound pressure levels SPLs for various types of music. The SPL meter was set to C-weighting, slow response. You might want your system to be at least 10 dB above the background noise level to achieve a good signal-to-noise ratio.

The calculations discussed here apply to anechoic or outdoor conditions. If the sound system is inside a venue, the room reverberation will increase the SPL typically by 6 dB. You can use this room gain as extra headroom. Suppose you need to supply watts for peaks, and your speaker's continuous power handling is watts. A speaker's peak power handling is typically 4 times its continuous power handling.

So the speaker can probably handle watts peak. That means you can use a watt amplifier to drive that speaker -- as long as you use that power for peaks, and do not drive the speaker continuously with watts. In other words, don't turn up the amp so high that it clips.

What if your sound system uses an active crossover and a separate power-amp channel for each driver? Apply the calculator to each driver type. Say you have a 3-way system. Determine the power separately for the subs, midrange drivers and high-frequency drivers. All three types of driver should produce the same SPL at the same distance. Note that horn-loaded drivers tend to have much higher sensitivity than subwoofers, so the horns need less power to produce the same SPL as the subs.

Suppose your sound system has multiple loudspeakers that extend into the audience area. For example: an outdoor festival with speaker clusters on delays every feet, or a set of ceiling-mounted speakers. Apply the calculator to each nearby speaker cluster or speaker. Once you know how much power you need, you can select a Crown amplifier from this list. There is some overlap in this list because each power amplifier produces different amounts of power depending on the load impedance.

You might want to choose an amplifier that has more power than you need in case you expand your applications. Also, it's wise to specify a little more power than you need.

You can always turn down a power amp if the system is too loud, but you can't turn up a power amp past maximum if the system is too quiet!

With the tools and advice in this article, you should be able to purchase or recommend a power amplifier with the right amount of wattage for the style of music and venue. Howard W. In that same issue, Pat Brown wrote an article on amplifier power calculation. At Crown, we often are asked similar questions, and this article will provide some answers.

How much power can my speakers handle? Power vs. Application This section will suggest how big a power amplifier you need to fill a venue with loud, clear sound. The recommended power allows for signal peaks of 10 dB for folk, jazz and pop music. Actually the peaks might be as high as 25 dB, but we're allowing for some inaudible short-term clipping.


Speaker Power and Distance

Speaker sensitivity is a measure of how efficiently a speaker converts amplifier power to acoustic energy. In other words, it tells us how loud the volume will be for power output from the amplifier. With a speaker, we are talking about the acoustic output, or the volume, resulting from a given amount of power. Measuring the decibel dB output of a speaker when applying 1 watt of power provides the degree of sensitivity.

Also how does an Impedance curve differ from a normal FR curve? I'm also a bit confused about phase angles. The Infinity Kappa 9 is a classic example of the.

Speaker Sensitivity Explained


Even if you have some basic understanding of these specifications, you might get confused by different measurement methods and different units. One of the characteristics that can be really tricky is speaker sensitivity and there are numerous reasons for that — some manufacturers call it efficiency sensitivity and efficiency are not the same things , some manufacturers use dB at 1m per 1W, others use dB at 1m per 2. The main problem with sensitivity is that there is no industry standard when it comes to measuring and unit of measurement that would be the same for all the manufacturers. In this article, we will be focusing on all the important things related to sensitivity ratings. We will try to clarify all the ambiguities, make a difference between sensitivity and efficiency, explain different measurement methods and measurement units, and offer you a few pieces of advice on how to compare sensitivity ratings. Speaker sensitivity — it tells us how loud noise a speaker will make for some given input. In order to calculate the efficiency, you have to divide the acoustic power output by the electrical power input. The most of the electrical power input is actually converted into heat.

Understanding Input Sensitivity for Powered Monitors

what does speaker sensitivity

June 8, A typical professional speaker will have a sensitivity rating of anywhere between 85 — decibels. For example: If I have a speaker with a sensitivity rating of 85 dB to increase the sound output to 88 dB I will need to double the power. So this speaker will need 2 watts to produce 88 decibels, 4 watts to produce 91 decibels, 8 watts to produce 94 decibels, etc.

Speakerphones generally use a microphone with low sensitivity, so the speaker must be speaking into the microphone at close range, which limits its range of use.

How Much Power Do Speakers Need? Speaker Specs Explained


When you start shopping for speakers, you may come across claims about how easy or hard a speaker is to drive. Speakers have different sensitivities which are indicated by a dB rating into either one watt or 2. A very sensitive speaker can get louder with less power than a less sensitive speaker. But what does this mean for you? This means that when the speaker is fed either one watt or 2.

New explanation of speaker sensitivity

This can feel like a complicated and overwhelming question when putting together your home theater. With specs from wattage, speaker sensitivity, decibels and more, it can feel like some really difficult math homework. Most people enjoy media at about the same maximum volume. Nearly every amplifier is going to provide enough power for your speakers. Amplifiers capable of putting out watts of power will be capable of making your system fully functional at a normal listening volume. More specifically, if you have an average-sized room about 12 feet and listen at an average volume, you will likely only need 50 watts of power for your speakers. There are dangers, however, to miscalculating and misusing your equipment.

To put it simply, the basic principle of the sound of ordinary household speakers is: the power amplifier gives an electrical signal, which.

Speakers with Different Sensitivity Ratings – Problems and Solutions

Discussion in ' Audio Hardware ' started by plimpington2 , Feb 18, Log in or Sign up. Steve Hoffman Music Forums. Location: Cleveland.

Speaker sensitivity is a measurement of how well a speaker converts the amplifier power to to acoustic energy. In others words, how loud the speaker will be for a given amplifier power. Measuring speaker sensitivity is not difficult in concept, but is mainly done by speaker manufacturers and independent consultants. Basically, the sound output of a speaker is measured with a calibrated sound level meter.

More attention needs to be paid to the sensitivity rating of a speaker, which we call out as the SPL rating on our speaker specifications. This SPL rating is listed with a given input at a fixed distance.

Sensitivity is the output sound pressure level that is measured at 1m when 1 Watt of power is being consumed. At 8-ohms, 1 Watt would be with 2. At 4 ohms, 1 Watt would require only 2V. The current standard allows using 2. This causes some confusion about what is being specified as Sensitivity. Efficiency is the ratio of acoustical output power to electrical input power, measured in watts, expressed as a percentage.

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