Explaining The Phrase “Loudspeaker Wattage”

Choosing the ideal type of wireless loudspeakers is tricky when confronted with a big array of different technical jargon and specifications, for instance “sound pressure level”, “output power” and so on. I will give a short overview of the output power specification in order to help you better understand the meaning of this specification and how it relates to the performance of a speaker.

Thus it may be tricky to figure out the actual performance of the speaker merely by looking at the specifications. A good technique though is to do a listening test before purchasing your speaker. To put it in a nutshell, “output power” relates to how much power your loudspeaker can endure without damage. You wish to pick the speaker power based on how large your listening space is. Most speakers are going to have increasing music distortion as output wattage increases. For that reason, you wish to get a loudspeaker that has higher output power than you will really need. In the past, manufacturers have usually favored listing the “peak power”. This number is bigger than the average or “rms” power. Ideally the speaker will display both the rms and peak power spec. These bursts are going to drive the loudspeaker into large distortion unless the peak power is high enough.

As such the largest output wattage of your amplifier will vary depending on the speaker impedance. The smaller the speaker impedance the higher the maximum power your amplifier can deliver.