What Is Rms Power?
RMS power verses Maximum power.
When purchasing car audio equipment you will find that there are Maximum powers and RMS powers.
The term RMS stands for Root Mean Square. This can be put more simply as the average running power of an amplifier. RMS is a much more important factor to consider rather than maximum power. If an amplifier has a high RMS power you will be able to use it constantly at a high volume. The maximum power of an amplifier is exactly that. You will not be able to run the amplifier at that power for more than a split second as a fuse is likely to blow or the overheat function will kick in and turn the amplifier off. Also running at maximum power will significantly reduce the quality of sound produced.
Power is measured in Watts. It is calculated by multiplying the voltage by the current flowing through the component.
How can this be calculated?
Imagine a Sin wave. It has a maximum value and a minimum value. If you were to take the difference between these you would get the peak to peak difference. The RMS power is calculated by dividing the peaktopeak difference by the square root of two. The RMS value can never be more than the maximum because it is an average.
From this we can conclude that the higher the RMS is of an amplifier the more power it can transfer without distorting. This means better quality sound. When buying an amplifier or some speakers aim to buy products with a high RMS power. Also try to match the powers so that the amplifier is suite to the speaker.
Written by Steven Lewis
About the writer: please visit my website dedicated to free car audio advice www.iceadvice.com
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