| Re: Speaker Electrical Specifications Questions [message #78693 is a reply to message #78691] |
Wed, 18 December 2013 11:44   |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18958
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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Honestly, those are two very basic properties and, by themselves, don't tell you all that much about how a speaker will act. It's like knowing what gas and oil are recommended for a car. That will give you a basic knowledge of what is needed to make the car "go", and will probably be enough for you to use the car for a few months. But there's a lot more to know to understand a car's performance - things like tire size, camber, caster, suspension geometry, spring rate, shock damping, gear ratios and even more detailed stuff like intake, exhaust and head flow, turbulence, swirl, spark timing and what camshaft valve timing gives best power in what RPM range for a particular intake manifold and exhaust or what rod/journal size and clearance is required to get a hydrodynamic wedge in the main and rod bearings without overheating for the RPM range chosen.
I know, that didn't help much, it's like using an anology in Russian to help you understand something in Greek, when the language you know is English. But my point is that impedance and maximum power ratings are not enough to describe a speaker. More importantly, you want to know things like its response curve and coverage pattern.
To answer your question though, "ohms" are a rating of the speaker's average impedance. This is important when selecting speakers to use with a particular amplifier. But in general, most speakers have average impedance somewhere between 4Ω and 16Ω. Most amplifiers can handle that range, so that's not too tricky. The "wattage" rating of a speaker tells you how much power it can safely handle. Above that point, it can be damaged. You'll usually hear it strain before it is damaged too. So that also isn't too tricky.
The amount of power dissipated is actually set by the amplifier's voltage and the speaker's impedance. Higher voltage and/or lower impedance results in higher power levels. So there is an interaction there, and I suppose some might see that relationship as kind of tricky. But there's no need to complicate this. It's pretty basic stuff.
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