i have a old school punch 600 watt amp is that rated RMS?

Question

I have a friend that told me if i had a 600 watt amp that meant it was actually putting out 1200 watts bc it is rated at 600 watts RMS... is this true or is he just an idiot?

Answer 1

600 watts RMS is what the amp puts out continuously.

1200 watts MAX (peak) is what the amp can sometimes reach, not very often.

Answer 2

RMS stand for "root mean squared" and is something like taking the area under the curve of a variable signal to find its relative power.

It should be interpreted as "continuous duty cycle power". It will peak higher.

With everyone's obsession for wattage without understanding how this is accomplished - most manufacturers rate their amps power at the lowest resistance that the amp is even marginally able to sustain. This is a falsehood - you don't actually get that much power out of the amp.

This is done to try to "one up" everyone else, so that all you "generation Maxim" guys who buy these things get all hot and bothered by the big numbers on the box. This is what seems to sell amps, so the amp guys are doing it.

I have a Pioneer 4 channel 600 and a Pioneer 760 2 channel which I have bridged to drive my sub. I figure I am actually getting (based on current readings with a meter - RMS) about 240w out of the 600 and about 380w out of the 760.

It is plenty loud and high quality sound, which is what I was really after.

Answer 3

your friend is an idiot. If it just says 600 w, that is its peak. If it says 600 rms, its significantly more, but there is no rule of thumb to how much more the peak is from the rms. It depends on the make and model.

Answer 4

The site on the Internet to find
http://www.dricq.com/school/index.shtm
http://www.dricq.com/school/Health/14102.shtm
http://www.dricq.com/school/Health/index.shtm