higher RMS means more power?

Question

does higher rms means higher power and better sound quality? Please enlighten me

Answer 1

Too many people confuse watts with sound quality. There is nothing more grating to me as when someone talks about "500 watt speakers" or the like. They are all numbers games that manufacturers play.

Distortion figures can be misleading too, and most people do not understand what harmonic distortion is, or what it means when an amp produces it. Plus, there are far worse types of distortion than harmonic - such as IM (intermodulation) and transient IM. Actually harmonic distortion is hard to hear, particularly if the strongest percentage is created at double the frequency being tested, because being the same pitch but an octave above makes it somewhat benign. Plus, loudspeakers are far worse as offenders in the harmonic distortion area.

The first answer is correct about power ratios. Power, however, tends to be most demanded by low bass. Most tweeters never see 10 watts in their lifetime, but woofers routinely deal with much more than that.

What does all this mean? Your question is in two parts that are not joined. Power is not higher quality of sound, it is simply more power. The amplifier topology determines the quality of the sound, and the best amplifiers do not pander to specs to sell their products.

I would use the power rating as a rough guideline, something that you match to your speakers and room, and taste. A 75 watt per channel amp is not better than 60 watts per channel, and you would not be able to tell the difference between the two. It may be better designed, but the 60 also could be, and would ultimately sound better. So, don't confuse quantity with quality!

Answer 2

rms=root mean square. It is the power an amp can continuously push. The dif between rms and peak is your "headroom" Generally speaking, higher rms= more sound, but dif amp manufacterers rate their equipment diff. So you could have 2 100w amps, and maybe one produces 100w RMS @ .01% total harmonic distortion, and another makes 100watts @.1% total harmonic distortion. The first amp is obviously WAY better, because if you kept cranking it up until you reached .1%THD then your 100 W amp would be producing more like 140 watts. You have to look close at how they are rated! I'd also like to mention that if you had a speaker, and it has a sensitivity of 90 DB 1W/1M then at 2watts it is producing 93Db@ 1 meter and at 4 watts it is only producing 96 DB @ one meter@ 8watts=99DB at 124 watts, you are only going to get 111 DB Everytime you double the power, you gain 3 db( just enough to hear the dif)so, adding watts to get DB's gets expensive, fast!

Answer 3

Hi. Power rating of amplifiers can be very confusing.An amplifier can have two or three different wattage figures which makes it difficult to decipher. There is only one correct way of specifying an amplifiers power output and that is the continuous power output of one or both channels driven into a specific resistive load at a given distortion covering the full frequency range as flat as possible with low THD ,TIM and Crossover Distortion. For example :

If an amplifier is rated at 50 watts RMS per channel it should have something like the following specifications :Power output :50 watts continuous min. each channel driven into 8 ohms load 20 to 20k HZ plus or minus 0.25DB at less than 0.01% THD.Some amplifiers can only deliver their full rated power at midrange frequencies and should be avoided.

Any other rating is meaningless.

Hope this helps a bit.
Cheers.

Answer 4

yes, rms means a continuos power that your amp can push out at max volume. It doesent mean better sound quality what it does mean is that it can drive your speakers with enough power so there's no distortion. I find amp like onkyo which use high current power supply's to drive speakers very well and with a very rich sound.

Answer 5

Here's a link that explains the difference between "peak" and "rms" power ratings...Click right here: http://www.avtruths.com/rmspeak.html