Audio power is the electrical power transferred from an audio amplifier to a loudspeaker, measured in watts. The electrical power delivered to the loudspeaker, together with its sensitivity, determines the sound power level generated (with the rest being converted to heat).
Amplifiers are limited in the electrical energy they can amplify, while loudspeakers are limited in the electrical energy they can convert to sound energy without distorting the audio signal or damaging themselves. These power ratings are important to consumers finding compatible products and comparing competitors.
Read more about Audio Power: Power Handling, Power Calculations, Continuous Power, Peak Power, Total System Power, Sine Wave Power, PMPO, Power and Loudness in The Real World, 'Music Power' — The Real Issues, Matching Amplifier To Loudspeaker, Power Handling in 'active' Speakers
Famous quotes containing the word power:
“All goes to show that the soul in man is not an organ, but animates and exercises all the organs; is not a function, like the power of memory, of calculation, of comparison, but uses these as hands and feet; is not a faculty, but a light, is not the intellect or the will, but the master of the intellect and the will; is the background of our being, in which they lie,—an immensity not possessed and that cannot be possessed.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)