What’s with the Watts? (Part 1, the amplifier)

One item to which most everyone can relate that also is rated in watts is a standard household light bulb. As anyone who has experience with light bulbs will know, an 80 watt light bulb is more powerful than a 40 watt light bulb, and for the most part, a Sylvania 40 watt light bulb will do the EXACT same thing as a Plus Right 40 watt bulb…. or pretty much any other 40 watt bulb for that matter.

Unfortunately when navigating the ruthless marketing of the car audio industry, things are not so simple. While it is true that 80 watts is more powerful than 40 watts any way you slice it, all brands are NOT created equal and a product rated 80 watts may not necessarily put out more sound than one rated 40 watts.

First we shall discuss amplifiers. This includes everything between the speaker outputs of your CD player to some of the multiple thousand watt competition grade power amplifiers. All amplifiers are rated in Watts, and yes, generally speaking, the more the merrier, but this is by far not the first thing to consider. To put things in context it will be best to do a brief history of the ratings of car audio equipment.

In the early days, there were honest ratings on most stuff on the market. A 50 watt amp would deliver 50 watts in most applications and perform reasonably well at that power level. As the market became larger and more competitive many companies sought to take advantage of the ignorance of the average consumer and began “over-rating” their products. I’ll admit that in my day I bought more than one “600 watt” amp that would have a hard time producing 50 watts.

Somewhere shortly thereafter, the competition circuit became very popular and drove a lot of the marketing and engineering of the higher end car audio. Competitors would compete in categories much like boxers so that the 350 pounder isn’t beating the tar out of the 90 pounder who may be a better fighter in his class. Of course, the categories were broke down by you guessed it…..Watts! Many companies now began “under-rating” their amps. I have personally owned more than one amp rated at 50 watts that would easily deliver closer to 600. Obviously, the guy with a 600 watt system had the edge over the guy with the honestly rated 50 watt system in the same category, and many companies made a reputation by dominating competitions with this technique. These grossly under-rated amps (affectionally known as “cheater amps”) were made in the heyday of American car audio manufacturing and were typically very high quality and are still sought after by collectors, hobyists, and audiophiles to this day. In 1997 Orion made an amp rated at 2 watts that would deliver roughly 1000 watts in the competition lanes just to prove a point, and shortly after that, the competition circuit put a stop to it by changing the way they broke down categories of competitors.

Today, we still have a mix of these, but hardly to the extremes we had in the old days. The unwary consumer can be fooled by a low price and a big number stamped on the box, and the savvy buyer can get into a product that will deliver more than advertized. Most companies now rate with the Consumer Electronics Association standard method, these amps are advertized as “CEA Compliant”. This number is generally slightly inflated in terms of real world performance and still subject to a bit of fudging by unscrupulous companies, but certainly a better standard than we ever had, and a good tool for comparing products of similar brands and model lines. In ANY case, ignore “Peak” or “Max” power ratings. Look for RMS power. I could (and may) write a whole other article about how many ways companies can mislead consumers with power ratings and still be “honest”, but we can pass that for the sake of the rest of the discussion.

So what do you really need? From here on in this dissertation I will discuss power ratings in real honest numbers.

Most head units will produce 15 watts real world power (though most are rated much higher). The average person will be more than happy with an upgrade to 50 to 75 watts of real power on component speakers (separates or coaxials). My general rule of thumb is to have at least as much power to the subwoofers as is going to all component speakers added together to sound balanced and even. For example if you have 4 coaxial speakers in front and rear each getting 50 watts, consider a subwoofer amp that will push minimum 200 watts. A system with good quality equipment with 50 to 75 watts per channel on components and 200-600 watts to subwoofer(s) will be quite powerful and should deliver sound intensities that can damage your hearing with prolonged exposure. Also at this level, even the most meager factory car electrical system should be able to keep up with no upgrades. Remember the lightbulb. the 80 watt not only is twice as powerful as the 40 watt, it also uses twice as much energy! In the home you just pay an extra couple bucks on your electric bill, in the car, you quickly run into the limitations of a standard car charging system.

For those of us who want the car to sound like the front row at your favorite concert, you run into diminishing marginal returns at around 100 watts. For a gain of 3db in spl (sound preasure level “loudness”) which is “noticeably louder” you will need to double the power. So from the 15 watt head unit to a 75 watt amp, there is a lot of 3db gains. Once we get over 100, we need to double up to 200, 400, 800, 1600, etc. for the same amount of percieved extra volume as we got from 15 to 30! Not only does this get rather expensive in itself for the equipment, but after around 1000 to 2000 watts (depending on the equipment and car) we need to start upgrading our car’s electrical system, which can be complex and expensive. If you’re competing in the “db Drag” competitions, every fraction helps, but for the average consumer, remember that the difference between a 1000 watt system and a 2000 watt system may not be worth the cost, space, and trouble.

OK, so how do you avoid getting scammed? Fist of all there’s no such thing as a free lunch! Be wary of equipment with huge power ratings and very low price tags. There are a few products out there that are genuine bargains, and some companies have a poor quality product at a premium price tag, but in general, you get what you pay for.

Next DO YOUR HOMEWORK!!!

Ask around locally or on online forums if a product you’re looking at is any good. Make sure whoever you ask has had a bit of experience with a variety of different products. Some brands change ownership and can be great with one year and model and poor in the next. Many brands have different product “lines”. You don’t buy a Ford and expect a Lincoln. Try to avoid the “entry level” models in any given brand. Some low quality manufacturers will manufacture under multiple brand names and come out with new brand names periodically once their last brand name gets a bad reputation. Any company that has to change brand names to try to outrace a bad reputation earned by an inferior product should be avoided at all costs! Also as with the car analogy, ask around about a product’s reliability. A great sounding powerful amp will do little good if it blows up the day after the warranty runs out!

Lastly, use your ears. At the end of the day, numbers, specs, brands, bikini models in advertising, and even neon lights mean very little. If something sounds good to you, it is good. When at all possible go out and look, touch, and listen for yourself. Do side by side comparisons with premium products and entry level products, and bring your favorite music along so you have a reference point.

Personally I don’t know of any American made product that is not top quality, though they are getting scarce and many of the remaining companies are rather expensive. That being said, many of the European products are also top quality, and even a few of the Korean offerings are getting pretty good.

This by far is not a complete guide to amplifier selection, but I hope it helps decode a bit of the mysteries and misconceptions surrounding power ratings. Coming soon “Part 2 Speakers”

Jon A (hispls)

Car Stereo Mall

What’s with the Watts? (Part 1, the amplifier)

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