I noticed that boomboxes and stereos from the 80's or 90's use a lot less amplification than modern sound systems. Not having grown up during that time, I haven't had much of an opportunity to mess around with older equipment. From what I've heard though, they didn't sound terrible or sound underpowered. My grandfather who worked with speakers in the 70's and 80's came to visit a while back and listened to a couple of the systems I had built. He was shocked and almost refused to believe it when I told him one of the systems was pushing 350 watts rms in total, which is not even that high for a modern system. He asked me if I was sure it wasn't more like 30 watts, which would be pretty underpowered for a 2.1 system today. So why did it work back then? Why do modern systems need so much power? Were the drivers just built for higher sensitivity back then?
I doubt it's using anything close to 350W RMS continuously, that's just what the amplifiers are capable of in total. I haven't bothered measuring it, that's what the amps are rated for so that's what I assumed. I'm just wondering how older stereos were able to play so low with reasonable volume without distorting with weak amplifiers providing such little headroom.
Ok. Just because your amp is specified to survive delivering 350W continuasly doesn't mean it did during the presentation you gave or that it ever came close during the time you've owned it. I know it's easy to get confused by these ratings but why don't you hook up a voltage meter across the terminals, set the volume knob to the upper end of how you usually listen and measure the voltage with a 50Hz, a 300Hz and a 1k sine wave (easy to generate on your computer) and see what that gives. There is a pretty good chance you are in the single digit power output most of the time.
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And given your initial thought, if you got offered an amplifier with a continuous rating of 12 Watts and for 6 dollars more one with a 350 W rating which would you buy? Right. And that's why it's hard to find a 12W amp, even if it would make sense a lot of times.
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Sorry let me clarify, I know it definitely didn't come close to that during that presentation, and probably never has. I know we prefer bigger amplifiers so there's no distortion or clipping when there's peaks. As in if my amplifier was rated at 50 watts rms instead of 350, there would be a higher chance of the speakers distorting if I was playing music at a higher volume and there's a sudden spike in bass, maybe drums or something, right? Whereas because I have a more powerful amplifier, there's more head room, so it won't distort as easily. So I'm wondering how speakers 40-50 years ago got away with having such little headroom because of their weak amplifiers while maintaining decent performance.
Did they really have much less headroom ??? 😉
Apart from that: Yes there is a trend towards smaller speakers, increased bass content and more lf extension recently. The first and the third factor do definitely not increased efgiciency.
Regards
Charles
Regards
Apart from that: Yes there is a trend towards smaller speakers, increased bass content and more lf extension recently. The first and the third factor do definitely not increased efgiciency.
Regards
Charles
Regards
I would think they had less right? A lot of the boomboxes from back then seem to have rms ratings of barely 15 watts or usually less, that's seems a good amount less than the systems of today. Now that I think about it though, it seems like modern systems need more power because of how much equalization is being used too.
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Why bang 350watts into a low efficiency speaker
When 10 watts of high efficiency will blow your ears off
1watt @ 1 meter 85db
1watt@ 1 meter. 97db
Watts are cheap distortion is cheap as well as intermodulation and all the rest when a speaker driver has to move so far back n forth it’s out of its comfort zone.
Slim n thin small n neat speakers of these days can’t cut it when you want the orchestra in your room😛
When 10 watts of high efficiency will blow your ears off
1watt @ 1 meter 85db
1watt@ 1 meter. 97db
Watts are cheap distortion is cheap as well as intermodulation and all the rest when a speaker driver has to move so far back n forth it’s out of its comfort zone.
Slim n thin small n neat speakers of these days can’t cut it when you want the orchestra in your room😛
Speaker drivers have improved dramatically since the 80s, but power handling in a hifi system is not all that useful.
Keep in mind that 350 w is only 10dB louder than a 35 w amp (ie 2x as loud), and how gracefully an amplifier clips is more important than how much power it has.
I hav eheard 20w amps that play louder than 200 w amps before audiable clipping.
dave
Keep in mind that 350 w is only 10dB louder than a 35 w amp (ie 2x as loud), and how gracefully an amplifier clips is more important than how much power it has.
I hav eheard 20w amps that play louder than 200 w amps before audiable clipping.
dave
1)The difference between 30 and 350 watts is just over 10 dB, which sounds "twice as loud" (at 1000 Hz), assuming the speakers can translate the power into output.
2)It was affordable, and portable. Cheap modern amps use class D rather than class AB, far more efficient, less weight, less cost- pretty much a 10dB reduction in material cost and weight, allowing for way more "bang for the buck" now. Around 1975 when your grandfather was into sound, getting power for about a dollar per watt was a "good deal", now you can get 10-15 watts per dollars that are worth 5 times less. Adjusted for inflation, that's like 50 times cheaper power!
The advance in power amp design is similar to the changes in lighting- an LED light drawing just 10 watts can put out as much candlepower (lumens) as a 60 watt incandescent. The savings in air conditioning (cooling) from both advances is amazing, though in wintertime, those old lights and amps were nice..
3)Having more (cheap) power available allows for the use of less efficient speakers, which tend to cost less.
That said, there are small drivers now cheaply available with 3 times the excursion available as was typical in the 1980s, allowing for 10 dB more low bass from a similar size cabinet if given 10dB more power.
Art
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In 1980 I built a mobile disco from Maplin kits.
The power amplifier was 225WRMS.
I had two speaker cabinets with 2 off Fane 12-50WRMS speakers in each.
It was very loud to say the least and I quite often got asked to turn it down coz it was making people ears hurt.
A lot of modern speakers are very high wattage but dont have much more xmax than the ones I used way back.
My favourite speaker is still a 1980 Fane 12-50WRMS in a W bin which I listen to daily.
The power amplifier was 225WRMS.
I had two speaker cabinets with 2 off Fane 12-50WRMS speakers in each.
It was very loud to say the least and I quite often got asked to turn it down coz it was making people ears hurt.
A lot of modern speakers are very high wattage but dont have much more xmax than the ones I used way back.
My favourite speaker is still a 1980 Fane 12-50WRMS in a W bin which I listen to daily.
