Engadget, watts are only half of how load a speaker gets. Any given speaker will have a certain sensitivity, which is how much sound it will produce with one watt of input at a distance of one meter. A speaker that has a sensitivity of 90dB will sound twice as loud with one watt than a speaker with a sensitivity of 84dB with one watt. Some people have 100dB sensitive speakers that they run with a one-watt amplifier, and it could probably shake your walls down.
A 3 dB increase corresponds to a doubling of the sound energy (pressure^2), but psychoacoustically this doesn't translate into a doubling of perceived loudness.
Loudness depends on spectral content and the individual, but a good rule of thumb is that a ~10 dB increase in sound pressure level yields a doubling in apparent loudness.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
max andrews @ Oct 6th 2007 9:42PM
Engadget, watts are only half of how load a speaker gets. Any given speaker will have a certain sensitivity, which is how much sound it will produce with one watt of input at a distance of one meter. A speaker that has a sensitivity of 90dB will sound twice as loud with one watt than a speaker with a sensitivity of 84dB with one watt. Some people have 100dB sensitive speakers that they run with a one-watt amplifier, and it could probably shake your walls down.
Nipponese @ Oct 7th 2007 1:03AM
You mean 90dB will sound twice as loud than 87dB. It is double every 3dB.
martin @ Oct 7th 2007 6:00AM
A 3 dB increase corresponds to a doubling of the sound energy (pressure^2), but psychoacoustically this doesn't translate into a doubling of perceived loudness.
Loudness depends on spectral content and the individual, but a good rule of thumb is that a ~10 dB increase in sound pressure level yields a doubling in apparent loudness.