Monday 13 January 2014

Does Great Wireless Loudspeaker Power Efficiency Mean Great Cost?

By Michelle Jaeger


If you are ready to acquire brand new cordless loudspeakers, you might be concerned about how efficiently your wireless loudspeakers function. I will reveal precisely what the term "power efficiency" stands for and also why you need to take a closer look at this number during your selection of new cordless speakers. A fairly high amount of power is radiated as heat when you get a set of low-efficiency cordless speakers. This may bring about a few problems: A great deal of wasted power obviously will mean greater operating expenditure which means that a more expensive pair of cordless speakers might actually in the long term end up being cheaper when compared to a cheaper type with lower efficiency. Lower efficiency wireless loudspeakers are going to radiate a great deal of power as heat. To shield the circuit components, low-efficiency cordless speakers must find methods to get rid of the heat that is created. Typically more elements have to be included in order to dissipate sufficient energy and sustain the ideal operating temperature. These components usually are heat sinks along with fans. Heat sinks as well as fans are heavy, use up room and also produce noises. Wireless speakers that have low efficiency cannot be placed in tight spaces or within sealed enclosures given that they need a great deal of circulation.

Since low-efficiency wireless loudspeakers are going to deliver merely a small fraction of the energy consumed by the amp as useful audio power, the amplifier needs a bigger power source than high-efficiency products leading to higher cost. An elevated amount of heat brings about additional stress on elements. The lifespan of the cordless loudspeakers may be reduced and reliability can be affected. High-efficiency cordless loudspeakers on the other hand do not endure these problems and can be built very small.

Low-efficiency types require more total power in order to create the same amount of audio power as high-efficiency types. Therefore they require a larger power supply which makes the wireless speakers more costly to make. Additionally, the thermal stress on the circuit board components and amp materials is a lot more severe and may lessen the reliability. The power efficiency is displayed as a percentage in the wireless loudspeakers data sheet. Various amplifier topologies deliver different power efficiencies. Class-A amps are amongst the least efficient and Class-D the most efficient. Typical power efficiencies vary from 25% to 98%. Acquiring an amplifier which has an efficiency of 90% for example will mean that 10% of the power that is utilized is squandered whilst 90% will be audio power.

The efficiency is shown as a percentage in the cordless loudspeakers data sheet. Various amp topologies deliver different power efficiencies. Class-A amplifiers are amongst the least efficient and Class-D the most efficient. Typical power efficiencies range between 25% to 98%. From the efficiency percentage you'll be able to compute the amount of power the amp will waste. An amp which has a 50% power efficiency is going to waste 50 % of the used power. An amplifier that has 90% efficiency will squander 10%.

In order to measure the efficiency, usually a test tone of 1 kHz is fed into the amplifier and a power resistor connected to the amplifier output to emulate the loudspeaker load. Next the amp output signal is measured and the wattage calculated that the amplifier provides to the load which is subsequently divided by the total power the amplifier consumes. Generally a full power report is plotted to display the dependency of the efficiency on the output power. This is why the output power is swept through different values. The power efficiency at every value is tested plus a efficiency plot created.

Whilst switching (Class-D) amplifiers have amongst the greatest efficiency, they have a tendency to possess larger sound distortion than analog music amplifiers and reduced signal-to-noise ratio. Thus you will have to weigh the size of the cordless loudspeakers against the music fidelity. Some new cordless speakers, including models which have Class-T amplifiers, have the ability to lessen music distortion to levels close to those of products using analog music amps and also can achieve great signal-to-noise ratio. Choosing one of these kinds of cordless loudspeakers will deliver high power efficiency and at the same time large audio fidelity.




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