Hi guys, i've got a question about voltage swing. Now, I know that to convert voltage to watts (to find out how much voltage is coming out the speaker terminals) you multiply the voltage by itself and then divide it by the speaker's impedance to give you a wattage figure, but I was looking at amplifier specs and saw voltage swing. I've been looking at the spec 'Maximum RMS Voltage Swing'. It states on the EV Q1212 amplifier that it's 90.6 volts. Now does that mean per channel or overall maximum from the amplifier regardless of speaker impedance? By the way, voltage swing is the maximum an amplifier can output before clipping right?
Voltage swing question
- Thread starter Richard Stringer
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Re: Voltage swing question
At high impedances (16 ohms), many amps are voltage limited - the swing will determine the max power. At more usual loads of 8 ohms and especially low impedance loads of 4 ohms, virtually all amplifiers are current limited, which means the power delivered is limited to the current supply of the amp, and some lower corresponding value for the actual delivered voltage results. In other words, if the load is heavy, the amp is unable to deliver it's no-load swing voltage under that circumstance.
The ITechs are high voltage lower current designs which is why their 8 ohm power is so good but their 4 ohm bridge power is relatively low compared to something like a PL380.
The voltage swing indicates the maximum voltage potential the amp can produce in whatever test cases the manufacturer has chosen to use - i.e. with no load, 8ohm load, 4 ohm load, etc. Whether that is for the whole amp in bridge mode or single side mode should be easy to figure out working backwards through your formula to see what jives with the specs.Hi guys, i've got a question about voltage swing. Now, I know that to convert voltage to watts (to find out how much voltage is coming out the speaker terminals) you multiply the voltage by itself and then divide it by the speaker's impedance to give you a wattage figure, but I was looking at amplifier specs and saw voltage swing. I've been looking at the spec 'Maximum RMS Voltage Swing'. It states on the EV Q1212 amplifier that it's 90.6 volts. Now does that mean per channel or overall maximum from the amplifier regardless of speaker impedance? By the way, voltage swing is the maximum an amplifier can output before clipping right?
At high impedances (16 ohms), many amps are voltage limited - the swing will determine the max power. At more usual loads of 8 ohms and especially low impedance loads of 4 ohms, virtually all amplifiers are current limited, which means the power delivered is limited to the current supply of the amp, and some lower corresponding value for the actual delivered voltage results. In other words, if the load is heavy, the amp is unable to deliver it's no-load swing voltage under that circumstance.
The ITechs are high voltage lower current designs which is why their 8 ohm power is so good but their 4 ohm bridge power is relatively low compared to something like a PL380.