Friday 31 January 2014

How Does Cordless Loudspeaker Power Efficiency Affect Sound Quality?

By Michelle Jaeger


When you are about to buy brand-new cordless speakers, you may be wondering how efficiently your wireless speakers function. Let me demonstrate what the phrase "power efficiency" means plus why you need to take a closer look at this number in your selection of new cordless loudspeakers.

Given that low-efficiency cordless loudspeakers are going to provide merely a small fraction of the power consumed by the amplifier as usable audio power, the amp needs a larger power source than high-efficiency versions resulting in more expensive. In addition, because of the large amount of heat, there will be much greater thermal stress on the electrical elements and interior materials that might trigger reliability issues. In contrast, high-efficiency cordless loudspeakers can be made small and light.

The power efficiency is displayed as a percentage in the wireless loudspeakers data sheet. Different amp topologies offer different power efficiencies. Class-A amplifiers are usually the least efficient and Class-D the most efficient. Normal power efficiencies range between 25% to 98%. From the efficiency percentage you can calculate the amount of energy the amplifier is going to squander. An amplifier which has a 50% power efficiency will squander 50 % of the used power. An amplifier that has 90% efficiency will squander 10%.

However, there are some things to note regarding power efficiency. Firstly, this figure is dependent on the amount of energy that the amp is providing. Because each amplifier is going to require a particular amount of energy, regardless of the level of power the amp delivers to the speakers, the amplifier power efficiency is higher the more power the amp delivers and is typically specified for the greatest power the amp can handle.

To determine the efficiency, typically a test signal of 1 kHz is fed into the amp and a power resistor attached to the amp output in order to imitate the loudspeaker load. Next the amplifier output signal is tested and the wattage determined which the amplifier provides to the load which is then divided by the overall power the amplifier utilizes. To have a full efficiency profile, the audio power of the amp is swept between several values. At every value the efficiency is calculated and then plotted onto a chart.

Whilst switching (Class-D) amplifiers possess amongst the greatest efficiency, they tend to have larger audio distortion than analog music amps and lower signal-to-noise ratio. For that reason you will need to weigh the size of the wireless speakers against the audio fidelity. Having said that, digital amps have come a long way and are providing improved music fidelity than in the past. Wireless loudspeakers that use Class-T amps come close to the audio fidelity of products that have analog amplifiers. Therefore choosing a couple of wireless speakers which utilize switching amp with good audio fidelity is now possible.




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