Re: [Harp-L] Watts Up With That?

[Greg Heumann <greg@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Like I said. Laudable goal, ain't gonna happen.


On Dec 5, 2009, at 9:14 AM, Jim Rumbaugh wrote:

> I doubt if you will get a "standard" for amp watts.  I went through  
> this in the 60's and 70's with guitar amps. For example, 70 watts  
> RMS(ROOT MEAN SQUARE) is the same as 100 watts, PEAK and is the same  
> as 200 watts PEP (PEAK ENVELOPE POWER ). Then someone came up with a  
> standard called Peak Music Power (w.t.f. is that??) Then you have to  
> figure out if that's watts at how much distortion, because a square  
> wave has more power than a sine wave. But if you list the wattage of  
> a clean signal, how does many harp players use the amp, .... at full  
> power, with lots of distortion, no where near a clean signal.  What  
> you probably want for a standard  is peak watts before clipping,  
> that's where the rating of  watts with distortion comes in handy  
> with "stereo amps". But since harp amps are used for sound  
> "production" rather than reproduction, the idea of attaching a  
> distortion number could be misleading.  I do not see a simple answer.
>
> So Rick. What "standard" would you propose to use?
>
> Jim Rumbaugh