Speaker Power Ratings

All speakers come with power ratings. The power rating shows how much power a speaker can handle and play sound out with without being physically damaged.

Speakers come with a nominal power rating and a maximum power rating.

Nominal Rating

The nominal power rating is the amount of power that a speaker is meant to handle normally on a regular basis, in other words, the amount of power that the speaker was designed to handle and play sound out with.

Maximum Power Rating

The maximum power rating is the absolute maximum amount of power that a speaker can handle and play back sound. If this power is exceeded, then the speaker may get damaged and blown.

Choosing Speakers Based on Power Rating

Now that we know what the power rating means, at least definition wise, how does this equate to how we would choose speakers?

Is power rating important when selecting speakers? Should we make sure we look out for this speaker characteristic?

The answer is absolutely yes. The speaker power rating is very important when selecting speakers? Why is this so? Because the power rating of the speaker shows the volume and intensity of sound that the speaker can play out.

If you buy a speaker with a very low power rating, such as 0.1W, it won't be able to play out sound loudly at all. It will be very weak. The sound will be weak and low.

When selecting speakers, the power rating is crucial to the volume of sound that the speaker can play out. The greater the power rating, the louder the sound it can play. A 0.1W speaker will play out sound very low. However, a 15W speaker can play out much greater sound with much greater volume. Therefore, you can play music or whatever sound you want louder. The louder you want sound, the greater the speaker power rating you should get when selecting speakers.

Thus, power rating is a very crucial measure.