Optimizing Car Speaker Performance: Understanding Voltage Requirements

[Chronothread]

What voltage do car speakers typical run at?

Thank you for your time.

 

[chroot]

That would depend upon many things:

1) The size of the speakers.
2) The efficiency of the speakers.
3) And most importantly: the position of the volume knob.

- Warren

 

[rcgldr]

Typical car speakers have an impedance of 4 ohms, but multiple speakers could be wired up in parallel (reducing impedance) or in series (increasing impedance) or a combination.

Power = voltage^2 / impedance.

I assume that for sound, the voltage is the RMS average output of a sine wave like signal. This is .707 times the peak voltage, so a 4 volt RMS ac source has voltage peaks of + and - 5.657 volts.

Watts per channel versus voltage:
  0.25 watts = ( 1 volt )^2 / 4 ohms
  1.00 watt  = ( 2 volts)^2 / 4 ohms
  4.00 watts = ( 4 volts)^2 / 4 ohms
 16.00 watts = ( 8 volts)^2 / 4 ohms
 64.00 watts = (16 volts)^2 / 4 ohms
100.00 watts = (20 volts)^2 / 4 ohms

 

[Chronothread]

Oops, I realized I already know what the power and impedance are. So yah, I probably didn't need to ask. Thanks anyway though.