A friend says he has a 12000 watt stereo system is that even possible for home use?

Question

A friend says he has a 12000 watt stereo system is that even possible for home use?

Answer 1

I think he got it all wrong and confuse, plse check against the back panel of the stereo surely there are some reading for the wattage/power of the amp.

Answer 2

I don't even think a profesional system ( local DJs and what not ) would come close to that power for a home system . Unless it is using car stereo parts.

I have a home theater system and it only pumps out 5k watts. And thats quite a bit of power.

Answer 3

if your friend has a 100k plus to spend then yes. look into the pro interiors section of audiovideointeriors.com they have some systems with monstrous power. one system using all mcintosh has 18 amplifiers rated each between 1200-2000 watts. do the math. so yes its possible. but i would venture to say unlikely or he would be in this magazine also.

Answer 4

I think your friend has 12000 and 1200

confused he could have that but

unless he has a concert hall theres

no need for that either that or hes

got more $ than he can spend

Answer 5

Twelve Thousand - no.  1,200 watts - a system can advertise this and not be accused of fraud.

Like a hair dryer - you can pull 1,200 watts for the instant you turn the device on. But then it settles down.

MEASURING POWER

There are lots of ways to measure power and the consumer needs to look at the fine print to see what options are used.

PEAK VS RMS - Sound is a wave. If you measure power at the top of the peak of some sound - you get a large number.  If you use an average or Root Mean Square technique to measure the area under the wave - you get a smaller number.

Good Equipment uses RMS. Cheap equipment uses "Peak" or "Peak Envelope Power" to look more powerful.

STEREO vs ALL CHANNELS - I had an old 100 watt stereo receiver.  My wife bought me an AV receiver with 80 watts per channel. The new receiver was more powerful.

The stereo could drive 100 watts X 2 channels = 200 watts total.

The AV receiver was 80 x 5 channels = 300 watts.

Good equipment advertises power with ALL CHANNELS driven. Cheap equipment advertises Stereo mode to appear more powerful.

FREQUENCY

Low frequencies take more power to produce (This is why we have self-powered subwoofers.)

Good equipment measures power from 20, - 20,000 hz. Cheap equipment measures the power with a 1,000 hz tone so the numbers appear more powerful.

LOAD

A speaker is a variable.  Good equipment measures power with a 8 ohm, non-reactive load.  Better companies publish power numbers for 4 ohms separate from 8 ohms.  Cheap companies only use 4 ohms (which doubles the number).

TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION

All 100 watt amps can produce 120..130 watts. But the sound becomes distorted.  Good equipment promises the distortion is something like 0.07%. Cheap companies publish power but with 1% distortion because the power number are larger.

So ask your friend how many channels, what load, what frequency and what distortion numbers were used to get that 12,000 watt number?

Answer 6

yeah but it might blow a fuse in the house. and there neibors might cal the cops on him if he playes it loud. its not worth getting a warning.

Answer 7

theoretically, yes......

but it would be wayyy underpowered

Answer 8

Hi.Can you ask your friend these questions? Is that 12,000 watts per channel ,or 6,000 watts per channel? Also what rating does it come under : Continuous,Music,Peak or PMPO? Is the 12,000 watts available across the frequency range between 20 and 20K HZ?  Is the Amplifier unconditionally stable with any load and any signal?

Thanks.

Answer 9

That is a little bit ridiculous, but possible...No one amplifier puts out that much power...1,200 watts would be more than enough to blow your ears at any given time...