Speaker wattage, what does it mean?

[Devon White]

I'm wondering what the wattage means on a speaker? The higher the wattage the louders? Would you say that 60watts is good for a party?

 

[weberdarren97]

The wattage is a measure of how powerful they are. Simply put, higher watt speakers are louder. They also produce a more concussive sound wave, so it's not a good idea to stand too close to high wattage speakers.

60 watts for a party... Indoor or outdoor?

 

[Devon White]

Outdoor, but only in a small garden (possibly indoor too)

 

[weberdarren97]

How many speakers?

60 watts per speaker or 60 watts total?

Can your audio device properly output the necessary wattage without damage?

 

[Devon White]

Its one two speakers. By audio device do you mean a mobile phone? Like i'll be plugging my iphone into it?

 

[weberdarren97]

The phone doesn't connect directly to the speakers, does it?

Isn't there a box that the speakers connect to, and then said box connects to the phone?

 

[USAFRet]

I'm wondering what the wattage means on a speaker? The higher the wattage the louders? Would you say that 60watts is good for a party?

"60 watts" for a speaker is only part of the equation.
What is driving these? WHat speakers?

I could put 20 reliable clean watts into a pair of 1980 JBL speakers, and blow the neighborhood out.
Or, You could put 500 watts into a set of todays crapboxes that say "1,000 watts!!!", and have it unlistenable.

 

[photonboy]

Its one two speakers. By audio device do you mean a mobile phone? Like i'll be plugging my iphone into it?

He's asking about the AMPLIFIER. If the speakers come with an amplifier included (like most computer speakers) then you don't need to worry about this.

I have stereo (left and right), 40W speakers and while they are quite loud they are considered adequate for a small to medium sized room. They are too loud in small room, but usually you can't crank up the volume to maximum without distortion, and the small size does not properly "fill" the room.

60W (30W per speaker) is not really adequate though it will probably give you a reasonable background noise. Just likely not overly loud.

100W (quality) per speaker is probably the minimum, but that's my opinion.

 

[postmature]

Its one two speakers. By audio device do you mean a mobile phone? Like i'll be plugging my iphone into it?

---

average cell phone ? puts out less than a watt : fine for headphones , but not a garden party ( if you have any guests , get an amplifier ) ;

 

[ien2222]

Back up people. Wattage rating only means (well supposed to mean anyways) what the maximum wattage the speakers can handle without any damage for passives, it does not by itself indicated how loud it's going to be, otherwise for actives it indicates the amp wattage that's built into it.

For instance (not specifically picking on you photon, but using your post); putting 30 watts into a speaker can be more than you'll ever need. My example would be the JTR Noesis 212HT which has a sensitivity rating of 101dB/2.0v, which means one watt of pink noise and that speaker will play 101dB at one meter. At 32 watts it'll be around 116dB at one meter and with two speakers at 30watts each it's ~119dB at one meter.

@OP: The rating you want to look at is sensitivity, more so than wattage (for passive speakers). If they are actives, then hopefully they give you the max SPL.

 

[madmatt30]

^ exactly what he say - too many variations to even say with a general 'is 60w enough'

The sensetivity (impedance measured in ohms) of both speakers & amp makes a huge difference to volume.
Mismatching & running at too high volumes can cause clipping on speakers or amp & can cause irreversible vdamage if pushed to extremes.

You would have to post exactly what you're thinking of using to get a reliable answer.
Eg.
60w peak (pmpo) at 8ohm is a far far cry from 60w RMS at 4 or 6 ohms.

 

[ien2222]

Sensitivity is decibels/input, not impedance fyi.

 

[madmatt30]

^ yea but so directly related you can't ascertain one without the other.