![rms output factory head unit rms output factory head unit](https://stereochamp.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Kicker-DSC46-4x6-Speakers-768x764.jpg)
It may be more worth it to simply get an aftermarket head unit instead if you're after sound quality. While you can go that route, your audio will always sound much better with an aftermarket head unit even if you kept the stock speakers. You'll find more information here (scroll down to the section on sensitivity). The higher the sensitivity rating, the lower amount of wattage that's required to reproduce sound. The key with such a low power application is looking for aftermarket speakers with a high sensitivity rating. People have replaced the OEM speakers with aftermarket ones and kept the OEM head unit. Rdtk, my apologies for crushing your dream (obviously that wasn't my intention), however I think you're looking up the wrong information. Stay away from any kind of unknown manufacturers you haven't really heard of as there's generally a reason why. The only rating worth comparing is the RMS rating.Noslolo, good luck with the install! Just remember to go with good name brand products like Alpine, Rockford Fosgate, Kenwood, Sony, MTX, JL or Kicker. You can ignore the peak and PMPO ratings, those are useless. At that point, the distortion becomes clearly audible and you can reduce the volume before damage is done. In general, you'll want an amplifier with a higher rated power than the speakers, because then you can be sure the signal remains undistorted and clean until you get to the speaker's limit (instead of the amplifier's limit). It is not necessary to match power ratings between the amplifier and speakers. That will cause a short and/or jam the coil in its gap, making the coil and membrane unable to move.Ī 50 W speaker has thicker wiring in its coils than an 18 W speaker, so they'll take longer to overheat. This heat will eventually melt the insulation on the moving coil that drives the speaker membrane. Some of it gets turned to sound, but most of it turns to heat. That extra power has to be dissipated by the speaker.
![rms output factory head unit rms output factory head unit](https://tacotunes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/how-to-add-amp-to-stock-stereo-toyota-tacoma-1024x669.jpg)
This energy is routed to the tweeter, which isn't designed to handle it. The distorted sound wave also contains extra energy at high frequencies.
![rms output factory head unit rms output factory head unit](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41xdeZHT4OL.jpg)
Distortion means the sound waves contain more energy: the sound wave looks like a square rather than a sine, so RMS is more than 70% of peak power. 18 W is so little that people quite often drive the headunit at its maximum power, so the amplifier will start to distort. If you were to design your aftermarket speaker to have an 18 W RMS limit, you'd miss out on that section of the market.Īnother factor is distortion ( clipping). Those amplifiers can generally deliver much more power than the 18 W a headunit is limited to.
#RMS OUTPUT FACTORY HEAD UNIT INSTALL#
People who install aftermarket speakers may be likely to also install an amplifier. There are several factors that inform the choice for a 50W rating instead of 20W. Even the smallest and wimpiest amplifiers are at least the size of a head unit. The reason they don't put these DC to DC converters into head units is cost and size.
![rms output factory head unit rms output factory head unit](https://www.ministryofbass.com.au/media/catalog/product/cache/e29fcf547d4c580a3909b60575d5388e/m/a/maximus-602.jpg)
This is compared to an amplifier that has a DC to DC converter inside and can turn the 12V into a much higher voltage giving it the ability to deliver much more power. This limits the power that the head unit can provide to the speakers. The not technical answer is that the head unit is powered by and only uses 12V from the car. To convert this to RMS divide it by 2 and that gives you 18 watts. 36 watts is the maximum power delivered to the speaker but we are interested in the RMS power. The maximum power to the speaker then is square(V)/R where R is the resistance of the speaker. The head unit then turns that supply into a split supply (plus and minus 12V) because that is what speakers need to make sound. A head unit uses the voltage supplied by the car, for the sake of argument lets say 12v. I'm sorry if the answer becomes too technical. The answer has to do with the available power supply.