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Thứ Năm, 26 tháng 12, 2013

Does Great Cordless Loudspeaker Energy Efficiency Imply Great Cost?

By Michelle Jaeger


When you are about to get brand-new cordless speakers, you may well be thinking about how efficiently your wireless loudspeakers work. Let me demonstrate exactly what the term "power efficiency" means plus why you must take a closer look at this number during your selection of new cordless speakers.

The less efficient your wireless loudspeakers are, the more energy will be wasted which leads to several problems: Wireless loudspeakers with small power efficiency are going to squander a certain amount of power. It's smart to keep in mind the additional power cost when choosing between a high- and low-efficiency model. The wasted power is radiated by the wireless speakers as heat. Cordless speakers that have low power efficiency normally have various heat sinks in order to help dissipate the squandered power. Heat sinks as well as fans are heavy, use up room and also produce noise. Cordless speakers with low efficiency can't be placed in small spaces or within sealed enclosures given that they demand a great deal of circulation.

You need to try to find the power efficiency figure when on the lookout for a pair of cordless loudspeakers. The best spot to look is the wireless loudspeakers data sheet. Power efficiency is often displayed in percent. Various amp architectures deliver different power efficiencies. Class-A amplifiers are usually the least efficient and Class-D the most efficient. Standard power efficiencies range between 25% to 98%. Having an amplifier with an efficiency of 90% for example means that 10% of the power that is used is squandered whilst 90% can be audio power.

When searching for a couple of cordless loudspeakers, you will find the efficiency in the data sheet. This value is usually shown as a percentage. Class-A amps are amongst the least efficient and offer a efficiency of around 25% only. In comparison, switching amplifiers, also known as "Class-D" amplifiers provide efficiencies up to 98%. Acquiring an amplifier with an efficiency of 90% for example will mean that 10% of the energy that is utilized is wasted when 90% would be audio power.

In order to determine the efficiency, typically a test signal of 1 kHz is fed into the amplifier and a power resistor attached to the amp output in order to imitate the speaker load. Next the amplifier output signal is tested and the power level calculated that the amp provides to the load which is then divided by the total power the amplifier uses. Since the efficiency will depend on the audio power, normally the output power is varied and an efficiency curve produced which can show the amp efficiency for every level of output power.

While choosing a pair of wireless speakers you will have to weigh efficiency versus fidelity since wireless loudspeakers which use low-efficiency analog amplifiers frequently offer the highest music fidelity whilst digital models are going to have larger distortion. On the other hand, the newest wireless loudspeakers that use switching-mode audio amps, such as Class-T amps, provide audio fidelity that comes close to that of low-efficiency analog amps and can be manufactured extra small and lightweight.




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