How much power do you use? A Test

[Altec Best]

Yes, it's to give you an idea of how much power you really need for your speakers and room. If you have an amp with lots of power, you may still be interested to know how much power you are using. With Altecs, you might be surprised how little you need.

If you are interested in how much average power you actually use, then just take the voltage you measured, square it and divide by the nominal speaker impedance. That will be a good estimate of the average power you are using during loud sections at that volume setting. For example: You measure 3V at your normal listening volume and you have an 8 ohm system. 3x3/8=1.125W. That would be the average power you use. Peak power will be much higher, maybe eight or ten times more.

The reason for using the 120Hz tone is that just about any AC volt meter (with the right scale) can measure it accurately. Music signals are much harder to measure accurately.

Thanks Pano for the explanation my Friend ! I seem to understand your explanations a lot easier for some unknown reason !