Watts and dBW

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Watts dBW
1 0
1.25 1
1.6 2
2 3
2.6 4
3.2 5
4 6
5 7
6.3 8
8 9
10 10
12.5 11
16 12
20 13
25 14
32 15
40 16
50 17
63 18
80 19
100 20
125 21
160 22
200 23
250 24
320 25
400 26
500 27
630 28
800 29
1000 30

3dBW requires twice the power. 3dB is a small difference in volume.

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dBW is another way of rating power output. It is more 'realistic' than the pure RMS watts number-- what may appear significant, such as 125 wpc and 160 wpc (two popular 'stops' among receivers) is only 1dBW, barely significant when cranked up or anywhere else along the ol' volume control.
It graphs nicely, and you can extrapolate the numbers for other RMS watts.

'Course, I think things just begin to 'come alive' at 22dBW!

[Tour2ma]

:headscrat Someone get a new calculator?

The part I always forget at first is that the log of the Wattage yields the reference dBW in Bels... Always stops me a second.

No big argument with the 22 dBW mark. Might drop down a couple in vintage. For non-vintage 26 dBW has always worked for me.

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Copied the chart from an old Audio magazine review. I think it would help everyone to be at least familiar with dBW vs. RMS watts ratings.

[SolderIron]

Seeing the chart, it is coming back tome now

dB= 10 times base 10 Log of watts

Log of 1 =0 --->0 dB
Log of 10watts =1; therefore 10dB
Log of 100watts =2; therefore 20dB
Log of 1000 =3--->30dB

:cool:

[Lefty]

I might just add to the topic that Alexander Bell came up with this Bell measurement scale to help show the logrithmic response of human hearing. One DB was the smallest increase or decrease in sound level that people could reliably decern. This was done with a large sampling group.

Now many 'golden ears' will claim better sensitivity then 1 DB and they are mostly likely correct. In performing double blind audio tests it is recommended to level match signals to .1 db before performing A/B/X testing.

Lefty