From rafael2pop@yahoo.com.ar Wed Jul 04 12:06:52 2012
Subject:Re: Alto amps - Peak Power and RMS

Hi All,

Remember the late 70s, when in Miami, FL a pushy saleman told me , btw slightly ignorant of formulas about RMS, told me

RMS ? easy ! = Real Musical Sound !!!

Wasnt mentioned at all " Root Mean Square"

Specimen always possible to find all around the globe.

Rafael

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Re: Alto amps - Peak Power and RMS
Tue Jul 3, 2012 7:53 am (PDT) . Posted by: "Marco Tacca" ba_mbino
and here is the engineer in me....

I agree that for a sine it is peak_voltage = sqrt(2) * RMS_voltage

However, any reputable electrical circuits/electrical network analyis will tell you that if you calculate power the formula is one of the two:
1) RMS: power = RMS_voltage * RMS_current
2) peak: power = 1/2 * (peak_voltage * peak_current)
(the fact that you can find it on books does not mean that people use this formulas correctly, especially when some "sales person" plays the engineer and want to "inflate" the spec sheet of his/her product)
In short, if correct formulas were applied, peak or RMS should lead to the same electrical wattage.

Having said that, when talking about amplifiers (as Bruce and others said) electrical wattage is not what you should be looking for (or at least it should be just one of the factors). Other parameters are definitely more relevant.

-Marco