When a customer is shopping for an integrated amp or power amp, the first two questions are always: 1) How much power? 2) Price?
I don’t understand why the audio mags who review these products bury this information in the fine print more often than not.
Over the past half century or more, sleazy companies have learned that they can get away with blatant cheating on their power ratings, which of course will help their sales.
If you’ve read the Audio Emporium site over the years you’ll know I’m constantly harping about cheaters. I’ve groused that amplifier power specs need to be claimed at an industry STANDARD to mean anything. Cheaters don’t adhere to any reference standard so we’ve been living in the wild west of power ratings.
Well, finally, the industry has decided to agree with me and is trying to do something about it.
Amplifier Rule
This rule sets new standards for claiming power ratings.
*8 ohms
*L&R channels driven (2 channels with a surround sound amp)
*20Hz to 20kHz
*amp needs to be preconditioned before test, to be run at 1/8 power for one hour
*after preconditioning, amp needs to be run at full rated power for 5 minutes
*amp must operate at any power level from .25w to full rated power, 20-20k, 8 ohms, without exceeding 1% THD
Prior to this current rule, many manufacturers would cheat and claim their power into a different impedance (say 4 or 6 ohms instead of 8) or different frequency (say 1kHz) instead of 20-20k.
This new Amplifier Rule will require that many manufacturers will have to down grade their power claims, to adhere to the new standards.
Some More New Rules from the FTC
The FTC prohibits:
*Product reviews by people who don’t exist- meaning AI
*Compensation in return for reviews
*Reviews by company insiders
*Company controlled review websites that pretend to be independent
*Companies cannot use groundless legal threats
*Buying fake social media indicators
Fines can run up to $51k for violations.
Ramifications
Let’s say a given amplifier produces 50×2, at 8 ohms, 20-20k, with THD of .1%.
If you rate that SAME amp at 4 ohms instead of 8, at 1k instead of 20-20k, and 1% THD instead of .1%, your power rating could be 100×2 instead of 50×2. The 100×2 claim is a cheat.
Let’s try another trick. Let’s say you claim your amp puts out 50×2. But to derive that spec you claim the power at 4 ohms, 1% THD at 1k. If you take THIS AMP and change the specs to 8 ohms, 20-20k, at .1% THD, it won’t reach 50×2, it will likely be 25×2. Again, in this case the 50×2 claim is a cheat.
Let’s Hope
We hope all the manufacturers out there will play fairly and adhere to the above Amplifier Rule, now that the FTC has set up these guidelines.
Oh, the biggest cheaters in wattage claims over the years have been by tube amp manufacturers. We have seen companies claim 40×2 or 50×2 in power. But when you test these same products with the new Amplifier Rule, they’ll likely come in at 15×2 or 20×2. They claim their false higher ratings with distortion of 3%.