• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

RMS ??

Root mean squared

Squared means to times something by itself. Every mathematician's fave trick for taking things that can be negative and turning positive.

Mean is the arithmetic average. Integral of x f(x) dx

Root is the square root, takes the awkward squared values back to normal.

Sound and its structure: it's made of waves. So an amp or speaker deals with periodic signal. RMS is a way of quantifying power averaged over the waves.
 
Marketing is what it is.

Kind of like putting Peak power, or current draw on the back of an amp... and not saying it is current draw/whatever. So then, when joe or stefan or mark or who ever go to buy an amp, they only see some bogus four digit number, and assume that is the output power.