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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!uw-beaver!cornell!chow
From: chow@cornell.UUCP (Christopher Chow)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Dynamic Headroom and Carver Power Amps
Message-ID: <1039@cornell.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 9-Oct-85 21:35:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: cornell.1039
Posted: Wed Oct  9 21:35:45 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Oct-85 07:18:12 EDT
Reply-To: chow@cornell.UUCP (Christopher Chow)
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept.
Lines: 24
Summary: what does it really mean?


I've come across something interesting.  Carver has a ad for their
M500t power amp in the October _Stereo Review_, which has a graph of the
maximum power output over time.  The graph indicates that the 500t is
capable of delivering peak power >900 watts into 4 ohms for about 20 ms.
The continious power at clipping into 4 ohms is 350 watts.  Hence, it 
would appear that the dynamic headroom on this amp is 10*log(900/350)
which is 4.1 db.

_Audio_'s equiptment directory lists specs from the manufacturer, and under
the power amp section, on page 159, lists the dynamic headroom of all 
Carver power amps (except 1.5t) as 0.5 db!

Does anyone know why these two figures differ so much.  They were both 
given by Carver Corp!  Does Carver measure dynamic headroom in a different
manner than the EIA standard, or am I simply confused?

BTW, if you had a choice between the Carver M400t or M500t, which would
you choose and why?

Christopher Chow
...decvax!cornell!chow
   chow@cornell.uucp
   chow@cornell.arpa