Doubling Jeep Speaker Power - Randy's Electrical Corner

Sensitivity is important. I am not going to try to turn you into a metrosexical, so hear me out. My brother would always say to me, "Randy, leave the lights alone." But I'd just keep turning them on and off, on and off, on and off, on and off. I guess I have always liked bright electric things.

Anyway, back to the blanket, tissues, and Kleenex while watching that Meg Ryan flick. The sensitivity I am talking about has nothing to do with crying or chick movies. I am talking about the sensitivity of a speaker.

Speakers come with a rating for how sensitive they are, and it has nothing to do with jumping in the sack with Kenny or his pretty little blue French car. The sensitivity will be something like 89 dB. That is measured at a set distance of 39 inches (1 meter) because stuff gets louder the closer you get and set power (they don't change it because more than 1 watt of power would be weird).

Why do you care? Good question. Your Jeeps are some of the loudest cars I've ever seen. Between the grab-and-release tires with gripping hands, the flap-flap-flap of the canvas, the noise of the engine, and the wind going past, they are loud!

Anyway, for that speaker I talked about before, for it to go from 89 dB to 92 dB, you would have to double the power to 2 watts. Not a big deal, but to go to 95 dB from that speaker, you would have to add 4 or 8 watts to reach 95 dB. Every doubling of power only gets 3 more decibels. In your loud, loud Jeeps, you need every decibel you can get.

That is why you should look at the sensitivity of a speaker when you buy it. The more sensitive it is, the better for your Jeep, and the more music you can hear when driving that Jeep. Look for a speaker sensitivity more than 90 dB.