Hello. I have a question: The new sonos amp, that is 125 watt per channel (for the wired ones), is it RMS or peak? I did not buy the sonos amp yet. But I am planning to buy it soon. I will need to buy wired speakers for it too. But if it is RMS or peak the 125 watt power, actually there is a difference: of what kind of speekers I need to buy. And I explain: The peak power is the 1/3 of the RMS power. That means the 125 watt per channel, if it is peak, it is actually 40 watt RMS per channel.That means I need to buy different set of speekers if it is actually 40 watt RMS or 125 watt RMS. Because if I buy speakers for amps that are actually 125 watt RMS, and the amp power is only 40 watt RMS, the amp will not be able to handle the speakers correctly, when you put the volume a little bit higher. This is why actually it matters the spec of the power of watts per channel, if it is RMS, or peak measurement. Hence, why I ask here.
I think all of your power rating thoughts may be from looking at other amplifier Classes, the Sonos Amp is a Class D amplifier.
The 125 watt rating is more complicated than just RMS, there are complex measurement procedures involved. Still if you are looking for a simple answer you can treat the 125 Watt rating as RMS Watts for practical purposes.
https://www.sonos.com/en-us/guides/amp
When buying speakers the speaker Watt rating is also more complicated than just matching up Wattage numbers.
As to how loud, you need to look at the speakers sensitivity rating and calculate how loud the Sonos 125 Watts will drive them.
Next, too small an amplifier can be more damaging to speakers than a larger one, Sonos adds protection for that problem so it applies more to other Class amplifiers.
Too much power is not an issue unless you are actually trying to damage the speakers, they will start to sound bad long before they are in danger. So not a worry in normal use.
All the measured details are here…
Academics can argue that our traditional “RMS” power reporting for audio power ratings is incorrect use of the math, but this does not matter much on a practical basis. Here is some science. In answer to your question: the power rating for AMP is 125W “RMS” into 8-Ohm loads.
With respect to speaker power handling capacity the ratings are not very useful. If you give me a “100W” speaker and a 70W amplifier I can blow up the speaker rather quickly. When an amplifier is driven beyond its rating, its distortion products can damage speakers. In this respect AMP is one of the safest amplifiers available because it will not enter a high distortion mode.
A bit of history and why looking beyond the RMS number can be good for high end equipment.
The rules for calculating Watts for audio amplifiers (you don't want to read this) include a lot of conditions to lessen marketing types number inflation. Not sure if this is the latest version.
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-432
The preconditions for measurements like the required power delivery to test thermal design have changed a good bit over the years with related changes to the advertised numbers. Early on an amplifier reasonably rated as 600 Watts couldn't pass the preconditions and had to be severely derated. It quickly got an "FTC Test" fan added that never ran in normal use, just during testing. The power level is now much more realistic for audio listening and the silly workarounds are gone.
There is a bit in there that applies to Sonos speakers that should answer why Sonos avoids mentioning power ratings.
432.3 Standard test conditions Para c, e, g and h. Added c due to the cost of legal defense of any number.
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