Estimate the speaker power needed to hit a target SPL at a distance.
Each doubling of amplifier power adds about three decibels, so the needed watts grow by ten times per ten-decibel target step, adjusted for distance loss. Undersized speakers compress and distort at high levels; picking watts from an SPL plan keeps the sound clean for the whole room.
Speaker Wattage
Watts = 10^((target SPL - sensitivity + 20 x log10(distance)) / 10)
Watts = 10^((target SPL - sensitivity + 20 x log10(distance)) / 10) Each doubling of amplifier power adds about three decibels, so the needed watts grow by ten times per ten-decibel target step, adjusted for distance loss.
Undersized speakers compress and distort at high levels; picking watts from an SPL plan keeps the sound clean for the whole room.
This calculator takes 3 inputs: Sensitivity, Target level, Distance. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.