Dr.Jeff
True Classic
I've never fully understood how amps are rated and how to know exactly what you are getting. Most seem to claim a lot more than I believe to be true. And as you say the quality of the sound is definitely a factor. However for the most part if you are driving one pair of quality 4 Ohm speakers at reasonable levels, and it is mostly background music in a car (not exactly high fidelity), I don't think a ton of power is needed. But I don't know how exactly to gauge that. Like @LarryC alluded to, the X isn't necessarily a vehicle where I'd try to create a audiophile level system.The unit shown in the "Ebay link" (SWM-80A) is rather interesting. It claims a power output of 4 x 60 watts using a TDA7388 amplifier module. Looking at the TDA7388 data sheet, the minimum guaranteed maximum output per channel when driven with a square wave is 37 watts. If you actually want to listen to audio, you can get 22 watts per channel at 10% harmonic distortion (not good). If you want it to sound decent, you can get 0.15% harmonic distortion at 4 watts per channel. So, the 240 watts ends up at 16 watts if you want good sound.
EDIT: I realize I might not have been clear in the above comments. I understand some basic principles of a sound system. But when it comes to knowing just how much power (amp output) is really needed, and more importantly how to gauge the manufacturers' ratings of amps, I'm not sure.
Last edited: