Zitat:Q: GK heads always seem like they have more headroom and power than you’d expect from their rated output. Why is that?
A: People always say that, but I can only tell you that we pay attention to the things that are really important in amplifier design. We never forget that we are driving speakers (the world’s nastiest load) and not resistors (the world’s nicest load). Amplifiers are always tested and rated into resistive loads, which behave nothing like real speakers. These measurements and ratings mean practically nothing, except as a means of comparing totally meaningless ratings of one amplifier to the completely meaningless ratings of another. True power when driving a speaker comes from the amplifier’s ability to control the moving mass of the cone and coil. These can easily run to 50 grams each and they fight the amplifier’s commands all the time.
An example is to consider a child in a swing. It doesn’t take much power to keep the swing moving by applying a nudge with every cycle. But try to stop the swing in mid stroke (at the bottom while the swing is moving the fastest) and make it go the other way, and you have a different story. It takes a lot of power to first stop the swing, then more to accelerate it in the opposite direction.
Speakers behave just like that, resistors don’t. In order to maintain cone control and respond to the artist’s command, the amplifier must be able to momentarily put out much more current than is required to produce its power rating. Something like five times the current is usually enough. This ability doesn’t come cheap or easily. Our designs can do this. In fact, we do not employ current limiting in our amplifiers for protection. We let the amplifier put out large amounts of current for 10msec (.01 sec). If after that time the current is still flowing, we assume it is shorted, and we mute the output. This is enough time to maintain cone control with the most dynamic players. Without this ability, the sound seems to come from behind the cabinet and never really produces what the bassist is asking – especially at high power output. Players get used to this, and when the play a GK, they are stunned at the difference. They think the amplifier has more rated power, when actually it has more punch and clarity (more effective power).
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