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Dell Unveils XPS 27 All-In-One With 10 Speaker Dual 50W Sound System (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: Over the past couple of years, Dell has been driving a redesign effort of its consumer and commercial product lines and has systematically been updating both design signatures and the technology platforms within them. Dell's premium consumer XPS product line, perhaps more so than any other, has seen the most significant design reinvention with the likes of its XPS 13 and XPS 15 notebook line. At CES 2017, Dell announced the XPS 27 7760 all-in-one PC that has a radically new look that draws at least one design cue from its XPS notebook siblings, specifically with respect to the display bezel, or the lack thereof. Though Dell isn't officially branding the touch-enabled version of XPS 27 with an "InfinityEdge" display, the side and top bezel is cut to a minimum, accentuating a beautiful 4K IPS panel. However, the machine's display might not be the most standout feature of the 2017 Dell XPS 27. Under that display, Dell actually expanded things mechanically to make room not only for a Windows Hello capable camera but a 10 speaker sound system that was designed in conjunction with Grammy Award-winning music producer and audio engineer, JJ Puig, that takes the system's audio reproduction and output capabilities to a whole new level. Its sound system is very accurate with dual 50 watt amplifiers at less than 1% THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) and a 70Hz to 20KHz frequency response. Though the system is currently built on Intel's Skylake platform, Kaby Lake versions are imminent and with discrete AMD Radeon R9 M470X graphics, it has decent gaming and multimedia chops as well.
One of the most expensive components of your computer is your monitor, but it is also one of the most standardized and longest-lasting. Think about it: pretty much any monitor bought in the last 20+ years* (including CRTs) can be used with any computer or video card on the market, requiring at most a super cheap adapter.
But with an AIO, you lose this major advatage desktop systems have over laptops. You're still paying for the monitor, but have little to no choice in which model it will be, and you will only ever use it with this one computer. And when the computer dies, the monitor is finished too (even if it's in working condition).
* Yeah, I know analog/VGA is starting to go away. I still holds for digital.
So, does the sound system consume 50 watts of power in operation, or is it capable of converting 50 watts of power into sound?
Uncle Doug explains it pretty well.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
TLDW... Input 1k signal. Plug amp into a load with a known resistance. Turn up volume till it is max volume distortion free. Measure voltage to the load. P=V^2/R. This will give you RMS output.
When I was into competition class car stereos I had amps rated at 50W that would utterly destroy the kiddies with their 700W and 2500W amps. Mine were 50W at 0.00005% thd while the garbage that most kiddies buy is rated at "PEAK" and 60%thd.
I also had decent speakers that were highly efficient. Again not the complete garbage kiddies buy... OHHH BIGGER MAGNETS ARE BETTER OOOOH!
Come on back when you have a basic education in electronics and understand what thd is what speaker sensitivity is. Hell I have Klipsch horns at the house that will produce 106db with 1 watt of power.
Listen closely, you insufferable twit:
I do have (much more than) a basic education in electronics, and in sound reproduction, and know full well what THD and IM distortion (which (IM) you didn't even mention) is. I also understand speaker sensitivity (usually expressed as "x" dB SPL at 1W @ 1m, and usually at 1 KHz).
Your gratuitous and snarky comment regarding your Klipshorns (which are most definitely efficient; but sound like... horns) is both snarky and irrelevant. If you had read TFA, you would know that these are simple direct-radiating, not horn-loaded, speakers, and two of them are PASSIVE radiators (so, the best thing this could be was a labyrinth system), and so the sensitivity is likely to be in 80 to 84 dB range.
And although the typical sensitivity figure-of-merit makes it sound like you can get 160 dB SPL out of 10 W with any speaker, the truth is, you need a DOUBLING of Power (Watts) to achieve a measly 3 dB increase in loudness (SPL). So, that 50 W gets eaten-up pretty damned fast. 84 dB SPL @ 1 W, 87 @ 2 W, 90 @ 4 W, 93 @ 8 W, 96 @ 16 W, 99 @ 32 W and, theoretically, 102 @ 64 W.
In fact, TFA also specs a maximum 90 dB SPL from the system; so, even for typical speakers, I kind of doubt that 50W RMS figure. And that at 1% THD (and unspecified IM, which, as you should know, is FAR more objectionable to listeners).