Current Questions

falconquest,

 After skimming through these many posts about a simple question, your answer has the best potential to answer the basic question asked by someone admits right up front that this isn't exactly his line of expertise. Thanks for that. The fact that some of the posts accurately describe current with the inclusion of OHMS law, or other related truth, does not help the person who is asking in the first place. 

 When working with customers, one goal is to connect with them on the level that they are at and not just spew out your vast knowledge, using terms, definitions, laws, ad infinitum about the product or subject. What seems easy to understand with a background for reference in physics or electronics, is not where most people are at.

 In my case, don't even start with the basics of a tax form. Screw it, I give you the papers and pay you money for that. Explanation will often lead to even more confusion. 

Thank you everyone for trying to drag me into the light. 
 

Unfortunately it seems that the light isn’t so bright. The implication of Terry9’s post—take off the cover and look for this and that—is that there isn’t a spec I can look at and get quick understanding of a given amplifier’s current capabilities. No equivalent of watts as it relates to power. Is that right? Nothing that will give me even a rough idea? Something for fools like me who didn’t write a dissertation on Ohm’s law?
 

I could easily be wrong but it seems that, back in the 1980s and ‘90s, most every amp doubled in power as it moved from eight ohms to four. Like a manufacturer would be embarrassed if it didn’t. I think even my Harmon Karden 330c went from 20 watts to 40 as the impedance changed. (Dropped? Rose?) Is that just a warm, fuzzy feeling I’m getting from the past?

4krowme, we went to the same school of income tax preparation. I’d probably be better off if I stayed there for electronics. But I hate to be completely ignorant when talking to a salesman or reading glowing marketing materials. Knowledge is power and I don’t like being defenseless. 

When a speaker is determined to need a lot of current it means it is not efficient at converting amplifier power to sound level.  Therefore you will need greater power than a more efficient speaker would take. This involves both sensitivity and impedance. A speaker having a true 8 ohm impedance and is 90dB sensitive at 8 ohms requires far less current than one that  has 4 ohms impedance and is less sensitive. 

Best i can do at the moment.

falconquest,

 After skimming through these many posts about a simple question, your answer has the best potential to answer the basic question asked by someone admits right up front that this isn't exactly his line of expertise. Thanks for that. The fact that some of the posts accurately describe current with the inclusion of OHMS law, or other related truth, does not help the person who is asking in the first place. 

If only thing should be understood here, it is that the speaker’s impedance is what determines whether a particular amp is gong to work or not work.

The equation (V=IR) itself, defines a relationship between resistance and current.

So we need to understand either the I, the current, (which relates to the amplifier) or we need to understand the R (which relates to the speaker).

Which means that:

we either start with amp, and determine what speakers are not going to work, and look at the rest that will.

or

we start with the speaker, and determine which amplifiers will work and which will not, and then go from there.

We can talk about current in isolation, but it seems easier if we started with an example of what speakers you wanted to consider running.

Before I continue, let me say that holmz gets it, i.e. in reference to my post. No BS, no put down or what is too commonly seen on this site, so thanks for that. Better that we can explain our writings to each such as is being done here. 

 Now I do agree with the idea that this involves more than a single component. The basic question however, now addressed, was about current and it's definition for the common man. We tend to automatically answer in a way we know, but not everyone knows the meaning behind V=IR, or E=mc2 for that matter. So from the beginning there little chance by this definition that the OP will 'get' the meaning.

 Man, I do remember all the talk back in the day about current/amperage output of power amps, X WPC, TIM and anything 'new' to sell.  In some cases it was relevant for the consumer, but then not so much in other cases.

 Once the idea of current is basically understood, then it is time to move to the next logical step of current need. Sorry, couldn't resist.