Why Only 2 Watts Audio On So Many Radios?

[Homeboys-Scanna]

Why is 2 watts the magic number? Seems like so many scanners & ham rigs only give you 2 watts out the speaker. That's not enough! I've never understood why manufacturers always make it only 2 watts of all things. What an arbitrary low number. Why? C'mon, give us 5 watts or 7 watts, or something more hearty so we can hear better with wind / rain niose in the car. It doesn't cost a lot to give us more oomph on the audio. Even the cheap Uniden $45 CBs have 7 watts that give you a nice blaring loud audio. Charge me a few bucks more and gimme some dang volume people!

 

[bob550]

You want more volume, plug in an extension speaker, or in a noisy environment, a set of noise-cancelling headphones. Another alternative is the use of a wireless FM transmitter piping audio from your scanner to the car radio.

 

[KK4JUG]

 

[belvdr]

View attachment 81782

It must be Memorex.

 

[slicerwizard]

Most of us don't need the higher wattage - or the higher costs. That's why.

 

[Unitrunker2]

Use your car's aux audio input. Now you've got 35+ watts.

 

[majoco]

It's a compromise between loudness and power consumption - sure you can have a handheld with a 25 watt audio output but the battery life would be very short!

 

[a417]

cheap speakers driven harder only sound s##ttier. Leave the audio to the audio guys, and the scanning to the scanner guys.

 

[empireco]

My speaker in my new BCD996P2 can be TOO loud at times for me in my living room when certain digital talk groups come in.
I'm getting an external speaker so that the radio's electronics don't suffer from vibration from sounds coming from the speaker being very loud. being an EE I can tell you that vibrations are not good for pc board electronics

 

[a417]

My speaker in my new BCD996P2 can be TOO loud at times for me in my living room when certain digital talk groups come in.
I'm getting an external speaker so that the radio's electronics don't suffer from vibration from sounds coming from the speaker being very loud. being an EE I can tell you that vibrations are not good for pc board electronics

Try adjusting your AGC.