What this covers
This petition urges the FTC to reconsider its August 2024 Final Amplifier Ruling (16 CFR Part 432), which expands regulation of power output claims to ALL audio products, including powered speakers, soundbars, and subwoofers. The ruling aims to standardize comparisons for consumers but diverges from prior guidelines by including closed systems and not mandating testing for multi-channel outputs or 4-ohm ratings. It applies retroactively to products made before the ruling, which could significantly impact manufacturers. This broader scope and lack of specific testing standards could create severe complications for the electronics industry, potentially disrupting manufacturing processes and leading to widespread compliance challenges.
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👉 Read: Audioholics Petition to 2024 FTC Amplifier Rule: https://www.audioholics.com/audio-amplifier/ftc-final-amplifier-rule-2024
👉 Petition the FTC to Reopen the Final Amplifier Rule BEFORE November 8th, 2024: https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FTC-2024-0039-0001
Please mention that you would like this rule to be reopened to consider the technical issues raised by Audioholics.com and the CTA in an effort to more accurately rate amplifier power and the maximum SPL performance of powered loudspeaker systems.
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0:00 Introduction 1:17 Case to Reopen FTC Final Amplifier Rule 2:19 FTC 2000 Relaxed Media Advertisement Impact 4:55 FTC Amp Rule History 6:18 What Changed in the 2024 FTC Amplifier Rule? 7:50 The Good 9:15 The Bad 11:00 Cheat the FTC Rule? 11:40 Power Rating Limited to 20kHz? 13:19 Industry Implications 14:33 Real World Impact of New 2024 FTC Amp Rule 16:53 How to Correct This? 18:46 How Can You Help Us? 19:15 Petition the FTC to Reopen The Rule 19:20 One Measurement Does NOT Rule ALL!
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Source description (no synthesized summary yet).
The 2024 FTC amplifier rule, while well-intentioned, contains critical flaws that harm manufacturers and consumers by mandating 8-ohm testing regardless of actual system impedance, creating compliance chaos and reducing useful power specifications for powered speakers and subwoofers; the rule must be reopened to allow realistic testing conditions.
- The 8-ohm mandate forces manufacturers to derate amplifiers designed for lower impedances, misrepresenting actual power delivery in real-world systems
- Manufacturers are already removing power specifications from products to avoid non-compliance, reducing consumer transparency rather than enhancing it
- The rule's ambiguous 5-minute full-bandwidth testing requirement creates physical limitations for class D amplifiers and unrealistic specifications that don't reflect actual usage
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In 2000, the FTC removed the mandate for power specification disclosure in advertising media for amplifiers, though manufacturers still had to disclose specifications in product sheets and manuals, giving them freedom to inflate power claims in advertisements by amounts up to twice the actual FTC-compliant power.
“back in 2000 the FTC uh removed the Mandate for media advertising that pertain to three parameters for rating amplifier power load impedance rated Power Band with frequency response and Distortion now the manufacturers still had to disclose this specification of their amplifiers in their product sheets their spec sheets whether it was online or in their manuals but it gave them free reign to basically inflate power on any magnitude of advertising media”
In addition to class AB and class D amplifiers, most modern loudspeakers are multi-driver units with parallel-connected drivers, resulting in impedance closer to 4 ohms than 8 ohms, regardless of how manufacturers inflate their spec sheets.
“most loudspeakers are not 8 ohms especially when they're multi-drive units when there's multiple base drivers in them and they're in parallel you see most of these systems as being closer to 4 Ohms regardless of how the manufacturer inflates the spec sheets”
The original 1974 FTC precondition requirement of 1/3 power for one hour was too stressing on linear class AB amplifier designs because it operated in the region of lowest efficiency where the most power is dissipated through heat sinks; it was later relaxed to 1/8 power for one hour, which is a more sensible approach.
“back when the 74 rule came out they wanted to precondition the amplifiers at 1/3 power uh for an hour and that was too stressing on linear AB designs most amplifiers of the day because that's the area of the region of the amplifier where it's least efficient and it's dissipating the most power through those heat sinks it was just very stressing so they relaxed that they made it 1/8 power for an hour and I think that's sensible”
Most amplifiers, regardless of design type (class AB or class D), have less power output at 20kHz than at 1kHz, because at 20kHz the effective feedback is reduced (for class AB) causing distortion to rise with frequency, and (for class D) the output filter capacitor becomes sensitive to sustained tones and the amplifier will current limit or shut down rather than sustain maximum power.
“virtually every amplifier I've ever measured over the years has slightly less power at 20 khz than it does at 1 khz and that doesn't matter if it's class AB or class D it's just the nature of it for class AB because you're dealing with the higher bandwidth you have less effective feedback at 20 KZ so your Distortion Rises with frequency so if you're fixed at 1% THD usually the amplifier has higher Distortion at 20 khz than it does at 1 khz”
The 2024 FTC amplifier rule requires amplifier power to be tested at 8 ohms load impedance regardless of the actual impedance of the loudspeaker or system being driven, meaning that if a subwoofer driver is 4 ohms, the amplifier must still be rated at 8 ohms, which results in derating the amplifier and misrepresenting its actual power delivery capability in the system for which it was designed.
“the bottom line is they're trying to do one measurement to rule them all they want to specify power into an 8ohm load regardless of the impedance that the amplifier is driving or regardless of the loudspeaker if it's a powered system if the in total impedance of the system is 8 ohms or less if it's 4 Ohms it doesn't matter they want amplifier power speced into an 8 ohm load regardless”
The 5-minute testing requirement in the FTC rule lacks clear specification about how to conduct the test: whether it should be a continuous 5-minute sine wave at 1kHz followed by a sweep from 20Hz to 20kHz, or some other configuration, creating ambiguity that is self-defeating and requires more clarification.
“if you look at the history of how the FTC rated amplifier power I believe the five minute rule was always there but I don't think it was very uh stringently enforced but now it seems like it's being more enforced and they don't really give you a spec is it a sweep is it do you run it for five minutes at one kerz and then you do a sweep from 20 Herz to 20 kilohertz for a half a second it's so ambiguous in this rule there's so much open to interpretation that I think it's self-defeating to just keep it the way it is right now we need to definitely get more specifications on this”
A system designed within a specific bandwidth should be tested within that pass band, not across the full 20 Hz to 20 kHz range mandated by the FTC, to avoid unrealistic testing conditions for frequency-limited designs.
“the system may be designed for Less bandwidth to protect the speakers and this should be tested within its pass band so really there should be specification for if a if a subwoofer or a powered speaker is designed within a certain bandwidth then that test should be applied for within that bandwidth and it should be applied for whatever the load impedance of that system is”
In 2020, the FTC was considering eliminating the amplifier rule entirely, but consumer advocacy (including from audioholics' 'Truth and Power' movement) resulted in over 1,133 public comments supporting the rule, which led the FTC to keep it in place as a check and balance on industry practices.
“back in 2020 the FTC was looking at doing away with this rule entirely and that's when we you guys petition to sign comments to get them to save the rule because we want to have the FTC rule in place at least as a checks and balance to the industry and we had because of our efforts and your proactiveness in this and other people in the industry were on our same side of wanting to keep this rule alive the FTC received over 1133 comments and it kept the rule alive”
Home theater in a box systems of the 1990s-2000s were marketed with misleading wattage claims by simply adding up the single-channel power rating and multiplying by the number of channels, even though these small systems were incapable of producing the claimed total wattage.
“we also saw this with home theater in a box units You' get a home theater a box that had they claim a thousand watts and what they were doing was they were just adding up the one channel rating and and just multiplying it by the number of channels was completely bogus these little systems cannot produce a th000 watts of power”
For powered systems like subwoofers and powered speakers, maximum continuous SPL output (measured using standards like CA20 ground plane measurements) should be a more important specification metric than power rating, since SPL better reflects real-world performance.
“when you're dealing with powered systems like subwoofers or powered speakers we should care more about the clean SPL output like we specify with the ca20 when we do those ground plane measurements”
A full power sine wave sweep for 5 minutes' duration is not realistically representative of how most amplifiers are actually used, since real program content does not run a single continuous tone for five minutes and only tests two channels of multi-channel amplifiers.
“a full power sign sweep for five minutes dur uh duration is not realistically representative of how most amplifiers are used you know real program content is not running for five minutes straight for a tone and only it only tests for two channels of a multi Channel amplifier”
The August 12, 2024 effective date of the FTC rule creates urgent compliance challenges for manufacturers who had already committed to marketing and product launches, as products manufactured and packaged before the date could become non-compliant if sold afterward, posing significant legal risks.
“the immediate impact on the August 12th 2024 rule date is that creating urgent challenges for manufacturers already committed to marketing for upcoming product launches the compliance risk spec sheets for products manufactured and packaged before this date could lead to non-compliance if sold afterward posing significant legal risks it's resource intensive manufacturers faced a daunting task of potentially reviewing all packaged inventory to update their spec sheets which could require extensive resources and time”
The rule provides no guidance on how to specify power for multi-channel amplifiers with more than two channels driven, despite the FTC wrestling with this issue for many years and receiving presentations on this topic.
“it only tests for two channels of a multi Channel amplifier we talked about that it doesn't give us the full capability of what a big multi- Channel amplifier can do with multiple channels driven not just two channels driven and this is something the FTC was wrestling with for many years and there was there was present presentations we actually submitted um how we wanted to see Power tested for multi Channel amplifiers it never got through and then the FTC just I guess they deemed that it was too complicated of a topic and they just threw that away and they stuck with just rating two channels driven is like the original rule of 1974”
Consumers should submit FTC comments supporting the petition by mentioning that they want the rule reopened to consider technical issues raised by audioholics and the CTA, and should use the slogan 'one measurement to not rule them all' to emphasize that different system types require different testing conditions.
“I basically want you guys to write tftc I want you just to mention that you would like this rule to be reopened to consider the technical issues raised by audioholics.com and the CTA in an effort to more accurately rate amplifier power and the maximum SPL performance of powered loudspeaker systems tell the FTC that one measurement does not rule them all that's my slogan one measurement to not rule them all”
Multiple manufacturers are removing maximum continuous power ratings from their spec sheets and websites as a direct result of the 2024 FTC rule, reducing consumer transparency instead of enhancing it as the rule intended.
“I've seen multiple manufacturers taking off their Max continuous power ratings on their spec sheets and their websites because of this new rule so this is a serious implication that we need to address hopefully ASAP”
The FTC should establish an exemption for products manufactured, packaged, and marketed before August 12, 2024 to clarify that the retroactive application of the new rule will not apply to existing inventory and specifications.
“we support the cta's petition seeking to clarify the commission's application of the amended trade Reg regulation rule relating to power output claims of amplifiers utilizing home theater entertainment products designed tested and manufactured before the amended rule August 12 2024”
Compliance with the 2024 rule and making more accurate amplifier power specifications will ultimately benefit manufacturers, retail partners, and most importantly consumers through enabling apples-to-apples comparisons across different product categories.
“because it's going to be beneficial for the manufacturers it's going to be beneficial for the Retail Partners and especially it's going to be beneficial for you guys because you get more accurate information so you can make apples to apples comparisons on different product categories”
Complying with the new rule is resource-intensive for manufacturers, potentially requiring review of all packaged inventory to update spec sheets, which demands extensive resources and time to execute.
“it's resource intensive manufacturers faced a daunting task of potentially reviewing all packaged inventory to update their spec sheets which could require extensive resources and time”
Lack of regulatory guidance and unresolved issues are threatening to disrupt the market and negatively impact manufacturing businesses and operations in the audio equipment industry.
“the lacks of guidance and these issues threaten to disrupt the market and negatively impact businesses and operations for many manufacturers and we are seeing some of this happening and unfolding right now”
Audioholics and the CTA have the same goals and alignment in advocating for changes to the 2024 FTC rule, justifying a collaboration and joint petition effort.
“we have the same goals and same alignment of what the CTA is trying to do with their petition we're all on the same page so so that's why I'm teaming together with the CTA”
Dennis Murphy was heavily involved in the FTC decades ago and was part of the standards body regulating amplifier specifications; he peer-reviewed the audioholics article to ensure accuracy and factual presentation.
“I want to thank Dennis Murphy personally because he peer-reviewed My article he was heavily involved in the FTC decades ago he was part of the standards body that was regulating this and I appreciate him overlooking this to make sure that everything I'm presenting to you guys is as accurate and factual as possible”
The FTC comment period for the petition to reopen the rule has a deadline of November 8th (at the time of the video), creating an urgent, time-sensitive call to action for consumers to submit comments supporting the petition.
“we have a call to action and it's time sensitive we have to put in a petition for the FTC to reopen this rule no later than November 8th so that's literally days away”
The 1% THD+N distortion threshold specified in the 2024 rule is a sensible and fair standard for solid-state electronics, and audioholics uses the same metric (along with 0.1% THD+N and full bandwidth sweeps) in their own amplifier power measurements.
“the 1% for most solid state Electronics we as you guys know when we specify amplifier power when we do measurements we check it at one kerz at 0.1% THD plus n and at 1% THD plus n and then we do a full bow bandwidth uh sweep as well and we give you that power spec too so it's good to have all this data I'm in agreement with the Distortion spec I think that's pretty decent”
Audioholics conducted a preview/review of the SVS SB17 Ultra subwoofer when it was launched and announced at CEDIA, documenting that it had a 2800-watt power specification at that time.
“if you look at the preview we did for the SVS uh 17 Ultra subwoofers back when they were launched and announced at cidia you look at the specs on here and this amplifier was rated at 2800 watts”
Audioholics has written a detailed, complex article on their homepage explaining the issues with the 2024 FTC rule, which they will link in the video description and supplementary materials.
“I wrote a very complex and detailed article it's on the homepage I'll link it down below”