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mo' better bass: any substitute for watts?

Generally speaking, and all things being equal, will higher wattage amps generally produce more, better defined bass than lower wattage amps at a given volume level? I don't seem to hear much bass until I turn my amp up to a level that doesn't suit my listening habits. Wondering if this could be improved by upgrading my old NAD 25(or is it 35?)wpc Powerdrive amp with a newer, modest amp in the 100 wpc range or so. I'm thinking about driving a power amp directly off of an Oppo 980H. Speakers are Rega R3's which can produce bass in my small room when I crank the volume and/or bass tone control. Thanks!
clbone
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geared4me's avatar
geared4me
219 posts
 
Ok, fourth time trying to post to this thread. I'm surprised that you haven't been asked yet what speakers you are talking about? Also, this could just be a placement issue. Have you moved your seating position and speaker position around enough to rule this out? If you do not already own the oppo 980 I would suggest getting the new 983,it has better sound quality from the analog audio output.
saki70
907 posts
 
Something quite basic , that has not been touched upon here , is the configuration of those added watts .
Watts are a result of the amount of volts and amps going through a device . Amps are the driving force of the volts which do the work . It is the amps that will drive the volts through a tough crossover network and into a power hungry woofer .

You can have the same amount of watts with 2 amps (with higher voltage) or 20 amps (with lower voltage). But the 20 amp watts have the ability to do much more with a tough load . This is why some amplifiers will double down as the ohms decrease within a speaker , such as 100 watts into 8 ohms , 200 watts into 4 ohms , 400 watts into 2 ohms and so forth . Where as a low amperage amplifier may do 100 watts into 8 ohms and 125 watts into 4 ohms etc.

And yes , it usually costs more to make high amperage watts than high voltage watts .

Just a though .
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clbone OP
41 posts
 
Thanks to all for the responses to this point. Would love to hear any other opinions. Consensus seems to be that more watts will help my situation.
I have considered a digital amp (Trends)as Shiva suggested, not sure if it would deliver the goods on an 89dB-rated speaker. I'd love to try Rega Brio 3 (loved my Brio 2000) but I really want a remote, and again, wondering if "49" wpc will bring the bass to life. How would it work to use the volume control on the Oppo with a Brio having it's volume knob turned up?
Another comment - I've seen it mentioned more than once that an amp that can double its 8 ohm watt ratinginto 4 ohms is regarded as a "high current" amp, as Saki suggests. Bob, are you saying that this characteristic doesn't indicate a high-current design or just that this isn't an indication of bass capability? I'm looking at an amp that does 100 wpc into 8 ohms and 125 into 6, no 4-ohm rating given.
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