Watts and power


Can somebody break it down in layman's terms for me? Why is it that sometimes an amp that has a high watt rating (like, say, a lot of class D amps do) don't seem to always have the balls that much lower rated A or AB amps do? I have heard some people say, "It's not the watts, it's the power supply." Are they talking about big honkin' toroidal transformers? I know opinions vary on a speaker like, say, Magnepans - Maggies love power, right? A lot of people caution against using class D amps to drive them and then will turn around and say that a receiver like the Outlaw RR2160 (rated at 110 watts into 8 ohms) drives Maggies really well! I'm not really asking about differences between Class D, A, or AB so much as I am asking about how can you tell the POWER an amp has from the specs? 
128x128redstarwraith
Layman’s terms:

It all comes down to "rated" power of your amplifier across the impedance of your speakers, with high emphasis over the bottom KHz or so.

Note I said across impedance, and not just at the lowest impedance as is often brought up. While a 4 ohm speaker may drop to 2 ohms (or less), it may also go up to 10 or 12 ohms (or higher) and do that over a relatively narrow frequency range. At a given volume level, not being able to deliver the required voltage at the impedance peaks or the current at impedance minimums will both cause issues in sound.

We next get into continuous ratings and peaks ratings. There are US and international standards for peak ratings. Are they good enough? Questionable, but nothing is stopping anyone from over designing beyond the standards with oversized transformers and/or large capacitor banks (or an architecture that allow more power supply droop). Of course you need high enough power supply voltages and beefy enough power supply to support the music peaks at the impedance peaks (which can be where heavy bass occurs), and a beefy enough output stage (and power supply) to support the current peaks and the minimum impedance, which are pretty much always bass.

From above .... beefy supply is the first need independent of the speaker requirements, and if your speaker dips low in impedance, you need a beefy output stage too, .... and there are many architectures that have been created to allow higher short term power bursts as is required for real music, but does not improve continuous power ratings.

So can you tell the "power" from the specs .... maybe. Depend on whether the amplifier vendor provides you enough details and you know enough about your speakers. That is about as easy as one can make it.
millercarbon
Can somebody break it down in layman's terms for me?
In a layman analogy for you.

These speakers, one of the worst load a speaker has ever measured. .9ohm EPDR
https://paragonsns2.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Alexia-S2-Cove-Mariposa-Silver-5.jpg?w=1024...

Which amp will drive them the best?

This 175w Gryphon Antillion that almost doubles to 1ohm?
https://gryphon-audio.dk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ANTILEON_1.jpg

Or this 17 x times more powerful into 4ohms 3000w!!! Behringer Class-D that seriously get current starved and goes backwards into 2ohms
  https://www.storedj.com.au/behringer-nx3000-ultra-lightweight-3000w-class-d-power-amplifier?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuJ-N8_fe5gIVjDgrCh1W0gqmEAQYAiABEgJjnfD_BwE

The choice is your
Cheers George
EPDR does not impact Class-D amplifiers. I do not understand why you will not communicate what you used as a current probe to measure 80 amps peaks?

Generally I would expect an amplifier that costs literally 100 times more (per channel) than another amplifier to be "superior".  However, your comment about "seriously current starved" cannot be backed up with facts. It does not go backwards into 2W, it has about 75% more power into 2W than it does into 4W. Do I have any illusions it can do 1500W into 2 ohms, even IEC bursts? Not really. But then again, you don't have proof it doesn't. I do know for a fact it puts out 75% more power into 2 ohms than it does into 4 ohms.


The Gryphon is a claimed 350W into 4 ohms continuous. The Behringer claims 750 (2x, not 17x). It also claims 3000W into 4 ohms. Will it? Doubt it, but maybe for IEC bursts. Will it do >1500W in long enough bursts to support real music at those levels? Yes it will, and yes, that is quite a bit more than the ~100 times more expensive Gryphon.


The primary limitation of it at 2 ohms, is the same as it is at 4 ohms, thermal, not current.

audiozenology
"
I do know for a fact it puts out 75% more power into 2 ohms than it does into 4 ohms."

That is a very interesting statement, assertion, and claim how do you know this to be true? This is like you're other pronouncements where you state something as 'fact" but offer no proof, documentation, or data except sometimes a link to a "source" that you Googled.
audiozenology"I do know for a fact it puts out 75% more power into 2 ohms than it does into 4 ohms."
clearthink That is a very interesting statement, assertion, and claim how do you know this to be true? This is like you’re other pronouncements where you state something as ’fact" but offer no proof


He has no idea.
If what he said were true everyone that calls themselves an audiophile would be using them, and there would be no need for Krell’s, Gryphon’s Agostino’s, ect that can come close doubling from 4 to 2ohm, we all be using this $349 3000w Behringer he’s touting or similar. Like I said, he has no idea, all he's good for is beating his chest and stalking.

Cheers George