Interesting question. Why do you think it matters?
What is the appropriate horsepower (wattage) for a new pair of PSB T2's?
I ended up upgrading the Imagine B's with a pair of PSB T2's. As good as the NAD c356 sounds, I think the T'2s could use some additional wattage. Any experience out there with the PSB Imagine line? Also I have a flawless pair of Imagine B's for sale.
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I have T3's. The 3's leveled up considerably when I upgraded from a NAD M27 to a BAT VK 6200. Sound overall became much richer and more detailed in the bass. I listen to 2 channel and watch movies in a 5.1 system with 4 T3's and a center C3. The T's need good current delivery more than anything. Get something that doubles down to at least 4 ohms. Watts? I'm not sure. My BAT does 200 per channel. |
The main factors in deciding what power you need are the size of your room, type of music and your preferred listening level. Those speakers are fairly sensitive (90dB) so unless you have a particularly large room then you probably don't need anything greater than 50W and can probably get away with a fair bit less. If you have a digital multimeter and a digital source (DAC etc) then there's an experiment you can do to work out how much power you need at your preferred listening levels. If you're interested I can find a link to the instructions. |
Technically speaking, horsepower affects top speed volume while torque has more of an effect on acceleration. This is why even a lot of solid state horsepower seems less powerful than a smaller amount of tube torque. The greater tube torque accelerates the voice coil zero to 60 much faster. Remember all the world's top speed tests where horsepower rules are run by professionals on a test track. In the real world where hardly anyone has a test pressing and no one has a mastering studio its mostly listening at normal volumes in normal rooms. Where torque is more important than horsepower. So again I ask, why do you think horsepower matters? |
They are rated at 89db. I'd call that medium efficiency. You do need to keep in mind that doubling the wattage only gains you 3db. Perceived volume increases with every 10db increase. The NAD is rated at 80 watts. That's ok but not a lot. However, to hear a difference you will need to at least double that. As said by some of the folks above, wattage isn't everything. Large power supplies, dynamic headroom and such make a difference too. |
There was a poll over on diyaudio some time ago where people measured their maximum power requirements using their own amps and speakers. 71% needed 25W or less with only 16% needing over 100W and that is the maximum power they needed not their normal listening requirements. If you don't mind reading lots of pages about people questioning the maths the thread's here. If you do go for a lower power amp (and there are good reasons to) then you just need to make sure the designer hasn't skimped on the power supply. I rate mine to deliver a sine wave at full power into the lowest rated impedance so they're easily up to the job... others don't always want to pay for that much copper. |
Thank you for all the responses. I guess my point was/is I moved up from a fairly decent bookshelf speaker to the T2's at $3500 for the pair and I was expecting more fidelity than I am experiencing. Don't get me wrong but I like the T2's, I just would like them to project a consistent sonic experience at all volumes and I think the NAD C356 has a lot to do with that. I realize I misspoke talking wattage only, I guess I was looking for recommendations for upgrading the Integrated amp for something that was more supportive of the T2's. |