Why do speakers improve with more powerful amps?

@carlsbad2

From my experience, blanket statements should be avoided at all costs.

The fact that "your speakers" and "your amplifier" worked in "your listening space" with "your music", doesn't mean much when you change all the parameters and certainly shouldn't be the basis of a recommendation to someone else.

In my case, the increased power from 50WPC to 200WPC made a significant improvement. My speakers have an efficiency of 85dB.

The correct answer as is often the case is “it depends”. It depends on the overall design of the amp, the speakers used with, how loud one wants to go, how big a room, how far away from the speakers, and yes even the kind of music and recording being listened to.

I think that pretty much covers it.

Not to mention each person’s personal preferences alone might lead them any which way.

In any case it’s always better to have more power than needed than less. That’s called headroom and is a real engineering concept and not just marketing. You can look it up!

Too little power means clipping occurs. Clipping is a signal processing concept that you can also look up and is good sound public enemy #1. Most tube amps and many Class D amps and a few others soft clip which at least makes some clipping listenable but it is still a defect in the reproduction of the sound and should always be viewed as a negative to be avoided.

Any discussion about power without reference to clipping is basically useless. More power can be viewed as an “insurance policy” to avoid clipping.

Case closed, right?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headroom_(audio_signal_processing)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipping_(signal_processing)

@jumia -- "So why the hell do people buy inefficient speakers?"

Simple, I like the way my Ohms (main system) and Spendors (2nd system) sound. I prefer them to the many more sensitive speakers I've heard over the years.

I'm not here to impress you or anyone else, nor to change anyone's mind about their audio preferences.  While it is fun to talk about our hobby, there are tons of opinions out there but it is up to each individual to decide what works for them.

OP,

There is a lot of contradictory and attitude coming from different camps in this string.

It sounds like you generally understand. A higher powered amp (in current) with the same sound quality will typically sound better than a lower powered one. This is particularly true with solid state amps. Solid state amps react incredibly fast to demand… which can deplete their reserves (not just for bass). So you get greater solidity and ease. Tube equipment is slower (but often much more realistic sounding, and less prawn to run out of power).

Speaker designers are trying to go for the very best sound they can achieve, and a cone that can snap back quickly generally means greater accuracy… but to move it, that required more power.

I quickly learned in the late 70s that if I wanted to enjoy the current guzzling electrostatic speaker (a different reason for needing massive current) I needed to most muscle available (at the time Threshold s500)… which I took out my first loan to buy.

I am now using a tube amp in triode mode with only 70 wpc. While it generates 140 wpc in linear mode… it sound better in triode mode because it sounds more musical and natural. Then my speakers are 90db. You can see my system under my user ID.

I remember when I had my Adcom setup GSA 555-2 (250 wpc).  They were bridgable mono's, so I purchased another one of the same amps and series.  The end result?  My system sounded like a PA system.  Loud as hell and very unpleasant (sibilant).  I still like a lot of power because I like to feel the orchestra or the rock band playing, but now it's with tubes.