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Riddle me this...

Why is it that you cannot seem to purchase a lower-powered solid state amp any more? None of the “names” in solid state amps seem to make any reasonably priced or powered products at all, and most haven’t since about the early 90s. (A few come to mind right off, Levinson no. 29, Rowland Model 1, Krell KSA-80, the family of Pass Alephs). These days, the most modest offering from any of these companies (not to mention everyone else) is many times more expensive, in no small part due to the fact that they are all many times more powerful.

Question is, why? Why should I need 250wpc+ to drive any reasonably designed speaker? What is it about the industry that seems to be in a conspiracy (or, at least, conscious parallelism, for you antitrust geeks) to foist more and more power on the consuming public while, at the same time, doubling or tripling prices for their most modest gear? Why is it that, if I want a really nice amp at less than 100wpc, I have to either go with tubes or with gear that was made at least a decade ago? Why is it that most speakers made these days are either “tube friendly” or “require” an amp with enough power to light a small village to actually go?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve got inefficient speakers and a 250wpc amp which I like the sound of just fine. It just strikes me as preposterous that I (and we, if I may speak for the market) seem to have been conditioned to believe that this is necessary. Why on Earth wouldn’t someone get a reasonably designed, efficient pair of speakers and, say, a Pass Aleph amp for a negligible fraction of ANYTHING built by Pass these days and never look back? I understand there are plenty of legit reasons why more power can be desirable (“never can have too much” yea, yea, I know), but am a bit miffed that, legit reasons or no, the market no longer seems to offer choices. We a bunch of suckers, or what? (Yea, a bit of a rant, but this has been bugging me -- am I the only one? Did I miss something? Can I get a witness?)
mezmo
sean
6,231 posts
 
My guess is that the market for low powered SS amps has been eaten alive by "monsters" of the tube variety. As such, the "big boys" are concentrating on where they are going to make the most money. Why would anyone want to make a product that is not going to sell well ? As such, let's hope that at least some of the "big boys" read forums like this. If so, they might realize that there probably IS a market for such a product simply because few reputable companies actually market something of this nature. Sean
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bigtee
803 posts
 
I think it falls into the same category as buying a Lexus ES300 over a very similiar Toyota Camry V6. I have long thought a lot of people buy expensive stuff because they feel they have too to be legit in the Audiophile community and taken seriously. Then there is always the pride of ownership( my toy is more expensive than yours.) You always read on this forum where price dictates quality which is absolutely not true. It seems people apologize for having inexpensive equipment with statements like I'll make do until I can afford better or I know there is better, more expensive stuff out there. Some how, someway, we have created a monster. As one person stated, "You have to spend a lot of money to find out you didn't need to spend so much." Companies take advantage of this mentality because they know with proper marketing they can sell it.
There are some very, very good low priced products out there. They don't draw much press or interest because they are too "Cheap" to be taken seriously.
As for power, it takes ten times the power to double a given volume level. If you look at the specs in this light, there is not a lot of difference in volume between a 50w amp and a 200w amp. Not nearly what people would have you believe. I'm going to make a statement here and I don't care if people believe it or not but there are a lot more better sounding smaller amps out there than big amps. A lot of times, big amps because of multiple output devices, add more of their own sound. This is not to say they aren't any big amps that sound good but not that many when compared to lesser offering. The Pass Aleph 30 is a good example along with the 60. Pass labs new big amps don't sound as good in direct comparison.
One last little note, when comparing, the louder system will always sound better no matter what the quality. Give it a try.
dedicatedaudio's avatar
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dedicatedaudio
169 posts
 
Give the LINN LK85/LK140 a look. I use(5)in an AKTIV format with a REL sub. Great stuff for the pricepoint.
fyneplace
40 posts
 
Well, I'll stand as a witness for Mezmo. Glad someone else sees hype the way I do. I read all the threads before this and agree with all. All the matters is the music.

Jeff
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Good observation (I guess you can tell that I haven't exactly been thinking of shopping for one of these!), at least as far as the 'big boys' go. Of course, there are still lower-powered SS amps available, but they mostly come from Britain and Europe. That leads me to believe that Sean is probably correct (and when is he not?), that the Levinsons, Krells, Passes, Classes, etc. of this world have identified their typical customers as not being in the market for sub-100-watters, but now that even seems to be true of the McCormacks and the less expensive 'world' brands like NAD, Adcom, Rotel, etc. However, two additional thoughts I've had just now, are that A) the resurgence of the integrated amp as a popular market niche has usurped the lower-powered separates approach in most of these lines, leaving high(er)-power as the raison d'etre for component amps, and B) lower-powered two-channel amps don't cater to the requirements of home theater, which has migrated to three- or five-channel designs.
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