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Experiences moving from high-power to lower-power system

Dear all,

For years I have been pursing a track of higher and higher power solid-state amplification with medium-to-low efficiency floorstanding speakers. I don't wish to start another tube vs. solid state thread. And we all know the benefits of more, often Class A, power: better headroom, transient response, imaging, soundstage, low-end control. Rather, I want to ask about the experiences of folks who have traded in higher-power for lower-power setups.  What were the tradeoffs? What got better? What got worse? Was it a question of fit with the space? Answers can be from folks with super-high-efficiency speakers and flea-watt amps, tube or solid state, or transitions to setups that are less extreme. 

Thank you,

Paul

paulburnett
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,938 posts
 
how would your speakers sound with 800 watts of tube power ? Or it would just be a waist of electricity and tubes ?
An output transformer that could manage 800 watts would not be full bandwidth. So, probably not as good. Another issue would be the noise floor, which would be higher. In most cases, its likely that distortion would be higher too, since my speakers require so little power, an 800 watt amp would be operating in a region where its distortion is actually nearly that of full power. So I think it would be a waste- with that kind of power, at the very least a speaker of less efficiency would be good for the amp.

We do make an OTL that makes a little over 500 watts. That one seems to run fine on those speakers. I never need the power though...
inna
7,330 posts
 
So, not too much, not too little. I in fact always thought that custom amp was the way to go. In fact, custom speakers too, but that’s another subject.
shkong78's avatar
shkong78
1,485 posts
 
15 years ago I had moved from 350 tube watts Jadis 500 to 8 watts 300b SET amplifiers.

Both have merits.

B&W801  driven by Jadis 500 gave most powerful bass in my room.

High efficiency full range speaker driven by 300B gave beautiful human voice.
geek101
284 posts
 
@shkong78 500 Watts of SET per channel? How much heat do the amps put out?.
wtf's avatar
wtf
307 posts
 
After many years with inefficient speakers and the appropriate amps to drive them my own curiosity got the best of me. I’m somewhat budget constrained (lower end of the audiophile totem pole) which is a bit challenging when trying to put together a SET/high-efficiency system but with plenty of research behind me I started with the speakers and purchased Omega’s Super 3i. To get a handle on the sound I paired them with several amps I have in storage. Good start. Long story short, about 3 months later I ordered a Decware SE84UFO (2 wpc). The reported synergy I read about was immediate and obvious. I’ve since added a nice NOS DAC and Omega’s DeepHemp 8 Subwoofer. This is the most satisfying system I’ve put together .. tone, nuance, coherence, soundstage .. everything improved. Late night listening is a joy. No doubt this type of system isn’t for everyone but for me, I can’t imagine going back.

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