Does anyone care to ask an amplifier designer a technical question? My door is open.

@almarg Correspondingly, at my 12 foot listening distance I have measured peak SPLs on those recordings of close to 105 db, with the softest notes being in the vicinity of 50 db. I used a Radio Shack digital SPL meter for these measurements, set for C-weighting and fast response.

My speakers (Daedalus Ulysses) are rated at 97.5 db/1w/1m, and have a very flat impedance curve with a specified nominal impedance of 6 ohms. My 12 foot listening distance corresponds to 3.66 meters. Putting aside room effects for the moment I assume that SPL produced by a box-type dynamic speaker such as those falls off at 6 db per doubling of distance, which means an 11 db reduction going from 1 meter to 12 feet. I conservatively add in 3 db to reflect the presence of two speakers (as I understand it that figure will actually be closer to 6 db at my centered listening position when both speakers are producing similar signals), and I add in perhaps 3 db for “room gain.”

97.5 -11 + 3 + 3 = 92.5 db at the listening position for 1 watt per channel. Let’s call it 93 db.

I add in about 3 db of margin to the 105 db I want my amp/speaker combination to be able to produce at the listening position. So the required minimum amplifier power (into 6 ohms) is:

105 + 3 - 93 = 15 dbW (decibels above 1 watt)

15 dbW = 32 watts.

Thanks for your measurements and math. I think the math will leave most with their head swimming. Perhaps you could add some details to the steps so that others, less math inclined, might work things out. it is nice for people to know how different speakers fall off with distance. Perhaps you could write that up for us. :)

I ask for SPL both at listening position and 1 meter for two different purposes.

I want to get to know the listener and measuring at 1 meter leaves out all those other calculations. One just works off the 1 meter speaker spec and adds or subtracts. If one is 3 db higher than the speaker spec he is at 2 watts, 6 db is 4 watts, 10 db is 10 watts, 20 db is 100 watts.

@krelldreams, you should definitely try your Dynaco ST70 with the MG1.7, just to see if that gives you enough power. The RM-10 is a far better amp than the ST70, but their power output is about the same (right Roger?). But remember, a 35 watt tube amp puts out less power at the Maggies’ 4 ohm (and lower) impedance. The RM-200 doesn’t.

Another option is to have Roger make you an autoformer (maybe even build it into the amp!), to raise the impedance the RM-10 sees.

@almarg  . I recently changed to a Pass XA25, which is specified as a class A amplifier rated at 25 wpc into 8 ohms and 50 wpc into 4 ohms. Per JA’s measurements, though, it is capable of 80 and 130 wpc into those impedances. I presume that most of that increase represents the amp’s capability after leaving class A, although per JA’s comments some of the increase apparently reflects differences in the distortion percentages the ratings and measurements are based on.

@bdp24  The J’s midrange (provided by the available-separately Model 80) was great by itself (unusually transparent for a cone speaker)

@fsonicsmith   And while a solid state input stage may very well offer better measurements, where is the proof that it sounds better? At the end of the day, isn’t it indisputable that it is cheaper to produce and less complicated?