I demand that my power amp puts out some serious wattage mojo, so instead of a tiny low powered single ended amp, I insist on on the 10wpc (12 with some tubes, but with KT77s it’s supposedly 10) provided by my Dennis Had SE amp for room shaking dynamic sound through a pair of 99db efficient speakers. I may be power crazy...
Power Uber Alles ?
Hi Gang,
Another thread that is about to go sideways brought up an interesting question: Is power alone an important quality indicator for you?
Of course, they're nice to have, but have you experienced that bigger amps sound better, or is the overall quality of the amp more important.
Assume you have enough power for a modest living room. If a listener was happy with a particular 100 Watt amplifier, would you suggest they find more power?
Please include experience, speakers, and size of listening area while replying!
Also, for a 12' x 18' living room with 86 dB speakers, what range of power do you think you would personally be happy with?
Another thread that is about to go sideways brought up an interesting question: Is power alone an important quality indicator for you?
Of course, they're nice to have, but have you experienced that bigger amps sound better, or is the overall quality of the amp more important.
Assume you have enough power for a modest living room. If a listener was happy with a particular 100 Watt amplifier, would you suggest they find more power?
Please include experience, speakers, and size of listening area while replying!
Also, for a 12' x 18' living room with 86 dB speakers, what range of power do you think you would personally be happy with?
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- 26 posts total
@erik_squires, Interesting thread, judging from responses so far, there doesn't appear to be any evident correlation between power and sound quality, per se. In my own example above, the only different element changed was increased power and all other factors stayed the same, but, I mean, really, how often does that ever happen in the real world? When you swap out other amp designs that are more/less powerful, or are partnering them with other speakers, then I guess everything else is changing the results of the comparison, it would seem. It's a wash then?? I wouldn't let ebm get to you too bad. Everything you said in your rebuttal to him is true (and I hope would be evident), but the ebm I know has been pretty consistent...I think of him as just our resident 'equal opportunity' hit--and-run 'slammer', lol. Cheers. |
The OPs question is about power and quality.
With respect to power, in my world, you need to have enough power for whatever speakers you choose, to play whatever music you enjoy, at whatever sound pressure levels meet your expectations for realistic dynamics. Anything less and you are unlikely to be satisfied with the amount of power, in the long term. The quality part of the question is both objective with respect to the quality of power (i.e., low distortion and minimal frequency variations), as well as subjective with respect to listening preferences. So, the answer is to purchase amplifier(s) with enough power to cleanly (i.e., without distortion and frequency aberrations) drive your speakers to satisfying (continuous and peak) sound pressure levels. Musical Fidelity previously published a SPL vs. amp power vs. speaker guide. I could not find it on their current website but below is a link to a forum thread about "moving from a 150 watt amp to a 400 watt amp" where @bruce_weiland posts the Musical Fidelity info from their 2009 website (see post dated 3-26-18 at 5:14pm) and immediately following @almarg provides additional useful comments on the subject. https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/what-does-moving-from-a-150-watt-amp-to-a-400-watt-amp-get-you |
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- 26 posts total