Back in the day, my father's Brook 10-C3 (Class A to a pair of 2A3 tubes) drove our RCA LC-1A, 15" coaxial speaker to room filling volume. No one asked if they needed another loudspeaker or amp... you were too busy enjoying the MUSIC. I think you have to ask if you are enjoying your MUSIC or not.
Does my amp have enough juice to power my speakers?
Having just read a review in Stereophile of my Audio Physic Step Plus speakers (which I have to my utter dismay ,knocked over and dinged AAAgh!), the author states that his Shindo Haut-Briton Power amp (20wpc) couldn't drive the Step Plusses and states that nothing less than 35Wpc could drive them. My dilemma is that I have a Line Magnetic 216 IA rated at 22Wpc that sometimes sounds heavenly and on other days sounds eeh. Do I need an amp with more boost?
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you need to provide more data. I quickly looked up the speakers, 8 ohms, but no sensitivity listed int he review i found. Simple two-way, probably not too bad a reactive load. I (most of us) don't know much about your amp either. 20wpc is a measurement into a pure 8 ohm resistive load, which is rarely seen in the wild. Whether an amp can drive speakers depends on many factors including current, stability and simple voltage (generally the limiting factor in FTC power ratings). bear in mind that dBs are -- and perceived sound levels -- are exponential and twice the perceived sound level requires TEN TIMES the power - so the next logical jump from 209 is not 35, but 200wpc. Yet a solid, high current, stable-into-anythign amp will drive most speakers to acceptable levels in a small to medium room. I would suggest getting all the specs on your amp and calling the manufacturer, or your dealer, if he/she is technical. 84dB, mentioned above is very inefficient and will demand some power to come alive. That said, i presume you want small speakers for a small living space? Might work fine. G |
"finally for those who dig the high SPL world, get hearing tested.... " Or- (almost)NEVER use live music, as a reference. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Sound/dba2.html and https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Dynamics_(music).html |
This day to day variation should be addressed first, it's probably wall current fluctuations. I agree - if the first watt is no good why bother with more of them. But we are talking about good first watt and the possibility of many more of them good ones. Yeah, with some music you need a lot of power. My speakers are 89db and 8ohm, or so they say, and I tried 60 watt/ch and 120 watt/ch solid state amps. Medium size room. With more powerful and more high current amp it is significantly better at any loudness level and much better at high level. I would think that doubling the power would be the first step, not ten times, that's a little extreme. |
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