Amplifier current vrs watts; why is current more important?

rbstehno,

I guess no analogy is perfect!  It's up to one's choosing.  

Amplifier current vrs watts; why is current more important?

KEEPING IT SIMPLE.
Amps with big watts and little current alone don’t drive speakers with low impedances and stay flat in frequency response, amps with big current do.

EG: One of the worst low impedance speakers ever made, the Wilson Alexia v1, they go down to 0.9ohm in the bass.
A 500w stereo P.A. amp or a 500w Class-D will work into them to a point only, but will sound like a tone control.
 
But a monoblock amp like the "Legendary" old Mark Levinson ML2 monoblocks that are only 25w!! into 8ohms, will sound better into them, because it’s said they double their wattage for each halving of impedance all the way down to 1ohm with the current it can generate, so they will stay flat in frequency response, where the 500w’ers will sound like a tone control.

Cheers George

Here is proof to what I posted above, and the speaker load in both instances, is a very easy to drive Kantor simulated speaker load, a bad load will look far worse.

Look at the black wavy line.

This is the well known Prima Luna Prologue Premium 25w tube amp with very questionable current.

8ohm tap + - 7db!! frequency response, "a tone control"
https://www.stereophile.com/images/1116PLPPfig01.jpg

4ohm tap+ - 5db!! frequency response "still a tone control"
https://www.stereophile.com/images/612PPPfig01.jpg

Here is the Pass XA25 25watter with far more current that the PL above, it’s +- 0.1db frequency response. Virtually flat as it should be!!!
https://www.stereophile.com/images/218PXA25fig1.jpg

Cheers George

viridian
So I do it backwards and choose the amp first.

That’s fine, so long as the speaker then chosen doesn’t cause that amp to become a "tone control"
To me I would think in that easy "Kantor Simulated Speaker Load" graphs I posted above, that Stereophile uses, that +- 1 or 2db deviation from flat would be acceptable.

That means easier loads than the "Kantor" horns, JBL ect the amp would be almost flat and on harder to drive than the "Kator load" the deviation would still be just acceptable at +-3db deviation from flat.
.
Cheers George