Paul Klipsch was right - What the world needs is a good 5 watt amplifier


For those who are questioning whether a low power high quality amp would be able to properly drive any speakers I've recorded a short video demonstrating very high SPL level from a speakers with average sensitivity. The video is of very low audio and video quality as its recorded from my smartphone. However, the microphone used for measuring the sound pressure is MiniDSP UMIK-1 and the software used is REW (Room EQ Wizard). During the tests the amplifier didn't show any hint of stress of distortion

The speakers used in this video are Sonus Faber Olympica II and the integrated amplifier is Pass Labs INT-25. According to some third party reviews the Olympica's are thought load for the partnering amplifier as their sensitivity is averagely rated (88db) and the impedance curve drops down to 3 ohms in the bass region with a estimated EPDR (the point where the impedance curve is intersecting with the phase angle) of 1.6 ohms. The pass labs is rated at 25wpc @ 8omh and is said to be stable down to 1 ohm doubling its power at 4 and 2 ohms. According to the manual it can deliver 200wpc @ 1ohm before the protection circuit is activated. 

So, the point of the video is to show that the Pass with its poorly rated power (25wpc) can drive even demanding speakers to insanely loud levels without any sound degradation. 

  

 

celestial__sound

Jason has all the measurements to prove it, so get off your high horse mister.

obviously anybody who pays more than $340 for a 30W amp is ill advised...

Jason has all the measurements to prove it

The measurements were outstanding but that doesn’t tell us how it sounds and to be fair he only listened to it on a single 400 buck speaker so maybe not the last word in definition. Correction, he bought it new for 160 bucks. 

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My old 6 ohm salk songtowers were 88db and also dipped momentarily into 3ohm territory. A Primaluna Dialogue Premium @ 35w was way more power than I needed. Never ever got into trouble driving those speakers hard.

Truth is 88db is not so tough to drive for most hight quality amps making 25+ watts. However, 86db may be another story.