And why does this possibly matter in the pursuit of musical enjoyment?
Perception and Watts: Doubling of power
There's a curious rule of thumb, which to my ears seems mostly true:
- To double the perceived volume, you must output 10x more power.
10x power = 10 dB by the way. We've read this as we were buying amps and trying to decide between 100w/channel and 150w/channel. We are told, repeatedly that 50 W difference isn't really that much.
On more than one occasion I've tested this and found it's pretty much spot on. Here's my question:
How can any of us really tell what half as loud, or twice as loud is?
I mean, think about this for a bit. I cannot tell half as bright, or twice as bright, but it seems I actually CAN tell what half as loud is. How does this even begin to work in the ear/brain mechanism?? 😁
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- 56 posts total
Different frequencies consume different power so "twice as loud" would be frequency dependent in many cases. Paying for an additional 50 watts will improve low frequency performance -- you may not hear it louder but you will hear it cleaner with respect to transients and lower distortion from better controlling the woofer. It gets integrated into the music a little better. |
@gs5556 This is my thought as well. Even at the same overall volume, the music may sound better and more controlled, with better impulse response. And, some amps distort closer to full power if that is where I have to run it it get the volume I like. I have found there to be better bass response in systems with more power, even if the average overall volume is about the same. |
- 56 posts total