I once heard two very similar Rowland amps playing in a system which had, I believe, power hungry Magnepan speakers. One amp was rated at something like 50 watts and the other 200 watts (basically the same amp with a larger power supply and more output transistors). I thought the 50 watt amp sounded better, and the dealer doing the demonstration agreed. He suggested that having fewer transistors operating in parallel probably improved the sound and that the bigger amp would come into its own if we asked it to play more loudly (it was plenty loud for me when we did the demonstration).
Too much power?
I have a wonderful system with a great amplifier, and yet auditioned a more powerful version of the same amp. It indeed seemed to have more punch and drive, but at the expense of playing it a bit too loud. As my current system I rarely play over 70 db, since it’s perfect at low levels. I wonder other than bragging rights, what does more power get you? Since we aren’t here for PA style sound, is there a reasonable limit to how much you will benefit from higher power/ more expensive and? Especially since tire just using one watt most of the time?
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70dB is really low, and you indeed have a totally different amp calculation than guys like me. When you’re regularly pushing well into the 90s, then powerful amps and efficient speakers become worth their weight in gold. The power factor between 70dB and 90dB is 100 times! That means 100 Watts to me is like 1 Watt for you. You should definitely subscribe to the "First Watt" philosophy. |
@zlone yes, thanks for checking the details, I have EC 220, and used to have 2 as mono blocks.. long story short was trying the EC AW 180.. but my question really was if any of these crazy powerful amps are even necessary when listening at any humane volume. I will say that power ratings are pretty useless to judge actual quality, but money tends to be the equalizer in most decisions. More powerful = more expensive. |
@mulveling I think that's an interesting observation. I find many/most systems don't seem to perform until they reach a certain DB.. now you're right about the exponential cost of loudness, but if you get the bass right (2 subs) it seems to be more than satisfying.. |
I understand, but thought it worth raising the point given the speakers. I went through something similar with my difficult to drive LS50's, starting with a 75 watt amp and ending up with 150 watts. I listen in the 70-80 db range as well and found the higher powered amps gave me a richer sound and fuller bass. Different vendors though, so some of that could be house sound. |
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