What is your experience with amp power?


So I wanted to know what my fellow audiophiles feel about power.

I realize that some speakers are current hounds and need a prodigious amount of power or watts (lets say Maggies). But my question is for speakers that do not. Speakers that are easy to drive, or maybe just higher in efficiency and can be driven by a modest tube amp or even an adequate receiver. 

What is you experience with high power, high current amps ? Do your speakers sound better with more power? At low volumes, in a small or medium sized room? Do you think the quality of the music is dependent on higher powered amps?

2psyop

In general, more power, more better for most all speakers. So let’s say you have a choice for the same amp… like Pass 150, 250, and 350. Higher power sounds better at low volume and high volume.

 

However, choices are never that simple. Undoubtedly the choice will be among different amps and technologies.

For me, once I left solid state amps, I did not want to go back and I would settle for a lower power tube amp (of high quality) over a solid state.

Ultimately, you have to listen to the character of the amp… then I would go as high on the power as you can. Without going overboard. If my speakers were 105db efficient, I would not pair with 350 watt amps… instead I would go much higher in quality and go 100 wpc or something like that.

I do not like high efficiency speakers, because they usually have poor dynamic floor. It's a trade-off. Heavier speakers can get a lot better dynamic range from quiet listening to very LOUD.

Not all amps are created equal, and not all watts are created equal. I’ve gone the gamut from a 55wpc Technics SA500 receiver to a 70wpc Yamaha A500 integrated amp to as high as 255 wpc in a Hafler DH500, down to 150wpc in a NYAL Moscode 300 hybrid, to a Distech LS-2 (modded BKST-140) @ 100wpc, all the way down to about 12 watts per channel from KT66 tubes in triode. Every amp on that list sounded progressively better to me....playing louder did not. All my speakers have been average efficiency, and the amps I’ve liked the sound of best are my current 12wpc monoblocks.

I know it’s subjective, but I suspect that synergy and paying attention to the whole system chain is a more critical consideration than just amp power.