What is your experience with amp power?

Also clear as mud given the variables. W/ my speakers more zap (duel mono and very clean) added better sonic yield that's fantabulousahhhh   

Amps are like cars and there’s no substation for horse power. More horse power. More horse power = most males even the "sensible" ones

@bigkidz Wrote:

And higher power sounds better at low volume and high volume is another false statement.

I agree!

Mike

To be honest, there are a lot of inaccurate statements in this thread.  I am guessing that only a few people here know design and have experience in building an audio component.  For example, a lesser power amp sound as good as a more powerful power amp.  Everyone is welcome to come to our listening room in Northern New Jersey and have a listen to equipment.  Like I stated, I have a 28WPC amp powering Vandersteen Seven speakers 83db that outperforms amps with 100 to 200wpc, from class A/B, Class D, etc.  Also, Adcom back in the day made a 100wpc and a 200wpc power amplifier.  The 100wpc always sounded better.  It is not that simple to double the output wpc and make a better amp.

Happy Listening.

bigkidz,

As I explained above, I had the same experience with a lower-powered and higher-powered Rowland amp.  I generally tend to like the sound of lower-powered amps.  I tend to like tube amps that run the likes of 6L6 or KT66 more than I do amps running KT88 or KT150, for example, and when speakers are sufficiently efficient, I like single ended 45 and 2a3 amps.  Even in the solid sate realm, some of the lower-powered First Watt amps are among the best sounding solid state amps.  I heard one of their SIT amps and I borrowed a J2 amp from a friend for a couple of weeks.

I run something pretty exotic in my pushpull amps-Western Electric 349 output tubes.  A quad of these cost a fortune, but they last a long time, when run gently (my amp puts out something like 5.5 wpc).  My amp is essentially a rebuilt Western Electric 133 amp (input/driver tubes are 348, I use the correct input and output transformers, the power transformer and choke are modern).

I am not quite as extreme as you are, given that my speakers are 99 db/w efficient, but this is still quite below the power a lot of people seem to think they need.

Okay. The OP is asking for experience with amp power, so here’s one.

About 10 years ago, my "rig" was running an amp with just north of 100wpc. We serviced equipment full time, also providing performance upgrades. After "hot rodding" an amp with 600+wpc I decided to do a "field test" in my home. The speakers are of my own design, are approx 97db efficient and have "sufficient" cone area.

After a little warm up period and determining where to dial in the volume control on the preamp to get max power without clipping, I queued up one of my favorite demo pieces: Foreplay: Between the Sheets and got comfortable in my listening chair.

Those familiar with the cut understand that things happen pretty quickly, so I braced myself for the anticipated impact to follow. I pushed the "play" icon on the remote .... and ...

I felt the bass hit my chest. Not the first time this had happened, but not at this level of intensity. I then felt the bass go through my chest, hit the cushion behind me, which caused it to vibrate. If felt the recoil of the cushion hiting my back. It was startling to say the least.

The amp was returned to the owner (accompanied by a big "thumbs up"). I’ve never had an experience even close to this in my home. The additional 8db (+/-) of headroom was clearly "audible." You may be asking why I haven’t purchased an amp to duplicate this experience in my home? I have hot rods in my garage. Doing a smoky burnout once in my lifetime is enough.