The power of audio amplifiers
The best and most complete article ever written about the power of audio amps With focus on hifi.
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?
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- 94 posts total
I’ve been in this hobby for 40+ years and have owned many different systems.I have extremely high powered class A/B amps is my system and I’ve always owned extremely inefficient speakers that I prefer to listen to at moderate volume levels in a medium size room. Back in the day I owned a set of Thiel CS 7.2 that I tried to power with a Threshold T400 (150 watts per channel class A amp). The speakers could play loud but lacked dynamics and sound stage. I had to use a Pass X600 to energize the speakers at moderate volume. Since then my speakers have changed but I’ve continued to use extremely high powered amps. So to answer your vague question, I believe speaker performance is highly dependent on the amp and the room. Personally, I’d use a lower powered Class A amp if I had more efficient speakers. |
Our custom tube monoblocks (75 lbs. with massive pi filtered power supply) put out about 100 watts each into our nominal 6 ohm 87dB NorthCreek crossovered B&W Matrix 801 Series 2 speakers. Our nearest neighbor’s house is about a 1/4 mile away. One day mrs. x and I were celebrating being alive with the volume knob and some of our Jimmy Buffet vinyl. A couple of days later at at the mailbox I ran into mr. neighbor who commented on how great our Jimmy Buffet concert sounded. He said he and mrs. neighbor enjoyed it with margaritas on their porch :) The amps drive the speakers just fine. |
@ghdprentice Another time I totally agree with you. If the speaker is both efficient and an easy load, I use a 30 watt tube amp on it. I disagree with @james633 My second system Signature IIIs sound equally great with either my superdeluxe voltage regulated Dynaco ST70 (30w tremendous bass), my EAR 890 (70w) or my tube monoblocks (125w) A little sweeter sounding with the Dynaco though.
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@spaceguitarist : Excellent article! My French has become almost entirely unusable (I last studied French in college almost 40 years ago), so I had to resort to the translation function, but the information was spot on. My experience with “rated power” of various amplifiers has shown this info to be true. See, we can agree! Lol. Thanks for the link. |
- 94 posts total