2. amps-preamps
  3. 190144-130

Shocked. Need Opinions. How muck power do I need?

I’m moving so of my sound gear around. As a temporary measure, I set up my little Cambridge EVO 75 in my main system. Driving my Dali Mentor 6s in a large room (36x36). Speakers are 9 feet apart and seat is 10 feet from speakers. This 75 water replaced my much more powerful monoblocks. To my shock, the amp drove these speakers just fine. The bass was a little weaker, but perfectly acceptable.  Here’s what I want to know— if 75 watts are enough, will 40 watts do? I’m talking all solid state. What say you?
 

 
 

 

tomaswv
ssg308's avatar
ssg308
91 posts
 

@swede58 well thats even better, meaning that 20W does the job 

loomisjohnson
1,939 posts
 

@erik_squires, i will track down the pass article. i would add parasound as an amp which does well with challenging loads--during my brief forays with 83db planars my 125w hca1000 was surprisingly capable.

kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,426 posts
 

For every decibel volume increase above 86db requires double the power.

For every meter distance requires double the power.

Double the power will increase volume by 3dB (+23% perceived loudness)

Volume drops at double distance by 6dB. To keep volume the same requires 4x power.  To keep volume at 2m the same as 1m requires 4x power.

pwdmark's avatar
pwdmark
33 posts
 

Not to sound repetitive but it is ALL about current, and damping factor! You only live once. Why go backwards? Is it just the form size? GanFeT solves that! Although that's NOT current as we all appreciate. Thats Pass Labs, Dan D, Mark Levinson, darTZeel... And many more... Hegel has unbelievable dampening factors of 2000!!!
 

antialiased's avatar
antialiased
43 posts
 

@kijanki is correct. 3db not 1db.

More to discover