Watts! How many do we need?


Got a new amp. Accuphase P-4600. It’s great. I love it. 
150 watts into 8 ohms, 300 watts into 4 ohms and it has meters so I can see wattage. Have them set on freeze so I can see the highest wattage during the session.

My Harbeth speakers are not very efficient. Around 86db. Their impedance is an even 6 ohms dipping no lower than 5.8 ohms. 

Playing HiRes dynamic classical recordings  ( Tchaikovsky , Mahler) at room filling volumes I have yet to exceed 1watt.. 

Amps today offer a lot of watts some going to 600 even 1200 watts. Even if you have inefficient speakers with an impedance that dips down to 2 ohms do we need all this wattage or should we be focusing on current instead? 

jfrmusic

That's a very nice amp for those speakers, congrats. Fellow Harbeth owner - I'm seeing/hearing similar results. I think the "low" sensitivity of Harbeth's isn't that relevant with well-matched, high-current SS power which is exactly what you have based on Paul's video (able to double power from 8 to 4 ohms).  

Even if our meters are not perfectly calibrated, there is no doubt in my mind that they are a very good indication that the amp is barely breathing, and having virtually unlimited headroom is a really good thing. Enjoy it! 

@bigtwin 

 

Thanks that was an interesting article. 
 

@macg19 

 

Yes exactly how I feel  The amp reproduces the peaks effortlessly. No sounds of straining or harshness.  The entire frequency range just gets louder with no over emphasis of upper frequencies A very even response