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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
steve59's avatar
steve59
1,792 posts
 

I finally bought kit with power meters and I use between .6 and 6 watts most of the time and it takes some kille rock to get the meters bumping up against 60w...So why did swapping out a 301 wpc source for a 600 wpc source make so much of a difference regarding dynamics and resolution at low volume? I really want to know.

paul_lindemann's avatar
paul_lindemann
51 posts
 

For the Harbeths, the Accuphase is way more than enough - watts and current.

The reason is the relatively flat impedance curve of the Harbeths pose a nice, easy load for the Accuphase to drive.  Not that the Accuphase needs that easy load, with a damping factor of 800!

westcoastaudiophile
387 posts
 

@jfrmusic not sure about OP question.. Accuphase P4600 (congrats, it’s a good amp!) has output power indicators, which should help you to determine if you reach limit and need more Watts!

jfrmusic OP
300 posts
 

@westcoastaudiophile

That is my exact question. The meters never exceed 1 watt. Some here have said they are not accurate and don’t record peaks but I have them set to freeze at peaks. 

westcoastaudiophile
387 posts
 
@jfrmusic Accuphase output meters are accurate, you drive y’r amp at very low power, accordingly to Accuphase design P4600 is a class A amp till ~20W. You may crank it up to the max to see full power range!
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