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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
westcoastaudiophile
295 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
266 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
295 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!
jfrmusic OP
266 posts
 

@westcoastaudiophile

Where did you see that the P4600 is Class A up to 20W?

westcoastaudiophile
295 posts
 

@jfrmusic I looked amp spec and schematics. A/B class P4600 increased idle power and number of output transistors to 12 in each channel, matching their A class amps. 20W is estimate of peak power for linear output transistors range, for both channels combined (2x10W)

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