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mo' better bass: any substitute for watts?

Generally speaking, and all things being equal, will higher wattage amps generally produce more, better defined bass than lower wattage amps at a given volume level? I don't seem to hear much bass until I turn my amp up to a level that doesn't suit my listening habits. Wondering if this could be improved by upgrading my old NAD 25(or is it 35?)wpc Powerdrive amp with a newer, modest amp in the 100 wpc range or so. I'm thinking about driving a power amp directly off of an Oppo 980H. Speakers are Rega R3's which can produce bass in my small room when I crank the volume and/or bass tone control. Thanks!
clbone
saki70
907 posts
 
Atmasphere ;
Yes we are off topic but there is sooo much info here I would hate to break it up into two threads !!!

If you would address the db rating issue , that I asked about , I would consider this discussion closed .

I would also consider this thread one of the best primers here for the budding hobbiest ! You have dispelled some myths and misinformation for me and probably others as well . I would like to think of this thread as a "one-stop-shopping" area for those who want to learn how to do it right thus saving a lot of time , aggravation and money !
Sort of "System Building 101" !

I was planning on sending others to this thread when they had questions that were addressed here .

So , please can I coax just a little more out of you here ?

Thank you .
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,753 posts
 
Saki70, with regards to efficiency vs impedance, to me they seem to carry about the same weight. However if the speaker is really low efficiency, you are going to have power issues driving it (BTW 'really low' is 87db or less). Given that that is the case, you are facing compromise- with tubes, 16 ohms would be favored, with transistors I might be tempted with 4, just because of the power issue.

I am a fan of higher efficiency. Good Quality tube power is expensive and I have yet to hear a transistor amp that is better, although being who I am you have to expect that from me :) I **have** heard some excellent transistor amps though (that I liked as much or more that many tube amps), however none of them were what I would call high power. So it seems that the high efficiency/high impedance rule is a good one to follow (so long as those qualities do not interfere with resolution or bandwidth).

Note: Sensitivity and Efficiency are two different ratings. Sensitivity is 2.83V @ 1 meter, Efficiency is 1 watt @ 1 meter. 2.83V into 8 ohms works out to 1 watt, but into 4 ohms its 2 watts. So a 4 ohm speaker can have the same Sensitivity as an 8 ohm speaker but actually be 3db less Efficient.

saki70
907 posts
 
OUTSTANDING !!!

Thank you so much for your time and expertise !
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