2. amps-preamps
  3. 1260904595

Can someone give me an explaination re: power amp.

So, I own a simaudio i-5 driving paradigm studio 60 v.3, and I am not happy with the sound at low volume. turn it up everything is great, but low volume has muffled sound. Everyone says the paradigms are efficient, but i go out looking for more efficient speakers, and happen to come home with a loaner power amp- a simaudio w-3 (125 wpc), and the sound at low volume sounds markedly better with the power amp. this is contrary to everything i have convinced myself to believe. i have convinced myself that a good integrated is all i need, but I cannot deny the sound. so instead of asking the age old separates vs. integrated question, i'm just going to ask- why does my system sound so much better at LOW volume with the power amp. Maybe the speakers aren't as efficient as I thought? Maybe the 70 wpc simaudio i-5 isn't as great a machine as i thought? maybe there's a technical explaination? Please enlighten me! and thanks, and merry christmas to all you audiophiles out there! (oh, and the reason I didn't come home with speakers is that i really love the full range of sound from the towers, and i couldn't find any highly efficient speaker that had the range I enjoy. not that it dosen't exist, but i just couldn't find it. I live in portland, oregon).
blazerfan
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
Blazerfan - Twice softer means 1/10 of the power. Four times softer means 1/100 of the power. At low sound levels power might be in fraction of a watt. Amplifiers' distortions, damping factor, bandwidth etc. are measured at relatively high level. Amp (and speaker) performance in not so good at very low levels. High performance amp might have enough of "reserves" to sound good very soft. At medium levels both amps might sound very close. At very high levels higher quality amp will outperform again.
blazerfan OP
32 posts
 
kijanki- what do you mean by "reserves"?
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
Your w-3 amp has 0.02% THD at 1W. At a fraction of a watt it might have 0.1% - still not audible while amp with 0.05% THD at 1W might have 0.25% THD at the same fraction of a watt and it might become audible.
neubilder
129 posts
 
I've never understood why so many regard the efficiency of a speaker as a virtue. The most accurate and best sounding speakers I have heard have also tended to be the least efficient. Take sealed/infinite baffle speakers for example - you have to crank them way up to get much volume, but when you do the sound is effortless and natural. In contrast highly efficient speakers tend to sound more compressed, out of control, and have less nuance in their dynamics, both at high and low volumes. Who is pushing this notion that efficiency in speakers is a virtue in itself?
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,784 posts
 
Neubilder, I'd be one of those! So far the most accurate speakers I have heard are 98 db 1 watt 1 meter. They go from 20Hz to 40KHz and have the same transparency and detail of the best ESLs but dynamic range no ESL or magnetic planar can hope for.

Additionally, amplifier power can be expensive compared to speaker efficiency. If you want realistic volume levels, it can take a prodigious amount of power to cleanly reproduce volumes of +105db without strain and distortion with speakers that are 90 db or less- assuming that the speaker can even play that loud without artifacts of its own. IMO/IME any speaker that requires more than a 200 watt amplifier is just plain impractical.
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