Is there any truth to this question?


Will a lower powered amp that can drive your speakers, in your room, listening to the music you like sound better than using a powerful amp to avoid clipping?

Here's the scenario: Use a 50 w YBA amp to drive 86 db efficient Vandersteens in a 10 x 12 room, listening to jazz or

Will a 200 w Krell or such sound better and more effortless.

Some say buy all the power you can afford and others say the bigger amps have more component pairs ie) transistors to match and that can effect sound quality.
128x128digepix
I had the Vandersteens in a house driven by a 200 watt Krell and I was sitting back 7 or 8 feet in a 20 x 25 room. Now my first wife is gone..the Krell is gone all that remains are the Vandersteens. I'm saving for a pair of Harbeth speakers and sell the Vandersteens, time and finances will tell.
DIg,

Oh, so you actually have run the Vandy's off the larger Krell in the past!

So what is your take on your question based on your recollection of how that sounded compared to what you have now?

Whether any particular setup floats your boat or not is all that really matters.

Harbeth would sound much different than VAndersteen in general I would expect. We all need some change in our lives sometimes.
In a big room sitting farther away from the speakers it works with a higher powered amp. In my current situation sitting near field with a solid wall 3 feet behind me it would just overload the space and clipping distortion would be the least of my problems. Richard Vandersteen set the power range on these speakers from 40-160 watts so I've had both extremes and for my situation the lower powered amp is doing just fine. People say YBA is a little light in the bass but any more would just cause other problems.