2. amps-preamps
  3. 1370650847

Do amps have a sweet spot?

What I mean by this is do amps have an output range at which they sound better? The reason that I'm asking is that I'm now running some very small speakers (Minuet Supreme Plus) and they're probably the least demanding speakers I've had; but I've found that my setup sounds better when I have the volume turned up.

Out of curiosity, I took my Minuets to my local shop and hooked them up to an NAD C326BEE. I thought it sounded pretty darned good at "normal" listening levels. I almost bought it, but then I decided to start cranking it up to what I would call "rockin" levels and the amp started to clip. If it could have played louder, I would have bought it.

So...is it usual for an amp not to open up until you start pushing it?

My current amp is an Aragon 2004.
tonyangel
tonyangel OP
309 posts
 
The guy at the shop said that it was the amp soft clipping. I don't know much about that because I've never had an NAD amp with that feature before.

I know it wasn't the speakers. They sounded very in control and clear, right up to the point where the signal started going in and out. Besides, I've had the speakers up to higher levels in my den, which is larger than the listening room at the shop.
runnin
397 posts
 
If he said the NAD was soft clipping it's because he had the clipping switch on the back on, which limits the amp at full output. Can't blame him because a salesman wants to protect his gear. What I'm surprised about is that you would want to crank those little 3 inch woofers so much!

Oddly enough I've got both the Nad c162 and C326BEE. Pretty good stuff for the price but if you want more than the 50 wpc C326BEE can give you, remember that 100wpc will only get you an additional 3 decibels of volume over the 50 wpc. I found that the newer NAD sounds a little more open than the C162.
tonyangel OP
309 posts
 
Well, sometimes I like to play it loud and I needed to make sure that what I was considering could do what I wanted it to do. As for cranking those little 3" woofers, as I said, the speakers were showing no signs of stress.

I understand that doubling the rated power of the amp is only supposed to get me an additional 3 db, which is why I didn't even bother to try the two other upper models that they had.

I know that my Aragon does what I need it to do with these speakers in the volume department. I suppose it's another example of the fact that not all watts are created equally.

I suppose I need to find an amplifier that sounds equally good at both low and higher volumes in my system.
runnin
397 posts
 
Good point, indeed all watts are not created equally. I've got a small pair of Tannoy Revolutions, the DC4 model. They also have a small driver as well but are designed to handle much less power. I've had them for 2 years, but only when I replaced a cheap Onkyo receiver with the Nad C 326BEE did I get really impressed with the Tannoys.

It sounds like your speakers do indeed excel with more power.
bombaywalla's avatar
bombaywalla
1,958 posts
 
remember that 100wpc will only get you an additional 3 decibels of volume over the 50 wpc
Runnin, just wanted to point out that 100WPC is 3dB more power (& not volume) over 50WPC.
How much more volume/SPL you will get with a 100WPC is really dependent on the 100WPC amp design - really it's power supply design & current handling capacity of its transformer.

IMHO the issue you are facing is the classic amplifier-speaker interface issue. You are having to turn up the volume to overcome the marginal amp-speaker interface by sheer grunt power from the amp.
We discussed this in quite a bit of details back in early May 2013. Lots of good info in that thread by some very knowledgable members. here is the link to that thread -
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1367644336&&&/Current-amp-vs-Voltage-amp

i know it's a lot to read but do take the time to read & digest the info.
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