2. amps-preamps
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Does my amp have enough juice to power my speakers?

Having just read a review in Stereophile of my Audio Physic Step Plus speakers (which I have to my utter dismay ,knocked over and dinged AAAgh!), the author states that his Shindo Haut-Briton Power amp (20wpc) couldn't drive the Step Plusses and states that nothing less than 35Wpc could drive them.  My dilemma is that I have a Line Magnetic 216 IA rated at 22Wpc that sometimes sounds heavenly and on other days sounds eeh.  Do I need an amp with more boost?  

udog
noromance's avatar
noromance
1,780 posts
 
@arctikdeth Easy there feller. 20Watts on 99dB horns will trounce your noisy Harleys.
arctikdeth's avatar
arctikdeth
99 posts
 
@noromance,  please ship me what you have!’(mushrooms, skunk, sense, etc etc)
 My McCormack dna-750s’ monos
 energy rc-70’s
 Motörhead, slayer, flotsam & Jetsam, sodom, mercyful fate. 

 It don’t. Get much better.
i heard those klipsch horns and their 105db@1W/M
hurts me to think about it.

 ;)
 warmer speaker with high power is the ticket brother
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
324 posts
 
There is no such thing as a speaker needing power. Speakers don't need any power at all. Listeners do. Its you that needs the power, and the louder you like your music the more power you need. Regardless of the speaker, or its sensitivity, or any of that.

Regarding power, the one question you need to really ask yourself is: If the first watt isn't any good, why would you want 200 more of them?
mzkmxcv
558 posts
 
84dB sensitivity needs power.

To do some math:

Placing it in-room would lead to about a 2dB boost (3dB for speakers with deeper bass), making it 86dB. If you sit 12ft away, that’s about a 7dB loss, so now it’s 79dB. If you wanted peaks of 100dB, you would need ~125W.

If you sit 6ft away and wanted peaks of 100dB, you would need ~65W.
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
1,457 posts
 
Do they sound heavenly and eeeh playing the same music?  If so, then it's definitely something else.  If you can find a correlation (demanding source material) then it's probably the amp.
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