Power: Good or Bad

again, what does better mean ?

how can you ask this question unless you provide the criteria of "better" and "worse" ?

i realize such standards are subjective. however, only you can decide what is better.

frequently on audiogon forums, a request is made for the names of products which provide "better" sound than what one owns, without specifying what "better" is.

i have often said that better means more pleasing to one's ears. in which case one person's better is another person's worse. thus, the answer to the current question regarding amplifier power is very simple:

a lower powered amp is better if you prefer it in your stereo system to a higher powered amplifier.

it is best not to generalize, as tastes differ and designs differ.

All things equal, lower powered amps with less amplification stages sound way better (in all respects) than their complex counterparts. It really comes out in low level details. I have never heard a big amp retrieve low level detail like a good low powered single ended design.

The only advantage I can think of of a high(ish) output amp is that they can drive demanding speakers. The easy way round that is to buy speaker that are easy to drive.

Regards
Paul

Some people prefer class A ss amps over a/b. I am one.
Also, there is nothing like a well designed SET amp properly integrated into an appropriate room with appropriate speakers imho.

Twc

Hard to put "better" into words, but easy to hear. I guess, I mean less mechanical sounding, more organic, more low level detail, a more natural sound to voice and strings. More coherent and better balanced across the frequency spectrum. More real? And in this context I'm generally concerned with voice and acoustic instruments - the criteria might be different for hard rock where other sonic attibutes might come into play. I guess my premise is that less power requires less processing of the source signal and that more information comes through as a result. The need to produce more power creates more challenges for the designer and more complexity. Of course I understand that impedance and sensitivity of the speakers play an important part in this, but I wonder if we lose something in the process of having to drive speakers that are inefficient, have too many x-overs, and have tough impedance curves challenging amplifiers, especially tube amplifiers. I think that amp designers try to make their high power stuff sound as good as their low powered stuff while providing more drive for difficult loads that some speakers present; I think that is one of their biggest design challenges - some suceed better other I expect, but I suspect (this is what I am asking) that lower power is "purer" and closer to the source.

For vocals and acoustic instruments, go with a SET amp and high sensitivity/high impedance loudspeakers. I can't imagine there will be much disagreement with this suggestion.

On the other hand, a good friend recently purchased some George Wright Signature push-pull monoblocks. My friend has owned SET amps, and owns Klipschorns. He says the Wrights are the best amps (clear, musical, pure) that he has ever owned.

FWIW.