As I said earlier, clearly inefficent speakers or/and those with difficult impedance profiles must have lots of power to sound good, and a low powered amp will not perform well. But, a better way of positioning the issue is to assume that we start with an efficient speaker and one with a benign, easy to drive load (my Merlins for example, which "require" 18 watts); under these circumstances I posit that a 30 watt amp will always sound better than a 100 watt amp of similar design and quality parts for the very reasons Pauly states - to create more power, requires more complexity and this will always create more distortion and/or loss of information. I'm not doctrinaire about this (I could be wrong) but it just seems to me that this position makes sense. But there is no doubt that many speakers sound better, indeed require, lot's of power to sound good, some indeed reuire SS to sound good because their impedance curves are so irregular and dip so low that no tube amplifier can handle them. It raises the question as to why some speaker designers build inefficient, impedance challenged speakers. I'm sure there are good reasons because all designs are a selection of tradeoffs. What I am coming to think however, is that these speakers can never take advantage of the very best amplification (i.e., low power, simple circuits).
Power: Good or Bad
Assuming an amp has "enough" power to drive a speaker to satisfying peaks (115db?) do you find that lower-powered amps sound better than their higher power counterparts? That is, do lower power circuits inherently sound better than higher powered ones. I think Sam Tellif for one has made this claim in print. I assume that lower power amplifiers are simpler in design than higher powered, more complex designs with more tubes (or transistors), less wiring, etc. Or, do you feel that whatever price is paid for the additional complexity required to produce more power is a worthwhile trade off in terms of dynamics and "drive". I'm not necessarily thinking 4 watt SETs with super efficient horns, but maybe 30 watts driving 90db loads for example.
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- 26 posts total
- 26 posts total