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integrated watts or amp watts

Most "Stereophile recommended" integrated amps only have a rating of about 50-70 watts (creek, exposure, croft, arcam). Others like the Anthem and NAD have more, but separates (amp+pre-amp) seem to have more watts. I was told that for a budget of $1500 for this, I'd get the best bang for the buck with integrated vs seperates. The question I have is 2 fold..
1) Does Stereophile only "recommend" these lower powered integrateds because they're the ones with phono stages (which I don't care about)?

2) To have a really dynamic accurate loud system do I need gobs of power assuming the speaker is in the avg. 8ohm range with avg. 91db efficiency (not an electrostat, etc)
How much money do I need to spend? Is a 70 watt integrated only good for a small bedroom system, and separates needed to rock towers and the whole house? Just curious.
labguy
shumph15
11 posts
 
personally I have had no problems with lower wattage systems. Right now I have a 30w integrated with 6ohm 89db speakers and it gets louder than I can stand with no issues.
czarivey
4,494 posts
 
you'll need more power for full range, but not much for volume.
jdoris
852 posts
 
OnHi61 is right; any number of integrateds with more juice than 70epc.

For example, there is a Plinius 9200 up here now that could be had for around your pricepoint that it rated at 200 wpc. (No connection to seller; I mention it as an example only because I've always wanted to try a Plinius.)

Shumph is right, of course, that how much juice you need depends on your listening habits and speakers, though the flexibility more juice provides is very welcome, if you want to try more speakers. (My hunch is your current 91db speakers would welcome a bit of power.)

As for for "going integrated," I went from separates to an integrated and love it. I sometimes miss wonking around with separates, but the simplicity and value of the ntegrated route is very nice too.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
Also keep in mind that no 2 companies rate power the same way. If you took a bunch of amps all rated at the same amount of power and measured them all the same way, there's almost a 0 chance that 2 or more would put out the same amount of power. Sometimes the difference is small, but in many cases, the difference can be huge.
mesch
1,679 posts
 
I tend to agree that at the $1500 range an integrated amp would provide a greater return on $$ in most cases. That said, there are cases where the flexibility of separates may need be considered.

As Zd states, power ratings vary widely between companies. Ratings for 4 and 2 ohms helps when comparing the ability of amps to drive speakers.

It seems to me that there are more integrated amps that lack phonostages than possess them. Not that I have surveyed this discreetly.

Given that I have followed and responded to your other thread, I would like to ask if are you now rethinking your system. Are you?
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