Is powerfull Amps only for low sensitivity speakes?

williemj"Clearthink would you please do something about your grammar? It might just add some clarity"

Well williemj I thought this was an audio group not a grammar group but since your raise dthis matter why don’t you issue me clear instructions on precisely how you would like my language to correspond to your considered ideal of how people here should communicate in the forum. Go ahead I’ll listen and take notes because obviously you have superior intellect on all things and not just audio but also now grammar. Of course it is patently clear that you are grossly mistaken about the inherent superiority of speakers of high efficiency and so I rather assume you now take issue with grammar and I suppose once this issue with grammar is resolved to your complete comfort and satisfaction you'll then raise another completley irrelevant issue such as the proper way I should brush my teeth or tie my shoes.

I reject the notion that inefficient speakers are inherently superior sounding. Not based on my listening experiences. In terms of sound quality there is much overlap between various categories of speakers . Low, moderate or high efficiency,  excellent sounding speakers exist. 

Now someone may prefer lower efficiency speakers and of course that’s fine. I just find that people who post very generalized blanket statements do reveal a lack of knowledge for a given topic. Ironically their blanket statements are presented as indisputable fact which they most clearly are not.
Charles

inefficient speakers hide noise.  :)

Kalali writes:

"An additional point against using high powered SS amps driving extra efficient speakers is most SS amplifiers produce higher levels of undesirable (higher odd order) distortion within their first watt or two just like but not quite as much as when they are pushed near their clipping limit."

This was - maybe sometimes still is - the problem with solid state amps and "lets drive the THD to zero" thinking. And yes, he is right withe the fundamental observation - tube amps naturally distort in a musical way; solid state tends to distort in a less musically way; but that is less a function of the devices than of how they are applied in a circuit. Honestly, that was all figured out and mostly mitigated decades ago. I even wrote papers on little pieces of how. So amps that behave that way are of the class of "bad amps designed by people who should have known better". A good solid state amp should have few nasty harmonics today. I’m frankly amazed at how far we have come in about 35 years. Heck, there are pretty decent sounding OPAMPS (!) today. really, again if you know how to use them (which most people don’t).

I'll also note that there is an implicit assumption that the amp is running in class-B mode, which, again, should never be the case for a serious high-end amp. It should run class-A for atlas a little bit (and after that don't bother me with subtleties, they are drowned out) :-)

Admittedly if you want bog power and low cost, it will sound like garbage, but that’s a COST issue, not a technical one. As I said above, the only problem with a big powerful amp is that you must spend money on that power and therefore didn’t spend it elsewhere.

Its easy to design "cost no object" pieces that are so impressive. Its much harder to make a great $1000 amp or whatever.

G

I have DeVore O/93's and an ARC Ref6/Ref 150se combo. The GS 50 is identical to the Ref 150se but looks much nicer. First, it is a very good and very quiet amp. Second, you are going to need a very good pre, and preferably an ARC. Someone else posted this and he was 100% correct-the GS150 is balanced only and you are going to want/need a fully balanced preamp. After that, you will need really fine cabling, particularly from the preamp to amp, but I have learned that my speakers are extremely sensitive to speaker cable too.