2. amps-preamps
  3. 173648-4741

30 to 50 watts seems to be all I desire

Weird, but in my small listening room (12x16) no matter the speakers used, to a T they all can be driven quite superbly with amps in the 30 to 50 watt range.  This includes the Maggie 1.7.

I had a few 200 watt amps in rotation but took them out for now because I never got past about 8:00 or at most 9:00 on the preamp, and oftentimes it was around the 7:30 mark.

So I personally don’t buy into the lower efficiency speakers needing gobs of power to sound good.  Caveat:  Listening to mainly Jazz at volumes less than 85db, normally.

Cheers, all.

 

audiodwebe

Showing 2 responses by pmm

pmm
240 posts
 

@joey54 You getting too high of a volume, past 9 o’clock, has nothing to do with an impedance mismatch. It is the high gain on your preamp combined with the gain of your amplifier. The impedance mismatch may cause a roll off on the bass from your speakers.

pmm
240 posts
 

It is the gain on both the preamp and power amp that effects the use of the volume control.

I have a tubed pre, with adj. gain, combined with a 27db of gain on my amp. The pre`s gain set to 16 db= too loud; volume at 9:00, the pre`s gain set to 8 db= too loud; vol.  at 12:00.

I also have a low gain integrated w/ passive preamp section with a gain of 20 db. Unfortunately for me, I had to turn the vol. knob all the way to 2:00 for same level of volume.

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