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Amp for AAD 2001s 86 dB ; Do I need more power?

So it's been quite a long time coming, but I was finally able to not only track down a pair of AAD 2001s, but also able to locate the dedicated stands on the used market. After only a few days and about 20 hours of listening under my belt I am very happy that I persisted in finding this setup.

There are enough reviews of these out there that I don't feel compelled to talk at length about the many virtues of this speaker, and I think that others have accurately described their character better than I could. One of the often sighted drawbacks of these speakers is the very low sensitivity of 86 dB. This has lead almost every reviewer to claim that these require at least 100 strong watts to come alive. I'm currently running them with a Bryston B60r, and although the Bryston needs to be cranked a little bit, it seems that even these 60 watts are getting a lot out of the AADs in terms of low-end and dynamic impact. Only on rare musical passages does it seem that there could be room for improved control of the low-end. I very much like the overall sound of the Bryston and am wondering if I am really missing out on that much by only giving them 60 watts. Does anyone who has used these or a similarly low sensitivity speaker before have any thoughts on the matter? Are there huge gains to be made by giving them more juice?

My room is 14' x 24' and I listen at loud but not concert hall levels.

A few of the integrated amps I was considering "upgrading" to if necessary are listed below.

Creek Destiny
DK Design
Bryston B100
McIntosh 6?00

The AADs have a little brightness or "tipped-up" character to them, so I wouldn't want an amp with similar attributes, which might result in harsh or fatiguing sound.

Thanks for your thought,

Best regards,

JMl
jmleonard400

Showing 1 response by plato

plato
1,543 posts
 
Well, I would say that more power would be a good thing.

I have a pair of Magnepan MG-1.6QR's in a smaller room than yours and I'm feeding them about 50 tube watts/channel and cutting off the low bass below 80Hz to further free up amp power. I play at moderate levels and my feeling is that I am clipping the amp on powerful musical peaks and crescendos on 10 to 20 percent of my recordings.

I discern clipping as a slight loss of clarity, possibly accompanied by a little hardness on power peaks.

I am going to buy an amp of about double the power and hopefully I will get by with that.

When tube amps clip, they clip "softly" and generally will not blow out your speakers. But when solid-state amps clip, they clip more harshly and will easily burn out tweeters and sometimes midrange units.

If you play your system loudly in your size room I can almost guarantee that you are clipping your amp a lot more often than you think. My advice would be to buy an amp of at least double the power rating you now have. That way, you'll not only get a bit better sound, but you'll lessen the likelyhood that your speakers could be harmed by clipping distortion.

Good luck to you.
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