Amp matching with high sensitivity speakers
I sold a pair of B&W 803 D2’s and went the polar opposite with a pair of minty Chorus 1’s I bought from a friend. I have mixed feelings about the move so far but have new Crites Crossovers and Ti diaphragms in hand and will be installing as soon as I can find a couple of hours. Perhaps that will improve detail and dynamics a bit. One of the reasons for picking up the Chorus is trying the high sensitivity speaker/lower watt amp combo that many audiophiles enjoy.
I came across a post from Klipsch recommending to use no less than 80% and no more than twice the speaker’s continuous power rating. The RMS on the Chorus is 100 watts. I could be wrong but take that to mean use an amp no less than 80 watts and I more than 200 watts. The article talks about potentially damaging the speakers with too low or too much power. https://support.klipsch.com/hc/en-us/articles/360044125891-Choosing-the-Right-Receiver-Amplifier
I’m looking for feedback on those actually using lower watt amps on this 80% rule for speakers. I’m using a 300 watt Levinson 532H but eager to try a lower power tube or a First Watt solid state as soon as possible. Thanks for chiming in.
sensitiviity is only part of the equatio - impedance and the way impedance changes over the frequency range also matter. Some tube amps only like medium to high impedance speakers. tKlipsch stated sensitivitiess are notoriously optomistic BTW. Not knocking them, but good to know. Really the only way to know how any given amp is going to react to a speaker is to tey it. I have heard some quite unlikely pairings sound good and vice versa. |
good rule of thumb, but things get a little bit more complicated with high sensitivity full range drivers (don‘t they always) as this article by Nelson Pass will explain: https://www.firstwatt.com/pdf/art_cs_amps.pdf
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