Amp play a low volumes?

jcd; it's been my experience that it is not the amp that is the limiting factor in making music sound good at low volume, but rather it's the speakers. And I don't think speaker sensitivity has much to do with it either.

For example, My Vandersteen 3As or 3Asigs both sounded very good at low volumes and I enjoyed that, but I recently (5 months ago) acquired Vand. 5s, and the 5s have to be driven at distinctly louder volume to sound good. The 3As and 5s have about the same sensitivity. I have read where reviewers have noted this phenomenon too. I think it has to do with the design of the speaker. As the 5s continue to breakin, they are now sounding better at lower volumes, but still must be played louder to sound good. Good Luck. Craig.

Hi Buckingham; FWIW, I used a big McCormack DNA-2DX Rev. A (600 wpc 4 OHM) with both the Vand. 3As as well as the Vand. 5s. The 3As sounded quite good at low volume, whereas the 5s don't. As noted above, as the 5s continue to breakin, they are sounding better at low vol. levels, so maybe it's just going to take some time.

I owned/used an SF Power 2 110 wpc tube amp for awhile, and found that it needed to be played distinctly louder than the McCormack with the the 3As to make them sound decent. So the amp/speaker interaction is important too. Cheers. Craig.

This has been an interesting thread-- thanks Jcd. I think I "re-learned" some things I had forgotten, re Sean and Twl. But that still doesn't explain why my (past Vand. 3As) sounded good at low Vol., but Vand. 5s don't.

Sean may have hit it though, ie warm sounding speakers (3As) may sound better than the more neutral 5s-- that sort of makes sense to me. And as the 5s continue to breakin, they ARE sounding better at low vols.-- and getting warmer. A big contributor to this (warmth) was also a change from Acme silver outlet to copper FIM. Cheers. Craig