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Are most budget & mid range amps under-powered?

I've been reading some articles by a speaker manufacturuer about how under-powered most modern amps are for the speakers they have to drive.
The basis was that for "true hifi", a system needs to be able to achieve unclipped peaks of 105dB at the listening position, often about three meters away. For 90dB/Watt @1M speakers like mine, this means I need an amp capable of over 125W per channel, which is a lot more than my NAD 50W/channel amp can manage.
The same peak from 87dB/Watt speakers would need a 250W/channel amp.
Does this sound right to you guys, and does it mean many amplifier manufacturers are under-powering their amps?
carl109

Showing 1 response by mapman

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,638 posts
 
I suspect many users have underpowered amps for their particular speaker application, but I would not say the amps themselves are inherently underpowered.

A good high powered amp will generally cost more though for sure.

Class D/Icepower is perhaps helping to lower the barrier for many to being able to afford high power when needed.
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