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 ngjockey

I'll agree that most systems are underpowered but I don't blame the manufacturers. In fact, some speaker makers are building much more efficient designs than years ago. Whether consumers undervalue or underestimate the virtue of dynamics is their own priority.

Too often, I've seen in these forums where wattage is directly related to volume and speaker efficiency where they seem to miss the point of peaks or distortion caused by a lack of power. Just because a speaker has a minimum wattage rating does not mean that it will reproduce a realistic crescendo or even an accurate cymbal strike at that level.