Difference between New and Old Amp WPC ratings....


I own a pair of CV D-9's (I know this is an audiophile website, be kind, it's what I can afford for big sound). My question is this. Old amps, Marantz and the like have power ratings of 20, 30wpc, and newer amps have 70-150wpc. My CV's say they can take 300 wpc, and I have them on a Pioneer that is about 80wpc, and it gets pretty crappy as the volume goes up. Is there something about the wpc ratings of new and old amps that I need to know, or do I just need to get a PA amp to run these things?
kuksuldom

Showing 1 response by meiwan

There are 2 issues here. The first is power ratings generally. Quality amps old or new generally quote real world power ratings. Most of the current Japanese based stuff inflate their power ratings by quoting a figure at a single frequency, so their real world rating is probably less than half that quoted.

The other issue is amp quality generally. Those with a poor power supply will play loud but distortion increases dramatically as the volume goes up. Clearly that is the case with your Pioneer. If you like it loud you just need a better quality amp, not necessarily a more powerful one.

Finally, newer amps seem to offer more power generally, likely because the cost of producing power amp components is dropping plus many are moving to class D which is considerably cheaper to build. LIke most things, each year the claimed power increases to compete with other brands. Just like horsepower in cars.