Does my amp have enough juice to power my speakers?


Having just read a review in Stereophile of my Audio Physic Step Plus speakers (which I have to my utter dismay ,knocked over and dinged AAAgh!), the author states that his Shindo Haut-Briton Power amp (20wpc) couldn't drive the Step Plusses and states that nothing less than 35Wpc could drive them.  My dilemma is that I have a Line Magnetic 216 IA rated at 22Wpc that sometimes sounds heavenly and on other days sounds eeh.  Do I need an amp with more boost?  

udog

Showing 1 response by mzkmxcv

84dB sensitivity needs power.

To do some math:

Placing it in-room would lead to about a 2dB boost (3dB for speakers with deeper bass), making it 86dB. If you sit 12ft away, that’s about a 7dB loss, so now it’s 79dB. If you wanted peaks of 100dB, you would need ~125W.

If you sit 6ft away and wanted peaks of 100dB, you would need ~65W.