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My system is very happy at low to medium volume levels. The sound is
open and clear and produced seemingly without effort. It ramps up nicely
until you get to a place where things start to change. The open sound
starts to close up a bit and there is a strident tone that creeps in as
the volume gets to what i would call “loud”. We’re not talking Wembley
Stadium loud, or vibrate the windows loud, but the kind of volume you’d
want for a favorite song when you really want to enjoy it.
Maybe
the speakers are just tapping out, but i doubt it. i suspect that the
slim, cool running M2200’s are simply running out of puff. Whether that
means amps or watts...I have no idea, but I suspect these speakers have
more to give.
I think it’s pretty clear that more watts are not
always better watts...but i’m curious...what is the secret sauce that
makes an amp with less wattage capable of driving a system with more
authority and gusto than one with higher wattage?
And the big
question....short of buying a dozen different amps and auditioning them
on your own system at home, how can one even begin to make intelligent
guesses about what to try next?
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I run speakers that are normally at least 104db efficient. The excursion of the woofer for instance is minimal. Efficient speakers mean more DB with FAR less cone movement which results in less distortion. I also use bigger than normal cabinets and horns because the best effortless sound does not come from small speakers. Things that sound good at low to moderate levels will sound bad at higher levels often because you have pushed beyond capable working limits of those small boxes and drivers. Yes you got more volume but the quality of it goes down.
I run per channel a single 15" woofer inside a big horn and have a large horn for mid to HF using a two inch horn driver and yes it is a two way system. With Crown amps like an XLI800 at 200 watts per channel 8 ohms I can turn the volume up half way on the amps and then about a half of the way up on my PC which I use as a music server and can easily measure about 95db sustained and peaks up to 105db depending on the music from 10' away. I have no doubt I could sail right past 113db with no problem but I am not interested in doing so.
If your cables and connects (and no I don't mean fancy ones but ones that make good solid connections and normally 12g which is overkill) are up to snuff, as I try to keep mine, a system like this is dead silent on idle and then goes to live performance levels and does not strain to do either. There is headroom to spare and even at low volumes 0f 75 to 80 db it sounds better than speakers that are not as efficient or too small for the job.
You can also drive speakers hard enough that even if they were really good sounding in your room at low levels above a certain sound level your sound begins to break up and then that becomes audible.
Bad music files can sound OK at lower levels but when you push your speakers hard those bad files sound even worse. Over time I have given up on some songs I really like because of the poor mastering which ruined it.
I suspect from your description of your system and problems you have a number of things going on.
Last but not least is this. Why guess when you can download a free program called "REW" and load it on your laptop, buy a calibrated mike such as a "UMike" and a mike boom and measure what effect each thing has including the system response to your room itself. Finding out where the worst frequency problems occur can often be tamed with a simple stand alone EQ but you could spend eternity trying to just fiddle and get the best results. Yeah it is a pain to learn to use on your own so find someone to help you nearby who can stop in to help you. Then you no longer have to throw more money and gear at an ever growing pile of stuff that still never satisfies you. You analyze what is going on and eliminate your problems one by one.
