"Back in the day" we bought stereo systems and the first thing asked was, " How many watts?" Every manufacturer played the numbers game to perfection because we had become "spec sheet scientists". {RMS @ 8 Ohms 20 - 20000...THD 0.000001 S/N ratio. Wow and Flutter. You know the drill} Whatever....we used to kick car tires too. Tonight my kit blasts out a pathetic 20 watts per channel. It runs fairly high distortion levels relative to most. I only have two channels. Two speakers. No sub. One turntable. One CD player. Simple, endlessly astounding, intimate, a sound stage to die for, with totally lifelike audio reproduction, (IMO) I live in my happy place. Why did I take such a long route to achieve such an elusive yet rewarding destination? I think because I wasn't "listening" , I was measuring, counting, and competing. Just sayin' (Wish someone had told me that a long time ago)
how can low watt tube amps drive speakers with higher power requirements
I am new to hifi and I am super confused about something. Most audio blogs out there ask newbies to stick to amps that output power within the recommended range of the speaker manufacturers. However, on forums, blogs and even some magazine articles, I find pros reviewing tube amps with much lower output power (even in some cases 10-30W below the speaker specs) and find no problems. How can these low power tube amp drive these speakers? For example, the LS 50 metas spec sheet says "Recommended amp power: 40W - 100W) but I have seen posts here and on other forums where people will hook these up to tube amps producing as low as 12W of power at 8 ohms. Am I missing something?