The other things that make a difference in regards to how much power is needed is how loud will you go and how far away from the speakers will you be.
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?
Showing 2 responses by mapman
No you are not missing something. Any amp will work. It’s just a matter of how well and the results will vary widely. The main thing always is to avoid clipping. That is public enemy #1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipping_(signal_processing) Tube amps typically soft clip as do some others. You seemingly get away with fewer watts when soft clipping but the result is distortion nonetheless. |