integrated watts or amp watts


Most "Stereophile recommended" integrated amps only have a rating of about 50-70 watts (creek, exposure, croft, arcam). Others like the Anthem and NAD have more, but separates (amp+pre-amp) seem to have more watts. I was told that for a budget of $1500 for this, I'd get the best bang for the buck with integrated vs seperates. The question I have is 2 fold..
1) Does Stereophile only "recommend" these lower powered integrateds because they're the ones with phono stages (which I don't care about)?

2) To have a really dynamic accurate loud system do I need gobs of power assuming the speaker is in the avg. 8ohm range with avg. 91db efficiency (not an electrostat, etc)
How much money do I need to spend? Is a 70 watt integrated only good for a small bedroom system, and separates needed to rock towers and the whole house? Just curious.
labguy

Showing 1 response by jdoris

OnHi61 is right; any number of integrateds with more juice than 70epc.

For example, there is a Plinius 9200 up here now that could be had for around your pricepoint that it rated at 200 wpc. (No connection to seller; I mention it as an example only because I've always wanted to try a Plinius.)

Shumph is right, of course, that how much juice you need depends on your listening habits and speakers, though the flexibility more juice provides is very welcome, if you want to try more speakers. (My hunch is your current 91db speakers would welcome a bit of power.)

As for for "going integrated," I went from separates to an integrated and love it. I sometimes miss wonking around with separates, but the simplicity and value of the ntegrated route is very nice too.