Is there such a thing as too much power?


   I downgraded power from 300 watts per ch to 70 and I like the sound better! I always thought more power is a good thing, but could that be wrong?

Please enlighten me...
gongli3

Showing 1 response by big_greg

My main system cast offs often end up in one of my other systems.  For a while I had my 440 watt per channel Wyred 4 Sound ST-1000 MKII in my bedroom with my 102 dB efficient Klipsch KLF-30 speakers.  I'm pretty sure that was too much power.  For that room and for what the system was intended for (mostly listening at quiet volumes before bed/sleep).

If not for the different gain settings on my ARC LS 26, the music would often have been louder than I wanted it, even at the lowest volume setting.  The KLF-30's have found a new home and now I have some much less efficient (and much smaller) Canton monitors in there.

The ST-1000 MKII was in my main system for a while and was replaced by Rogue Audio M-180 monoblocks that are "only" 180 WPC.  Great improvement in sound quality (not that the W4S amp was bad), and more than enough power.

There's a 30 WPC that I've been eyeing the last couple of days.  30 Class A watts.  I'm going to Pass on that one (see what I did there?), but watts are just one factor to take into consideration when it comes to amplification.