2. amps-preamps
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More Power is always good?

Hi all,

I'm a little lost in my search for the amp. Does more power (like more than 100W) means good?

I have been around listening to various amps, maybe a little too much that confused me.

Say for a room of 16ft by 20ft. What is the optimum power requirement?

For example, once I heard the Sugden A21Se (Class A 30W) driving the Spendor S6E, everything was nice except that I found that the basss definition and extension is lacking which is a concern to me, the showroom was smaller than my room. That's why I'm looking for amp with more power (like 100W), am I wrong? Will Class A amp like Sugden MasterClass or Accuphase E530 or Lavardin or others similar amp with power rating of 30W-50W be sufficient?

by the way I am using the old SF Grand Piano Home. I'm looking for a good amp that will outlast the GP Home, i.e. I don't have to change amp when i change the GP Home.

Any comments?

Thank you.
pingpong

Showing 1 response by gene888

gene888
8 posts
 
Hi PingPong,

Just my $.02 here. For maximum flexibility, you will probably want to go with a solid state amplifier that can deliver around 200 watts. This will drive almost any speaker at any level you will probably ever want to try.

More power is not necessarily better. It depends on how "clean" that power is, and what kind of distortion is introduced. Amplifiers which introduce lots of odd-order harmonics (which many cheaper solid-state amps do) can sound unnatural. Some people believe that tubes sound better because they introduce mainly even-order harmonics, which gives them a more natural sound (though there is much debate about this topic).

Also consider if you like keeping your gear on all the time. If you run the amp all day long, solid state is definitely the way to go (maybe with a tube pre-amp). Good luck!
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