Good point. I think level of detail was lacking, but also with more power you feel the need to stress it. If you own a sports car in the city, perhaps it gets tiresome to stick to 30 mph?
Too much power?
I have a wonderful system with a great amplifier, and yet auditioned a more powerful version of the same amp. It indeed seemed to have more punch and drive, but at the expense of playing it a bit too loud. As my current system I rarely play over 70 db, since it’s perfect at low levels. I wonder other than bragging rights, what does more power get you? Since we aren’t here for PA style sound, is there a reasonable limit to how much you will benefit from higher power/ more expensive and? Especially since tire just using one watt most of the time?
Showing 5 responses by dain
@zlone yes, thanks for checking the details, I have EC 220, and used to have 2 as mono blocks.. long story short was trying the EC AW 180.. but my question really was if any of these crazy powerful amps are even necessary when listening at any humane volume. I will say that power ratings are pretty useless to judge actual quality, but money tends to be the equalizer in most decisions. More powerful = more expensive. |
@mulveling I think that's an interesting observation. I find many/most systems don't seem to perform until they reach a certain DB.. now you're right about the exponential cost of loudness, but if you get the bass right (2 subs) it seems to be more than satisfying.. |
Great points. Thanks. I also needed to update my system in the forum. It’s all EC from dac to preamp, and yes, @ghdprentice I changed the preamp from Freya+ to EC and was very impactful. My amp seems plenty able to drive the Maggie’s loud, I just find the need to do that less necessary, mainly because of the bass impact from EC seems very effective at delivering current. >70 amps rating. I looked, the 180 monoblocks I tried have >100 amps and I looked up Parasound flagship >140 amps. I suppose even at 1 watt that this current or push has some positive effects, but it done any seem at my preferred listing level moving to the more powerful amps would accomplish much except draining my bank account. As @tomcarr said, enjoy and stop the FOMO. |
@dbakker that’s an interesting observation. I was recently at a chamber orchestra concert playing in an exquisite hall. 4th row. All I could think is that this would sound better as a recording where I could turn it up! It was in the 70db peak region (I checked) I enjoyed it but how anyone in the 50th row would hear the piano (well it was a harpsichord )I have no idea. So how do you assume there’s some specific volume appropriate to any recording? If you want to study this you’ll find masterers really have no idea, and are currently being policed by streaming services that now stress dynamic range over sheer loudness as has been the norm for 50 years, but that could be a different topic. |