Watts and power


Can somebody break it down in layman's terms for me? Why is it that sometimes an amp that has a high watt rating (like, say, a lot of class D amps do) don't seem to always have the balls that much lower rated A or AB amps do? I have heard some people say, "It's not the watts, it's the power supply." Are they talking about big honkin' toroidal transformers? I know opinions vary on a speaker like, say, Magnepans - Maggies love power, right? A lot of people caution against using class D amps to drive them and then will turn around and say that a receiver like the Outlaw RR2160 (rated at 110 watts into 8 ohms) drives Maggies really well! I'm not really asking about differences between Class D, A, or AB so much as I am asking about how can you tell the POWER an amp has from the specs? 
redstarwraith

Showing 2 responses by unsound

"2 watts of SS power to equal 1 watt of tube power"

...And it takes 2  inches on a tape measure to equal to 1 inch on a rule.


As a very general rule of thumb: I think it safe to suggest that one double the speaker manufacturers minimum power recommendation and to consider amps that can double down that power to that speakers minimum impedance. Again, just a general rule of thumb!