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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? 
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wolf_garcia
6,695 posts
 
My wife uses a heavy QSC 350wpc a/b power amp in a "road case" in her "home" office whenever she's working from home...it works perfectly and silently since it's being used as a foot stool. Highly recommended.
colin44ct357's avatar
colin44ct357
122 posts
 
Power means little to me.
Its the speaker system and match to the amp.
Ideal speakers should be around 60-70% of rms output of amp.
I was running a pair of 7 way bookshelf on my avr HK 5000 and they sounded horrid, hooked them up to an old HITACHI HA1 in the workshop and wow, they blow the roof off at 50% with tone to die for.
Dont need surrounds, not interested.
I love the tone/power of stereo units with integrated modules.
Put the control 1's on the hk in the lounge with ar teledyne 137's and it came to life as well.
I replaced the main drivers with a pair of speakers from an electric guitar 60 watt rms amp, the teledyne boxes were gifted to me.
The guitar speakers work as 2 way as they are ribbed and flat cone.
Flipping amazing what one can do!
colin44ct357's avatar
colin44ct357
122 posts
 
Sorry typo.Teledyne 132's from the uk.
Arcam Cambridge and the best HI FI in my opinion come from the uk.
Sorry guys, but power you guys run would lead to eviction notices in sa.
Cheers from a near no internet in sa, the overseas underwater cables are damaged, i can live with candles but cant live without comms, thats why im a radio dealer with some monster hf/vhf/uhf rigs.
Latest toy an Icom IC 7100, opened up by yours truly for 11m 27555 with an antron 99 to burn some holes through the ionosphere.
Callsign 44CT357....also gun crazy since 12yrs of age, 60 now.
73's

avanti1960
1,476 posts
 
watts are a measurement of power.  however i have owned amplifiers of the exact same measurement verified power curve yet one sounds significantly more powerful than the other.  and they are made by the same manufacturer! 
the more powerful sounding one is a dual mono configuration and has several more large capacitors per channel on the circuit board.   
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