Watts! How many do we need?


Got a new amp. Accuphase P-4600. It’s great. I love it. 
150 watts into 8 ohms, 300 watts into 4 ohms and it has meters so I can see wattage. Have them set on freeze so I can see the highest wattage during the session.

My Harbeth speakers are not very efficient. Around 86db. Their impedance is an even 6 ohms dipping no lower than 5.8 ohms. 

Playing HiRes dynamic classical recordings  ( Tchaikovsky , Mahler) at room filling volumes I have yet to exceed 1watt.. 

Amps today offer a lot of watts some going to 600 even 1200 watts. Even if you have inefficient speakers with an impedance that dips down to 2 ohms do we need all this wattage or should we be focusing on current instead? 

jfrmusic

Showing 1 response by arcticdeth

He more the better.

there is an openness, a feeling like sleeping in birthday suit,

an ease to the sound, smooth, no clipping, no mumbled distorted passages, 

the amps don’t work too hard, they will,sail along n cruise control doing what they do best.

 

I’ve had small amps, med, large, and,now I’ve learned,when you want to my e air with ease, you need the,power.  
 

sure a 6 w with 991w1m will work, but when you want to rock, you,can’t.