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 erik_squires

Current uber alles.

Looking at my own meters, it’s movies that are going to push the amps.

For the record, every meter I’ve seen is really a voltage meter in disguise. A low impedance speaker won’t push the needle further up. Perhaps someone has invented a smarter meter though. :)

On a slightly different angle than the OP has asked Nelson Pass has long advocated that the performance of an amp in the first few watts is what matters most.