Watts! How many do we need?

Hi @atmasphere,

Thanks for your comment, but I am pretty sure I understand current and how it relates to solid state amplifiers performance characteristics. Sorry, but the article you refer to is so poorly written as to escape making any sense to me, hats off to you if you can understand the techno babble, with a bit of some kind of marketing. I am familiar with ohms law.

In the 70’s the power measures of peak watts and then RMS watts were shown to be grossly inadequate. This is when current came into the discussion. This is also when the first high current designed amplifiers were created. The first was the Threshold s series. I purchased the s500 after amp after amp failed to adequately power my speakers. The s500 would produce over 2.5 amps into 8 ohms and much more into lesser resistance. My next amp was a Pass x350 which would develop over 5.5 amps. This I found very amazing as I used an arc welder that produced 6 amps on constructing steel prototypes for work in the mid seventies. Anyway, through these and other high current amps I have used over the decades showed it to be a very positive guide to the solidity and resilience of solid state amplifiers.

👍 @immatthewj I did mention that and I think @curiousjim ’s dealer is trying to make Sonus Faber sound more like Wilson. I think he is trying to put so much fast current to them (and probably a lean midrange) to increase slam. These speakers are made to reproduce natural sounding music not to do shock and awe. I know it is hard to attribute intent to others. But I have heard SF with very high powered solid state amps, they do make them sound better to me.

OP,

‘The difference in sound quality between my ARC Ref 160s with 70 wpc and 140 wpc is topology… one configuration is ultra linear and one is triode (70 wpc). What sounds better to me is the more natural - musical sound of the triode mode… what I am not hearing is any difference in dynamics caused by the drop in power. 

From my experience with solid state, current was the primary determinant if the amp was up to the task, the more the better. From my tube amp experience, it is far, far less important. So I went from high current 350 wpc solid state to 70 wpc tube amplification and my system sounds so much better it is amazing. It is a high quality amp… I am sure there is a difference between 70 wpc with an inexpensive light weight tube amp and a good one.

I happened to be looking at the meters the other day and noticed they were peaking at 1.5 watts output. I realize analog meters are slow and will not capture the full extent of what is going on and perhaps the meters use a proxy parameter to measure watts… but still interesting. Seems there is some truth in the saying “it’s the first watt that is most important.”

I can switch my amp between 70 wpc and 140 wpc. I noticed the same average power output in either mode but the peaks in sound would send the meters quickly far to the right (higher output) in 70 wpc mode… which makes sense. Even at deafening volume my tube amp does not run out of power. While my past experiences with 75 - 150 wpc solid state either never had good solidity or loss it when pressed to higher volumes (not necessarily ear splitting). The other thing I notice is that my amp sounds much more natural and musical without loss of dynamics in the 70 wpc triode mode vs the 140 wpc ultra linear mode.