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 panzrwagn

The success of the Pass 25 and other small-bore tube amps Indicates that's plenty for most applications. But remember this - speakers are current driven devices and benefit greatly from amps acknowledging that fact.

Most modern speakers are less than 8 ohms and so are quite current hungry. Also, loudness is logarithmic, so twice the power is only 3dB louder - a just noticeable difference. To sound twice as loud requires 10X the power. Also remember the limits of your speakers. KEF LS50s 84dB @ 1W/1M and 100W limits means they are limited to 104dB maximum output. A big JBL 4367 is at least 10dB more efficient and will handle 200W peaks for a max output of 117dB.  The KEFs are meant for near field listening only a few feet away, the JBLs meant for a large room with the listener 10-15 feet away, so it all must be worked as a system, not just components in isolation. As for me, my 87dB Monitor Audio S300 7G and a solid 60W amp in my 12X16 room is plenty. In other systems, 200W was just adequate, and in another a 40W tube Mcintosh MC240 was fabulous. Lots of valid answers, just don't ignore physics.