I have run into the same issue with my set-up. I have a Parasound A21 amp that is rated at 250 watts at 8 ohms and 400 watts at 4 ohms. My speakers are Martin Logan 60 XL, rated at 4 ohms and 92 sensitivity — so should be easily handled by my amp, But I seem to run out of steam too at the higher volume levels. On Reddit, a guy told me that amperage is more important than watts when it comes to volume. He looked up stats for my amp and said his smaller amp had higher amperage and that is why he never ran out of volume on his rig. I don’t know about these things, but I just assumed that a high wattage amp would be equipped to drive high sensitivity speakers to anything I could want.
What actually determines volume power? Is it watts?
I have a Yamaha AS-3200 amp. It sounds beautiful and has a really good open sound. The problem is I like my music loud since I live alone and typically I have the volume 70% and with some recordings it is not high enough. I need a amp that has more power/volume.
The AS-3200 is 200 watts at 8 ohms. I see many amps, even much more expensive ones (like the Yamaha M-5000), are also at around 200 watts per a channel at 8 ohms. I am going by 8 ohms for my speakers and also the worse case scenarios. Does this mean if I had a more expensive class AB amp like the M-5000 I would still be listening at 70% volume and getting the same power/loudness? If not, then what actually determines the volume power if not watts?