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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?

dman777

Showing 1 response by tomrk

tomrk
91 posts
 

As others have mentioned, the speakers will be the biggest determinate since it represents the load on the amplifier.

But to answer your question directly:

Amperes = Watts/Voltage  or to flip this around Watts = Voltage * Amperes.  There's more to it than this, but I won't go into more details because the calculation of power to watts is pretty straight forward, but unhelpful to answer your question. Plus most manufacturers won't give you enough information to answer this question.

If you like your speakers, you either need to buy a much more powerful amplifier or if your amp has a subwoofer out, you might be able to get more perceived loudness by with a powered subwoofer, depending on the kind of music you listen to.

 

 

 

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