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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
zlone
797 posts
 

So what spec do I look at instead of wattage?

Wattage is a good spec in this case. What you want to see is something like:

200 watts into 8 ohms

400 watts into 4 ohms

Either, 800 watts into 2 ohms, or, Stable at 2 ohms.

Doubling the wattage as the impedance halves is a sign of a high current amp. As for sound quality, look for the number of Class A watts before it cuts to AB. Coda is very clear on this information, look at their #8 model as a good example. 

 

 

 

zlone
797 posts
 

Or you can go Class D, but do your research. 

baconboy
33 posts
 

Looks or power? I love the looks of the Yamaha AS3200. It’s beautiful and reminds me of a Yamaha integrated I owned way back in the 80s. I went looking to upscale the power for my Maggie’s recently but power wise the Yamaha wouldn’t do the job. I compromised the looks for power by getting a Hegel H400 and am loving the upgrade. It’s a shame manufactures can’t offer different styles for the front of their products. Sort of like the removable fronts on car stereos a few years back.

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.

 

 

 

mashif
299 posts
 

The Yamaha is an integrated amp. So the volume control follows the preamp section gain structure. If that unit allows the use of an external preamp with more gain, the volume knob won't have to be turned up as much, and the power amp section will respond to the gain of the preamp. 

My tube preamp has much more gain than my SS. The volume heard when the tube preamp is at 11 o'clock is equal to the SS volume at 1 o'clock.

So if possible, try an external preamp with more gain and you won't have to turn the volume control up as much. 

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