2. amps-preamps
  3. 1206044020

Whats with the Watts ??

Hi everyone. I'm starting an audio system for the first time and I've been doing my homework -- reading and listening as much as I can. Sorry if I ask some dumb questions along the way...

One aspect I'm very confused over is how much power I need in an amp. So many highly rated amps seem to be in the 50 watt range, yet there are also those in the 100's of watts. My room is about 25 x 15 with a ceiling that slopes from 8 feet at one end to about 18 feet at the other end. The room has 3 walls but opens up into a foyer on one side. I listen to all types of music, but mostly blues, jazz, and some rock. I like to listen at low to medium volumes. Its rare that I would play very loud. If it's important to my question, I seem to prefer the sound of solid state amps.

Being uneducated on the subject, my initial thought is, get more watts. Better to have too much than too little. So my questions are; how many watts should I be looking for and is there something to be gained or lost with too much or too few watts? Thanks.
silver911

Showing 2 responses by beerdraft

beerdraft
198 posts
 
Whats your budget?
Your room is fairly big so I would look for 200 watts per channel atleast then depending on speaker maybe more. What type of source components do you have?
beerdraft
beerdraft
198 posts
 
In my experience as long as you have plenty of reserve power, the amp will control the speaker even at low volumes. One of the best systems I've ever heard was Magnepans driven by the cj premier 8's and the older cj art pre which was thier flagship for years, not sure if it still is. At low to medium volumes it was like magic and it sounded so good you didn't even want to turn it up. Go with the speaker you like but match it with power. in this type of equipment they will reveal bad recordings, that is normal. Get the best source components you can a really good cdp will help, I don't know if mine is really good but it brought almost all the cd's back to a point where I could listen again and they sounded good. On my old cdp there was just a handful I would listen to as the rest sounded bad to me.

Good luck
beerdraft
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