@jbhiller 's advice above struck me wrong until I kept reading. You won't damage an amp with a low power signal unless it is clipping/distorting. So buying a low power amp AND turning it up too loud will damage speakers.
Jerry
Too powerful of an amp!?
Hello Audiogon fellows - I have a pair of 805 D4's and the recommended amps for this speaker are required to be rated between 50W-120W (as per spec sheet). I was eyeing some McIntosh amps as upgrade to my existing amp, and the only one that falls under this range is a MA5300 or MA252, they are the only ones that are rated 100W per channel for 8 ohm speakers (and I don't fancy/want those amps).
Can I safely go above recommended threshold for my B&W's? up to 3---400W per channel?
- ...
- 13 posts total
True @carlsbad2 ! So very true. I powered KEF LS50s with a 300B amp! (8 watts) If you don't listen loud, a low powered amp won't be harmful. The other consideration with a low powered amp is lack of headroom. |
All great advice. An important aspect of matching amps and speakers is synergy. The watts alone won’t tell the full story on how they’ll pair together. Another poster brought up Horse Power under the hood which is a good comparison, it’s not just HP though, it’s Torque, it’s how a car is geared and various other factors, it’s when the engine in a car has synergy with the rest of the car that true magic happens. Same with speakers and amps. Research what mates well with your speakers, Tube or SS, do they need headroom to really shine? Are the speakers on the brighter side? Pairing Tubes or Class or SS amps known for warmth like Macs, Pass, Krell, Parasound, Cod to name a few. Your speakers will likely do very well with amps that have some headroom, provide stability. If you like Mac’s, a great place to start with their power / autoformer technology. Good Luck, enjoy the journey! |
@carlsbad2 +1 - Carls is right - we typically use very little power for most listening. A clean amplified signal is better, even if it is 'only' 100 watts. In my system I bet I only use the first 20 watts before it is too loud. |
I always had over powered amps with lots of headroom. It’s always been beneficial I find. I am now at an extreme point where I already had a Mcintosh 300 watt per channel and I bought Avantgarde speakers at 107 db efficiency. So to your question, I would say, an over powered amp yes, but are we getting the best out of our preamps that are always in very low volume setting? I do understand that there are many ways of attenuating signal but speaking in general here, I believe most preamps work best between 75% and unity gain |
- 13 posts total