Is more amp power always better...?


Hello.  

Asking advice on what power Amp/int amp I should buy for my room size...

I have a small listening room.  11' x 10'. I have 89db speaker sensitivity  I am going to buy a solid state amp.   

For best audio quality (ignoring all other factors), my question is:  

Do folks advise "Buy as much watts per channel as you can afford"?  -OR- "Buy enough watts for the room" as more watts in reserve do not mean better quality audio?

Put another way: are more watts in reserve better for audio quality, even if amp does not use this power?  

Thank you...hope this was clear.  

dunkin

If you want to see  the impedance curve you can use Room EQ Wizard with a home built wiring jig to measure it, or you can buy Dayton Audio DATS (what I use) to chart it. 

@zlone Lots of good advice here. If you can find an impedance graph for your speakers and see that they spend time at 4 ohms or below, you will want to ensure that the amp doubles or comes close to doubling wattage when impedance drops to that level. Another thing you may want to look at is how many watts of class A are available before A/B kicks in. But as many have already stated, specs alone do not tell the whole story, in the end it has to sound good to you.

 

Channeling @atmasphere who might chime in on this topic, and explaining more about "how" and "why". My pure Class A solid state 50w amp with mosfet opts (always on, biased full Class A), sounds better than my other Class AB amps where the first 10w was supposed to be Class A. Not sure why exactly. I just know the pure Class A just sounds better in my setup once everything is good and warmed up - fwtw.

@decooney My pure Class A solid state 50w amp with mosfet opts (always on), sounds better than my other Class AB amps where the first 10w was supposed to be Class A.

 

Good point, pure Class A is another option. I am guessing that amps designed that way are simpler and on average probably deliver better sound. I considered it myself, but opted for a high current amp with 18 watts of Class A on the front end. Pretty sure I rarely cross that threshold these days.

 

@zlone "Pretty sure I rarely cross that threshold these days.". 

People don't often comment on these threads about the volume LEVEL they want or need to listen to music.  "These days", I don't listen at higher volumes any more myself. Don't need to any more. With quality amplification can hear everything well enough without having to turn it up a lot louder.  

@OP A power amplifier is basically a modulated power supply, so the quality the amp's power supply is more important than its power output. Quality watts don't come cheap so you should not buy a bigger amplifier than you need. 60-100 high quality watts supported by robust current delivery is quite adequate for your setup.