Higher Watt vs Lower Watt Amplifier, listen at the same loudness. Is there any benefit?

[mhardy6647]

I was told there wouldn't be any math.

I am one of the 4/3 of Americans who has difficulty with fractions.

 

[A800]

No math=bad sound.

 

[RichB]

Generally it is agreed increasing level by 10 db is going to sound twice as loud. But it does vary and quite a few people seem to hear 6db as twice as loud.

I am one of those people. I seldom need more than 6 dB to take comfortable to load.
The system is clean so I can go louder. For movies, I adjust to get the vocals right and then let the chips fall.

- Rich

 

[Mnyb]

Higher Watt vs Lower Watt Amplifier, listen at the same loudness. Is there any benefit?
Assuming all environments are the same, only watt difference (e.g. 120w/CH vs 70w/CH)

The reason to ask is there has been suggestions, and also from some subjective review,
said that some speakers need higher watt amp to really shine.
But in my case, I only listen at around 30-50% volume of my 70w amp.
So should there be any benefit if going to, like 120w or 250w and listen at the same loudness?

Thanks,

That’s another thing 50% of the volume knob could mean anything , in the old analog days amps usually was to sensitive and designed in such a way that even your old 1970’s cassette deck or tuner with 100mV rate doutput could be really loud and also for marketing purpose it has to go to 11 there is no standard.
It may have gotten slightly bettter nowadays ( digital systems ) but not always , I mean proper gain staging is one of those overlooked things everything has to much gain . In short amp may very well clip at 50% volume depending on how hot the source is .

And the there is the recording itself ....

One would wish that amps had a marking for max gain at rated input voltage for max output on the volume knob and then a proper scale . Like set the volume at this mark and you get the rated 100w if providing 2volts from the source then you know where you are relative to everything else.

 

[Sal1950]

I was told there wouldn't be any math.

I am one of the 4/3 of Americans who has difficulty with fractions.

Got to learn my goesintas

 

[PolkFan]

I am one of those people. I seldom need more than 6 dB to take comfortable to load.
The system is clean so I can go louder. For movies, I adjust to get the vocals right and then let the chips fall.

- Rich

Worst thing about movies they love to make explosions as loud as possible but make voices sound like its coming from a bird 3 miles away

 

[mhardy6647]

My theatrical pet peeve: explosions in space that go boom.

Y'all needed to know that.

For my money -- this scene in 2001 was one of the best.

OK, I don't know physiologically how that woulda really turned out for our hero Dave Bowman -- but at least they got the no sound in vacuo part.

 

[RayDunzl]

OK, I don't know physiologically how that woulda really turned out for our hero Dave Bowman

https://www.spacesafetymagazine.com...uit-design/early-spacesuit-vacuum-test-wrong/

 

[Willem]

To get back to the original questions, the problem is that the relation between sound level and the power required to produce it is not linear. A little bit louder requires a lot more power. Now you may think you do not need much power because you are not the extravert kind. However, depending on type of music, peaks in the sound level can be a lot louder than average levels, and particularly so with highly dynamic music like big orchestral music. So to get those clean peaks, you will need a lot of power, and if you don't have that, it will be audible. Add to that two other factors: room size and speaker efficiency. Reproducing large peaks in a large room using inefficient speakers suddenly demands almost unimaginable amounts of power, where not very dynamic music in a small room using very efficient speakers requires almost nothing. In short, there is no answer that applies in all cases. However, my rule of thumb is that you will need more power than you thought. The good news is that watts have become cheap. Also, active subwoofers can provide a large chunk of where power is needed most: in the bass region.

 

[RichB]

To get back to the original questions, the problem is that the relation between sound level and the power required to produce it is not linear. A little bit louder requires a lot more power. Now you may think you do not need much power because you are not the extravert kind. However, depending on type of music, peaks in the sound level can be a lot louder than average levels, and particularly so with highly dynamic music like big orchestral music. So to get those clean peaks, you will need a lot of power, and if you don't have that, it will be audible. Add to that two other factors: room size and speaker efficiency. Reproducing large peaks in a large room using inefficient speakers suddenly demands almost unimaginable amounts of power, where not very dynamic music in a small room using very efficient speakers requires almost nothing. In short, there is no answer that applies in all cases. However, my rule of thumb is that you will need more power than you thought. The good news is that watts have become cheap. Also, active subwoofers can provide a large chunk of where power is needed most: in the bass region.

The power requires multiple exponentially, but even so, it does not mean you need a kilowatt.
It is the starting number, number of speakers, room gain all matter.
Many think they are starting with 1 watt when the actually number may be 1/10'th of a watt with 1 watt peaks for typical listening.

Here is my calculations based on 2 Salon2's with voltage at 2.83 watts computed to be 2 watts for a 4 Ohm speaker.

Right now, I am bi-amping and do not illuminate the clipping indicators. I have the option to bridge should I feel the need.

Here is a description of the clip indicators from @John_Siau (of Benchmark)

...The AHB2 power supply is tightly regulated. The transients are not regulated.

If the clip lights on the AHB2 are not turning on, the transients are not being clipped, attenuated, or distorted. The clip lights have a timer that keeps them on for at least 1/4 second so that every clip event is always visible. If the lights are not turning on, the output is following the input exactly. Remember that the AHB2 also has a 200 kHz bandwidth, so it also follows high-frequency transients with precision and with phase accuracy.

Observations of the clip indicators confirm that this table is correct.
More power is better unless it comes at 1 watt or below where critical listening often occurs.

- Rich