Canuck Audio Mart

I don't know why people are always looking for big amplifier when we do not use the potential from those big amps ?
For a normal room, we don't need more than 20 watts R.M.S per channel with good speakers to get good result.

Small unit could be beautiful too.....and very efficient.

I prefer a good quality amp with small output than a big fat monster with no "personality" at all.

I could compare this to the guy's who own a Porshe, a Corvette or any fast car when the speed limits are 100/110 K/M on the Canadian Highways.

Boy's are just boy's.....I could piss further than you !

Ya, BIG TIME!

I thought the point of having a big powerful amplifier was so that it can fully meet the demands of the speakers being driven.

I know that certain speakers whose impedance drops very low require current that a 20Watt per channel amp cannot provide. Hence we get clipping and loss of frequency response.

Personally when I listen to a speaker driven by a 20 watt amp, and then compare with those driven by higher power and lots of available current the music sounds better-even at low volumes.

Just my two cents

If you're just talking numbers, then yes I might agree. However it's been my experience that the amps with the bigger power supplies sound bigger. There is often no correlation between the specified number of watts and the size of the power supply.

For example, an amp like the ML2 is rated at 25 watts/8ohms is capable of 200watts/1ohm, and can drive most any speaker to reasonable levels. There are very few 25 watt amps with such current capacity. There are just as many 200 watt amps that can drive a 1 ohm load.

That's true, my example was maybe a bit low.....
But, I have two Sansui AU-7500 (43 Watts R.M.S per channel) one is hook to two pairs of Celestion Ditton 33 (40 watts handlind) and the other one is hook to two pairs of Celestion Ditton 44 (60 watts handling) most of the time I just use one amplifier with the 33's with volume at "8 o'clock" and that's more than what my wife and neibor could handle...

So, why get a 150-200-300 watts R.M.S per channel if you don't own a bar or discothèque ?
The normal people in their living room don't need those "Monsters" but many of them have it!

Too bad, I don't have the chance to own my own house and MY ROOM in the basement

In your own backyard, Sir Vi-nt-age, there was once produced an amp that would fit all requirements..The Classe DR-3 and DR-3VHC..man they were big but only produced 25 watts per,BUT of absolute class A power,and could drive anything you hooked them to.AND they sounded extraordinary..
.I don't think there has ever been a small 20 per channel that could drive anything under the sun..and sound good doing it..

tubeornotube

2 words....dynamics and control...my $0.02

My friend's dynaudio temptations never sounded so good until he bought his 2KW McIntosh amps.
I think it really depends on the room and the speakers you're driving. Many times I have heard speakers that sounded ok, but when you hooked up real power to them they opened right up...like the previous poster said - Dynamics and Control...
b

Alot has to do with the speakers, some need a bigger amp.

I disagree!

First off I am not looking for a fight!

I dont have the intelligence to explain big power
Hopefully someone will chime in for big power amps

for every 3 decible increase in volume the watts double?? (I think)
Find an amp with meters that show watts like Mcintosh
play with the volume you would be suprised how much the wattage increases with little volume increases

My speakers are around 103 db/1w/1m and small and simple amplifiers normally sound better but there is a limit to that. I've tried 1.5-2 watts amplifiers and found them lacking dynamics even considering the speaker efficency.

I generally don't like the sound of paralleled output transistor or tubes and I think that is where small amplifier shines.

I can live with 7 watts (300b set), 24 watts (845 set) and 35 watts (gainclone) but when I use my 94 db eff speakers 7 watts is not enough anymore. I really hate when a loud passage on classical music get compressed or when the low frequency gets muddy. It's hard to avoid when the headroom and the damping of the drivers is not there.

Small amplifiers are nice but they need to be paired with proper speakers. I really hate the sound of small SET on low to med efficiency speakers.

There are many!

How hard a load the speakers are on the amp.
Some speakers with high efficiency can be driven by 5 watts and less even while some speakers impedence curb goes down to 1 ohm at certain frequencies....not every amp can deal with that, even some rated at 200 watts.
An amp rated at 150 watts might have a problem driving low impedence loads because of a poorly designed power supply.
Some nicely designed 20 watts class A will have more guts and driving power than a class A/B 100 watter amplifier.

I have always found more power the more resolving an amplifier is, it has ability to grip the speaker and handle power swings and speaker needs with ease and always be on top, when i say more power i mean a quality amp that has a well designed power supply, that can be heard at low level listening which is very important to me.

There are other factors also, system synergy if you are using multiple pieces of equipment like amps and pre-amps just seem to meld together while some combos seem congested and work against one another, room size also will matter, if you have cathedral like listening room you will need to bring your volume up and stress the amps quite a bit more than in a 12' by 15' room.

I had some 845 based monoblocks that delivered 18 watts of sweet holographic and illuminated sound trough my 91Db efficiency speakers....i changed the speakers to ones that had an 87Bd efficiency and a hard load.....the magic was gone........another amp came in...150 watts in class 'A'....the magic was back with the new speakers...differently but put a big slash on my face nevertheless
Its a great hobby with so much to experiment with....the Oddysey goes on!

I think the idea is to have a "good marriage" between amp and speaker....

Sports cars are more fun no matter how fast they are going it's a lot to do with handling and acceleration not just FAST so not really a good analogy. As for high power amps, usually the higher the power the better the quality. Hard to sell a expensive 20 watt amp when the same dollars get you a high power amp with more headroom. Again same in cars 300hp or 100hp for the same money, better be offering something incredible for the difference.

"usually the higher the power the better the quality"
Not sure...

as an FYI I have a second system that runs a PP 10w tube amp on 95db eff speakers, absolute glorious mid rang but don't ask the set up to prvide huge dynamics or very loud volume....it clips, compresses, muddies the bass etc...

main system runs a 100w 6550 based amp on 89db efficient speakers, again, awsome mid-range, decent dynamics at moderate volumes, but quickly craps out when pushed (Mahler's 2nd, can you possibly listen to it at low volumes? I can't..lol)

I'm currently on the search for 200+ Class A tube power....so I'm one of the guys looking for big wattage....and these are my reasons...

Cheers!