philly0116 Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Ive heard both sides of the argument. I contend that, for example, 185wpc makes more bass than 100wpc. Just curious of others opinions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 To a practical limit. Even with very good drivers employing large displacements, voltage gains +20 dB over 2.83 V eventually succumb to compression. With poorly designed systems, -10 dBW of power compression at those levels is not unreasonable to expect. 185W is 2.6 dBW over 100W. Subtract at least 1 dBW for compression and an 85W increase ends up bordering on the inaudible...even if the signal were occurring in the midrange much less the bass region. ...and that's only half of the pie. Our ears can cut it back even further. Auditory compression can involuntarily squeeze down perceived loudness for us by 40 or more dBW equivalent when systems are pushed into "war volume" territory. You certainly needn't take my word for it..you can test that one out for yourself using a multimeter and your ears. Grab some hearing protection, hook up the meter to the back of the speakers and set it to measure AC voltage. Dial in some music so that the meter is peaking at 28V.....then proceed to dial it up so that it peaks at 38V. Note the difference if any. Then try it again later after having a couple beers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 ...and just so interested parties would like to know how to go about measuring power compression, it requires a multimeter and an SPL meter. Play a test tone somewhere's in the bass region and measure the voltage, set the SPL meter on a tripod and measure the SPL. Then increase the voltage a known amount using the dB voltage ratio formula, again taking note of the SPL. Repeat a couple more times, then plot the increase in voltage (in dBV) vs. the increase in dB SPL. The line will not be straight. It will start to curve towards the end. If you plot a 1-1 line through the center of the graph, the difference between the straight line and the curved (measured) line will be the real-world power compression of your system in dBW ..and that's the practical limit to how much power will make "bass"...excluding our ears. [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willland Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 Ive heard both sides of the argument. I contend that, for example, 185wpc makes more bass than 100wpc. Just curious of others opinions. I don't really know the technical jargon but I will give you my experience in the practical sense. I drove my RF-63's for 3+ years with a B&K Reference 4430(200w/ch) amp and while a very musical and quality amp it is, it did not have the amount of bass drive as my also 200w/channel Acurus A200 amplifier. Design topography plays a bigger part than watts/channel. The previously owned Acurus A150 at 150w/channel also had better bass drive than my B&K. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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