I like 'em big.

[svberger]

My amps wattage, that is. I prefer more powerful amps then might be considered with my Cornwall II's. Using a Harman Kardon Citation 22 amp presently. I don't necessarily play very loud, probably using just a few watts most of the time. But I find more powerful amps provide a much more satisfying listening experience from a dynamics point of view, even at the lowest volumes.  

 

How about you?

[Schu]

2 minutes ago, svberger said:

 I find more powerful amps provide a much more satisfying listening experience from a dynamics point of view, even at the lowest volumes.  

 

How about you?

 

Not really, no.

Home theater is slightly different... but others will say it's exactly the same.

[svberger]

BTW there is no right/wrong answer. Just my .02, and interested in other experiences. 

 

[muel]

You see a lot here about how much (or little) power is "needed" with our Heritage speakers.  Even if I'm only using a small amount I find that I often prefer the sound coming from a more powerful amp.  That is not always the case but it tends to be true for me.

[Quiet_Hollow]

More gain available at an analog power amp stage is fine so long as the resultant noise floor remains below your audible threshold.

 

It is all too easy to strap into too much power however, and have the system hissing at you all the time....even on the quiet stuff.

 

In the analog world, that's the trade-off for headroom in the majority of cases.

[Peter P.]

If you don't hear distortion at the levels you listen to, then you have enough power.

 

As has been said, Heritage Series speakers are so efficient that a lot of watts aren't necessary.

 

I don't feel more is better.

[willland]

6 minutes ago, Peter P. said:

If you don't hear distortion at the levels you listen to, then you have enough power.

 

As has been said, Heritage Series speakers are so efficient that a lot of watts aren't necessary.

 

All said is pretty true.

 

7 minutes ago, Peter P. said:

I don't feel more is better.

Me too but I do feel better is better.

 

Bill

[svberger]

4 hours ago, Peter P. said:

If you don't hear distortion at the levels you listen to, then you have enough power.

 

As has been said, Heritage Series speakers are so efficient that a lot of watts aren't necessary.

 

I don't feel more is better.

It's about the what happens at the low levels. Like I said, dynamics. Sure I can get really loud with 3 watts, but in my experience, those 3 watt amps just don't have the bite, the muscle, that larger amps do. 

 

10 hours ago, Quiet_Hollow said:

It is all too easy to strap into too much power however, and have the system hissing at you all the time....even on the quiet stuff.

Again, in my experience if the amp is of quality build, I get very little noise, particularly at the levels that I listen at. An amp like the Harman Kardon Citation 22(or all the HK Citation amps for that matter) certainly falls into the catalog of quality amp. My Mac MC250, with it's gain pots wide open, also has no detectable hiss/noise to speak of. I will say solid state amps tend to do this better then tube amps. Again, in my experience. 

[richieb]

With respect I do not agree with much of the above. When listening through Jubes or LaScala for that matter when I go from a First Watt F3 at 13 watts to 200 watt Class D monoblocks the sound front changes appreciably. Not only the character of the sound, not meaning one sounds "better" than the other, but the production of bass, lower and mid, mid-range, etc. At similar low listening levels all these areas mentioned are much "more". I'm sure it not only has to do with the huge power advantage but power supplies to the amp(s) and how the supplied power is interpreted by the speakers themselves. 

[willland]

2 hours ago, svberger said:

It's about the what happens at the low levels. Like I said, dynamics. Sure I can get really loud with 3 watts, but in my experience, those 3 watt amps just don't have the bite, the muscle, that larger amps do. 

That I agree completely.  Headroom is nice.

 

Bill

[Lemon string]

I run a whopping 12 watts of class A power. Its clean dynamic and hits the spot. Considering the that my speakers are probably only consuming maybe a watt I seem to have plenty of head room. I've yet to hear it clip.

[svberger]

1 hour ago, Lemon string said:

I run a whopping 12 watts of class A power. Its clean dynamic and hits the spot. Considering the that my speakers are probably only consuming maybe a watt I seem to have plenty of head room. I've yet to hear it clip.

I've run some nice 6BQ5 amps that had similar wattage in the past with Cornwalls and always enjoyed the sound. Still didn't seem to pack the wallop that larger amps can, but man that sound was sweet. Would certainly welcome owning another one in the future just to be able to mix it up on occasion. 

 

[tube fanatic]

The audible differences may have more to do with circuit arrangement than power.  For example, comparing a single ended amp to one that's push pull will yield noticeable differences regardless of power.  And then there's the issue of distortion levels at a given output power.  A more fair comparison would be a 1 watt SET with a 8 watt SET, and so on.  The bottom line is how much power the amp can furnish when needed.  If a "normal" listening level requires 50 milliwatts (with Klipsch speakers that's often the case), and the amp can supply 5 watts at low distortion (for 20 db of headroom), there's really little need for more power.  And, the required power is so easy to measure that I'm surprised that only a handful of guys gave it a try in the thread I started on that a few months ago.

 

https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/170414-who-wants-to-measure-how-much-power-voltage-is-really-needed/

 

 

Maynard