I've had a low power chip amp, and desired a higher power amp when it distorted when played on those occasions when I needed (wanted) the music to play for party.
Yes under normal listening conditions it was great, but life is not the median, there are occasions when situations peak.
But this lead to regret, with me wanting to get a higher power amp.
I now have a higher power amp, 180W and I must say, I never look back and say, I wish this was a 1W amp.
I still say enough cannot be defined as the minimum that is desired, but just that bit higher than what's needed, whatever that is to the specific person
Yes under normal listening conditions it was great, but life is not the median, there are occasions when situations peak.
But this lead to regret, with me wanting to get a higher power amp.
I now have a higher power amp, 180W and I must say, I never look back and say, I wish this was a 1W amp.
I still say enough cannot be defined as the minimum that is desired, but just that bit higher than what's needed, whatever that is to the specific person
Well, I did the opposite.
Despite having several high power amplifiers, I actually missed my LM1875's. In particular I missed the dark voiced parallel LM1875. There's something oddly interesting and really relaxing about that. Sure, it can't play jet plane loud like the big amplifiers, but what is interesting is that it doesn't need to.
My big amplifiers are a bit different, with rather fantastic concert sound when the volume knob is all the way, but they only work well when loud and shaking everything. Quiet playback with those is like driving as slowly as possible, and that is actually annoying.
It seems true that the amplifier power is all about what you need. But sometimes I just need to relax. Apparently, I need two different sorts of amplifiers. It depends on the mood.
Maybe I need three sorts of amplifiers?
For example, a rather fantastic 2 watts. . .
I also do like a very strange thing in the office and bedroom. The old late 1960's solid state amplifier that had a ruush (a muffled hiss) sort of like a star trek soundtrack.
Panasonic RE7300 (see ebay) will do that if careful adjustment of the tone dial and very conservative adjustment of the volume dial. I'm sure it has at least 2 watts. But, apparently, that is optimal if you're in need of a most excellent quality nap.
So, do I need the most piercingly well imaging audiophile amp or the most excellent bass during a nap? No, Neither, because only the opposite will work at that particular time.
I'm just saying that it is highly likely that ALL of the different sorts of audio amplifiers do have an optimal use and therefore it is highly unlikely to measure it in watts.
Also, if you can name a figure in watts that is not enough, you'd have to Quadruple that to get 6db more out of a speaker (and 6db is still pitiful). Therefore I'm curious about possible answers to this thread that don't involve wattage.
. . . such as, please use a *series element* such as a cable, resistor, diode, capmulti, regulator, in-between any two different size caps in the power circuit, rather than directly parallel different size caps.
For example, a rather fantastic 2 watts. . .
I also do like a very strange thing in the office and bedroom. The old late 1960's solid state amplifier that had a ruush (a muffled hiss) sort of like a star trek soundtrack.
Panasonic RE7300 (see ebay) will do that if careful adjustment of the tone dial and very conservative adjustment of the volume dial. I'm sure it has at least 2 watts. But, apparently, that is optimal if you're in need of a most excellent quality nap.
So, do I need the most piercingly well imaging audiophile amp or the most excellent bass during a nap? No, Neither, because only the opposite will work at that particular time.
I'm just saying that it is highly likely that ALL of the different sorts of audio amplifiers do have an optimal use and therefore it is highly unlikely to measure it in watts.
Also, if you can name a figure in watts that is not enough, you'd have to Quadruple that to get 6db more out of a speaker (and 6db is still pitiful). Therefore I'm curious about possible answers to this thread that don't involve wattage.
. . . such as, please use a *series element* such as a cable, resistor, diode, capmulti, regulator, in-between any two different size caps in the power circuit, rather than directly parallel different size caps.
Which is really telling you that your speakers don't work well at low levels, unless your amplifier also has strange problems at low power.
Try using the chipamp speakers on the big amplifier for interest, or is this more a distortion quality of the chipamps with their speakers that you enjoy - perhaps you simply don't require so much low bass?
The OP though, simply asks "what is the best power" which is a nebulous question since unless you assume a standard speaker and bandwidth for all comparisons, it could be anything from 5-500W. I say bandwidth, because sub-bass requires a lot more power than than typical full-range loudspeakers require but not all of us use them. Other folks, such as the frugal-philes, use tiny amps and full range miniature drivers in optimised enclosures. I'd say some of those guys are using single ended small tubes with only a bit over a watt in them, so this gets pretty silly.
Define a standard speaker for all and then you have your "best power" for any particular group of audio fans or DIYs you care to name.
Simple question,complex answer!Like all aspects of engineering,compromises have to be struck.Type of music ? Chamber requires far less power than Heavy Metal.Small bed-sit less than a large lounge,then there is the question of speakers.Small book shelf types are far less sensitive than big Transmission lines ,Horns, etc.with a bewildering range in between!
Sound quality is also a factor.As a very rough rule of thumb (and for this comment I expect a lot of flack!),the higher the quality,the lower the efficiency.For a low power ,high quality amp.:Class A,next,Class AB run with a high quiescent current,next AB with lower Iq and last,Class B (little or no Iq),for driving things like "Butt-kickers".
Commercial amps.have to appeal to as wide a market as possible,to maximise sales,so their designs have to compromise both on quality and production costs.
The wonderful thing about DIY is that amps can be optimised for one's personal requirements,often at much less expense!
There is such a wealth of designs and info.on Diyaudio,there is truly an embarrassment of riches!
Sound quality is also a factor.As a very rough rule of thumb (and for this comment I expect a lot of flack!),the higher the quality,the lower the efficiency.For a low power ,high quality amp.:Class A,next,Class AB run with a high quiescent current,next AB with lower Iq and last,Class B (little or no Iq),for driving things like "Butt-kickers".
Commercial amps.have to appeal to as wide a market as possible,to maximise sales,so their designs have to compromise both on quality and production costs.
The wonderful thing about DIY is that amps can be optimised for one's personal requirements,often at much less expense!
There is such a wealth of designs and info.on Diyaudio,there is truly an embarrassment of riches!
I just took delivery of my first SPL meter, yesterday.
I discovered that I listen at 60 to 85dB for my normal listening. Kinda explains why my measurements show just a few hundred milliwatts at the speaker terminals.
I walked around the house closing doors behind me to find out how the sound attenuates. Not much, a closed door is about 15dB to 25dB,
Two closed doors and a short corridor between my Lounge and my Living room resulted in 40 to 50dB attenuation. (the meter indicates "under" and the bar-graph goes to zero markers at 30dBA). I turned up the stereo to hear what "others" might hear around the house.
My meter gave average readings (slow and fast) around about 30dBA.
This "30dB was certainly not silence. I would find it very disturbing if I was reading. It could be described as "distracting" if I was having a conversation. I would be complaining to environmental health to get the noise stopped, if I were trying to sleep.
My house when "quiet" is well below 30dBA.
Difficult to guess how much below 30dBA, might be 10dB, or more likely be >20dB below that 30dBA
Back to the "loud" room, the meter reads average around 85dBA and peaks at 96dBA.
I can shout louder than that at 500mm. It went to 98dB. So in my view 100dB peaks are not that loud.
I would need a noise to peak ratio exceeding ~90dB to get full use of listenable audio.
Looking at Still4's link: I wonder how many 110dB 10us peaks fit into 90seconds to reach the continuous time weighted average noise limits?
I discovered that I listen at 60 to 85dB for my normal listening. Kinda explains why my measurements show just a few hundred milliwatts at the speaker terminals.
I walked around the house closing doors behind me to find out how the sound attenuates. Not much, a closed door is about 15dB to 25dB,
Two closed doors and a short corridor between my Lounge and my Living room resulted in 40 to 50dB attenuation. (the meter indicates "under" and the bar-graph goes to zero markers at 30dBA). I turned up the stereo to hear what "others" might hear around the house.
My meter gave average readings (slow and fast) around about 30dBA.
This "30dB was certainly not silence. I would find it very disturbing if I was reading. It could be described as "distracting" if I was having a conversation. I would be complaining to environmental health to get the noise stopped, if I were trying to sleep.
My house when "quiet" is well below 30dBA.
Difficult to guess how much below 30dBA, might be 10dB, or more likely be >20dB below that 30dBA
Back to the "loud" room, the meter reads average around 85dBA and peaks at 96dBA.
I can shout louder than that at 500mm. It went to 98dB. So in my view 100dB peaks are not that loud.
I would need a noise to peak ratio exceeding ~90dB to get full use of listenable audio.
Looking at Still4's link: I wonder how many 110dB 10us peaks fit into 90seconds to reach the continuous time weighted average noise limits?
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May I ask what type of SPL meter this is? Some popular and affordable types use standard, uncalibrated mic. inserts and others appear to have good linearity and correlation to standards, even coming with (apparently) individual calibration charts - a practice once reserved for high priced instruments. I'm sure there many more brands, types and quality out there that I haven't even seen either.
I was surprised though, to find that neither of these Chinese made types I compared was very expensive but the results were certainly different - by up to 5 dBA within the home audio listening environment. Prices? around $95 and $140 US, before freight or duty.
Integrating types by TES, Minipa, Rigol etc. for serious environmental noise assessment, are at least 6 times those prices - well out of my league but thankfully, not something I need.
That is not necessarily true, because a third factor is missing.
For speakers rather than an expensive crossover, better speaker driver matching could be done, usually at higher cost, but sometimes at lower cost, considering the price of high quality inductors (which is more likely to be overlooked than the high price of more copacetic speaker drivers).
For amplifiers, rather than a cheap way to avoid transformer and heatsink costs like the majority of high efficiency mass market produce, it is actually possible to make a high efficiency Class aAG audio amplifier with sound quality equal or greater to an orthodox linear amplifier save for the exceptions being both higher cost and higher efficiency.
So, I have to say that the missing factor in your statement was cost, and that there's no need to get any flack for that.
P.S.
There is one other factor, but I might get some flack for this one:
The main cause of inefficiency is "Power Supply Rejection Ratio" reliant design (an excellent feature, but reliance on it is not favorable), because ignoring the power circuit is always a mistake. Instead, when you find the design with the more elegant power circuit, then you have probably found enough power for audio. There is power and there is applicable power, and those two are stunningly different.
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Digital Sound Pressure tester Level Meter 30-130dBl USB Noise Measurement HY | eBay
model: Wensn ws1361
£17.54 including post to UK.
Value seems to be good.
It states +-1.5dB for accuracy, but that does not bother me, even if it turns out to be quite a bit worse.
Frequency response is stated as 31.5Hz to 8500Hz.
Doesn't say if that is the +-1.5db, or using +-3dB limits, or some other way to exaggerate the "goodness" of the uncalibrated device.
I will take it with me to a race meeting and ask if the noise scrutineer can check the calibration for me.
It states +-1.5dB for accuracy, but that does not bother me, even if it turns out to be quite a bit worse.
Frequency response is stated as 31.5Hz to 8500Hz.
Doesn't say if that is the +-1.5db, or using +-3dB limits, or some other way to exaggerate the "goodness" of the uncalibrated device.
I will take it with me to a race meeting and ask if the noise scrutineer can check the calibration for me.
the AC output is the analogue out for the range selected. I think the instruction mean that the maximum of 707mVrms corresponds to the maximum value for the range. The range can be set with maximum of 80dBA or C to 130dB A or C in increments of 10dB. Rs 600ohm.
The DC output is dB scaled DC voltage, it states 10mV/dB, Rs 100ohm.
The USB is a connection to a PC and they included a small CDrom with software. States the meter can be connected to a PC with USB.
The slot is for an SD card, labeled SD record. Mine has a QC passed label covering the slot.
It also mentions that AC & DC output for frequency analyser level recorder, FFT analyser, graphic recorder etc.
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I think that we should design the amplifier to withstand 4 ohm speakers because, in that case, the same amplifier would have excellent linearity when driving 8 ohm speakers, and that sounds fantastic.
You can measure wattage used at the speaker and multiply by 6 (or more) for headroom in solid state systems to find how much amplifier wattage you need for both music and headroom.
For example: In a traditional size living room, about 1 watt is used, so a bare minimum figure is 6 watts. I suggest to play it safe and allow for more than a minimal amount of headroom, perhaps 11 watts, like the Tringlophone or JLH, probably won't clip during normal average use.
The amount of wattage needed also varies by room size. However, if there is more than 1 person using the home, have no expectation for a top class music system to do anything other than gather dust if placed next to a television (or even worse if your hard work goes towards making much louder tv sound instead of the music that you wanted). After you put the competing systems in different rooms that is when practical in-room usage-based measurements can be made.
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