Amp Sound question: Doesn't sound as loud as I expected (1 Viewer)

[LD-Crazer]

I have a Rotel THX certified amp. I currently have (the only RCA cable I could find) an old Yellow/White/Red RCA cable that came with something of old tied into my system. The Amp is tied in to my Marantz SR5008. But the odd thing is I expected MORE sound. Am I not getting that impact sound because the cable is cheap or could something be wrong with the amp?

I mean I just expected a much louder sound from an amp. One is rated at 120 watts pc and another is rated at 100 wpc and there was hardly any noticeable difference between the two amps but seemed to be much quieter than if I ran it from the SR5008.

Maybe it's just my untrained ear, or maybe I didn't have it turned up to a proper level. Is there a proper level I should test at?

 

[Jason Charlton]

What speakers do you have connected to the amp?


Even though the wattage numbers provided are, by themselves, virtually meaningless, it does take a doubling of the wattage to produce a 3dB increase in SPL, so in a sense, the difference between 100 and 120 watts (even if they actually DID produce that) is not very much.

 

[schan1269]

To achieve a noticeable increase in volume from 100 watts...

You need 200.

From 200...400.

From 400...800.

From 800...1600.

Also, most AVR won't "max out" an external amp. Prepro have hotter outputs. That is one of the reasons to "love" Emotiva. They cooked the inputs knowing their lower cost install customers are using AVR instead of prepro.

 

[JohnRice]

The difference between 100 and 120 watts is insignificant.


The main thing is, you're confusing power with gain. Everybody makes that mistake at some point. Cheap gear typically has high gain, which is how much the volume is increased from input to output. That has ZERO to do with power. In fact, better amps typically have lower gain, even if they have more power and can play louder. So, you have to turn up the volume more, but in the end you can play louder.


That is most likely the case for you. The external amp has more power, so you expect it to be louder at the same volume setting, but that's not how it works.