What does more power mean? (1 Viewer)

[John Roger]

What does the power rating actually mean.More louder or more quality?

Also my reciver only had a -6 to +6 level adjustment for bass and treble.Is is good enough?

 

[John Garcia]

Ideally, you shouldn't need to adjust the tone controls at all, so those adjustments should be more than enough.

More power does translate into louder, in that you can turn it up louder before getting meaningful distortion (more volume with the same quality). A side effect of that is that at lower/normal volumes, it should still sound slightly clearer.

 

[Chu Gai]

It generally means that you'll be able to play louder/cleaner and that you may be less prone to dip into the reserves during demanding passages. However there are some things to be aware of. You should consider purchasing your amplifier so that it can deliver sufficient power to whatever speakers you have. As a speaker's impedance curve drops, it requires additional current from the amp. S/N ratio may or may not be a factor. Personally, I'm a big fan of powerful amps sufficient to serve as backup sources for executions. I don't like to even think I could be clipping or that I might run out of power. They appeal to my testosterone side. Could be why I like hard hitting defense as played by Eastern basketball teams as opposed to the finesse of the West.
Tone controls are there if you need to make minor adjustments. Some people use them, some use equalizers, some just hate them. They're a tool and like any tool can be used effectively or abused. If you use them you may well find that they make marginally recorded material more palatable. The choice is yours.

 

[John Roger]

I currently own a slim sony dts only 40w/ch with mini satellites.I am plannnin to buy big speakers.So will it be ok to use my old reciever?

I connected a warfedale speaker with soft dome and was not getting enough treble even at the max.But with some other speakers deliver excellent trebles.Is the problem with the reciever or speaker?

 

[Chu Gai]

This may suggest a problem with the Warfedales. Bad tweeter, crossover, hard to say. I don't know if they have biwire/biamp capability but if they do, I'd take a look at the connection between the binding posts in the back. Then I'd get another set if they happen to intrigue me for some reason and repeat my evaluation. If still the same, just move on to a different speaker.

 

[Frank Zimkas]

A common misconception is that a speaker rated for a given amount of input power should not be connected to an amp that produces a greater amount of power. (IE: 100watt amp and 40 watt speakers). Fact is you will do more damage by underpowering a speaker with a weak amp/receiver than you will with a larger amp. Bass heavy movies/music can suck the life out of a low powered amp/receiver in a very short amount of time. Of course a little common sense is needed when adjusting the volume. A larger amp will allow you to drive the speakers with out clipping (severe distortion), the amp won't over heat and shut down during demanding passages, and overall sound quality will improve if adequate power is available from the amp.

It's hard to say what the exact problem is/was with the Wharfedale speakers without knowing which model you were using. Best guess is that the speakers were...
1) Underpowered.
2) May have been connected out of phase.
3) Not a good match to your receiver.
4) Performing properly but your ears just didn't care for the sound quality.

 

[AaronCushing]

My wife (I'm keeping her, so no, you can't have her!) bought me a receiver for my birthday a couple weeks ago. It's a Kenwwod VR707. Sure, not top of the line, but better than none. It's rated at 100w/channel (one driven). I'm very seriously looking at some Axioms: M22ti for my mains, and probably QS8 for surrounds, and a VP100 center. I'm not sure if my receiver has pre-outs so I could send at least the main RL to an external amp, if it does, I will. But does anyobdy see any problems with driving all those speakers with a 600w receiver?

 

[John Roger]

Not 2 and 4.How are warfedales in general?This one is a black model 4inch midrange and a soft dome fixed at the top."8" style.I don't know which model.It was given as center speaker.Could it be fake?

 

[Mike SJ]

...

 

[John Roger]

Got it! The wharfedale model is vivendi.


"wharfedale.co.uk/vivendi.htm"

Mike, check pm

 

[Mike SJ]

...

 

[Yogi]

More power => bigger balls. Its just like in everything else; Trucks, power tools etc.

But remember in audio twice the power is only nominally louder (3db gain). To be twice as loud you would need 10 times more power (10db gain) and to cover an action movie dynamic range you would need 100 times more power (20db dynamic range)

 

[terence]

Be careful when considering output differences in watts. An amp with 100 watts of output is 20dB louder than an amp with 1 watt of output. It takes a change of 3dB to clearly hear a perceived increase of twice the loudness.



Here are some other amp loudness measurements:


-50 Watts is 17.0dB louder than 1 watt

-75 Watts is 18.8dB louder than 1 watt

-100 Watts is 20.0dB louder

-120 Watts is 20.8dB louder

-150 Watts is 21.8dB louder

-200 Watts is 23.0dB louder



As you can see, the difference between 75 watts and 100 watts is only 1.2dB of acoustical output.

 

[John Roger]

My dealer told me 40W for amp is laughably low.

 

[Drew_W]

I'm pretty sure it does not have preouts. No experience with Axiom speakers, but I'm tempted to say that it will work. It may not be ideal, but it will work. Of course, you're stuck for adding more amps due to the lack of preouts, and that would be the next logical step. However, I know how it is with gifts...