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Is there any truth to this question?

Will a lower powered amp that can drive your speakers, in your room, listening to the music you like sound better than using a powerful amp to avoid clipping?

Here's the scenario: Use a 50 w YBA amp to drive 86 db efficient Vandersteens in a 10 x 12 room, listening to jazz or

Will a 200 w Krell or such sound better and more effortless.

Some say buy all the power you can afford and others say the bigger amps have more component pairs ie) transistors to match and that can effect sound quality.
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Showing 1 response by grannyring

grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,436 posts
 
Regardless of the speaker's sensitivity I have found not driving your amp too hard and having more power and headroom available is a very good thing. In my current rig a highly touted 70 watt tube amp was displaced by a Hybrid amp with 4 times the power. The more powerful amp was not taxed as much, and I think since it was not pushed, just sang with more ease and pleasure.

Extra watts and headroom can be a very good thing especially with large orchestral music and the like. Same is true for solo piano turned up to louder volumes.
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