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Tube Amp lower power vs higher power and cruising volume

After having Solid State my entire life thus far, I bought a PrimaLuna EVO 300 integrated and absolutely love it. I am currently driving 20 year old B&W CDM9NT's and it does a wonderful job, I never heard my B&W's have that much bass before, even at lower listening volumes. The EVO 300 is rated at 42W. Since I recently purchased it I have the option for a brief time without losing money to possibly move up to the EVO 400 integrated which adds 4 more output tubes and gives you 70W. I believe the 300 and 400 both use the same transformer because they both weigh the same 68 lbs. So my only reason for possibly doing this would be for future speaker upgradability having a little more power. I know my B&W's are not the most efficient and the 300 seems to be driving them very well, volume rarely goes past 9:30/10. So my question, if I get a higher power model, since I listen most of the time at comfortable listening levels, with a higher power tube amp will you have to turn it up higher to hit that cruising speed where it starts to open up? The 300 seems to hit that early and I listen at comfortable levels and good extended bass without having to crank it which is nice when I am listening at night and my wife and daughter are sleeping. Overall I am very happy with the 300 but while I have the option I am trying to decide if the extra for a 400 is worth it. Thanks
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Showing 3 responses by atmasphere

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,575 posts
 
Isn’t the Berning amp similar in that neither design has the traditional audio output transformer?
In that regard, yes, since the output transformer used in the Berning is an air-core device.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,575 posts
 
The David Berning stuff is wonderful. I am not sure if these designs are as adverse to lower impedance speakers as other OTL designs seem.
The Berning ZOTL amps are not OTLs by any stretch (read the patent), although a brilliant design nontheless. They have no worries with low impedances.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,575 posts
 
Usually in tube amps (with output transformers) the smaller amps are the better sounding, usually on account of the output transformer, but also in how the power tubes are driven by the driver circuit (by far the lessor variable).


If you don't overload the amp I would see no reason to go for more power! It will just be wasted as heat, and highly unlikely that it would sound better. BTW the KT88s were likely more bright due to distortion rather than the tweeter (which is the same tweeter you were using with the EL34s). This is the same distortion that makes solid state amps bright- higher ordered harmonic distortion. A tiny amount more is audible as the ear uses them to sense sound pressure, so its very sensitive to their presence.
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