@robeffy IME, although McIntosh, as Levinson, has always worked well with B&W, these two brands (power amps in this case), sound nothing alike...Based on the autoformer design used in the output stage of the 462, which is a Mac "thing" with solid state(output transformers dominate in tube amps, with a few exceptions of OTL), they have a sound that many prefer, and many who do not. When listening to the 462, hopefully it will be through a set of B&W models, close to yours. The best thing you can do, is pay to borrow/rent one, for a week, in your system, if you even need that much time with it to decide. It will be yay or nay. That is the way it is, and everyone on this site, knows it. My best, MrD.
High power amp, does it matter at low volumes?
Hi, I am powering a pair of B&W 802 D2 speakers, and wonder about high wattage amps.
I have read that you need high power ratings, and preferably something the 'doubles down', ie 300 wpc at 8 ohms, 600 at 4 ohms etc.
Since most of the time I listen to my music at low volumes, nowhere near 1/2 power ( usually 17-20 on my preamp out of a possible 80 ), would I benefit from buying a more powerful amp?
I am using a ML 522H ( home theatre amp ) with 300 wpc at 8 ohms, unrated for anything lower.
To summarize the question, is there an advantage to buying an amp that A) is higher powered ( given my low volume listening levels) and B) that doubles down into 4 or even 2 ohms ( again, given my low volume listening levels ).
Thanks in advance, and looking forward to suggested amps as well.
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My understanding is that the most important amplifier parameter (apart from distortion, maximum power to avoid clipping which is not important at low volumes) is damping factor: with a high damping factor the response becomes tighter (less "bouncing"). Typically, high damping factor needs a high power amplfier (but it's not a 1:1 relationship!) |
@carlosezarate Damping factor has little to do with the performance of an amplifier. |
@carlosezarate the speaker cables, the crossover, the wiring inside the speaker and the voice coils will swamp the output impedance of the amplifier by far. |
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