How many watts do you really need?
According to the president of D'Agostino, he and others make amps that are way more watts than any of us will ever need and almost none of them stay in class A very long.
When I heard the Gryphon Apex at an audio show, I thought the Sonics could be my end game…until I saw the 100k price tag. Class A in SS can get very hot with more watts. Sliding bias SS amps run much cooler, but are somewhat expensive and usually out of budget. I have a second system with 100db speakers to discover class a tube magic beginning with flea watt SET amps. Trying to keep a lid on spending as I explore. |
It just occurred to me, but I'm not sure if VU meters in general are useful because they show the average, and therefore will never tell you the peak which is what we're trying to discover. |
@blackbird55 there aren't any amplifiers that have 600 watts of class A power, at least not statically biased class A. |
Some meters have a 'peak hold' feature, others have a fast response/slow return so it's easier to see values and peaks. You can also find 'peak' or 'max' on SPL meters, and calculate from your 'avg' (to ascertain how many watts were needed for those peaks based loosely on your speaker's sensitivity.
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Amazon Prime Day (3 days) starts today. Been thinking of anything? That meter was $149. yesterday; $119. today. I called, asked, skip the return/order, just give me a $30. refund. they replied, return the 1st one, order the second one, they cannot deviate from their process. That's 3x shipping, they don't care. |
