is power = quality?

[Anonymous]

wife was in a good mood this morning, so told her I need to upgrade my amp to a used musical fidelity A5 integrated (£700-£800)

Flippin Heck! ... all Hell broke loose as I recently paid to refurbish my amp ...

anyway, I will pretend to sulk for a few days until she gives in (so am searching ebay) ... works every time

 

[matthewpiano]

Was the MF really that much better than your Pioneer?

 

[Anonymous]

matthewpiano:Was the MF really that much better than your Pioneer?

yes ... in a total different class and will be a massive upgrade... works very well with my current speakers and cdp ...

I will continue to slowly upgrade ....

hoping to get a pair of IMF TLS80 speakers plus a good cdp aswell once I have the Musical Fidelity...

hopefully that will be my last upgrades for a very long time (and may also look at another interconnect) ... I am very happy with my speaker cables...

will keep my Pioneer for a 2nd system as it is pretty good...

once I have this system, will stop auditioning as that is where the problem lies .... you hear something really good and makes your current system sound bad (that's why I never went to the hifi show .... but was tempted)

 

[the record spot]

I doubt it's as simple as the absolute "power = quality", but I know from my own experience that while the Sansui 217 amp I had used for a few months did a good job of driving the Mission 752s, the arrival of the 717 was a different story entirely. A whole new presentation opened up for me on listening and I think this is down to the extra watts as well as build. 85wpc v 30wpc makes a difference IMO.

However, that said, there are many examples out there of highly efficient speakers being driven by a 5w valve amp and sounding fabulous. Admittedly, this is at high the high ticket end of the market, while at the more budget end of the market, there aren't many 5w valve amps going out there to drive anything with!

As ever, if only the truth matched the absolutes, it would be so much easier!

 

[SHAXOS]

Yeah baby! Its ALL about the POWER!!!! WOOO!

 

[Anonymous]

When i auditioned my 36 watt sugden amp, i also auditioned the lower powered but twice the price 16 watt sugden amp ( same series, design, build ). The 16 watt amp was better at lower and higher levels, but did tend to heat up rather hot ( and i mean hot ), so i wouldn,t always say that watts = power, far from it.

 

[Anonymous]

johnnyjazz:

When i auditioned the 36 watt sugden amp, i also auditioned the lower powered but twice the price 16 watt sugden amp ( same series, design, build ). The 16 watt amp was better at lower and higher levels, but did tend to heat up rather hot ( and i mean hot ), so i wouldn,t always say that watts = power, far from it.

 

[jaxwired]

Let me add my totally useless opinion. Here it is. Dooes power = quality? I have no idea.

However, I will say that when I went from the 80w NAD C355 to the 140w QUAD 909 and the much more powerful NAD C275, my system sounded better. Of course, these amps diifer in far more than just power.

Given the choice, I would always buy the most powerful amp I can afford in the line I'm interested in. What I mean is, given 3 different brands of amp, I'm not going to just pick the most powerful one, but once I decide which brand I'm going with, THEN, I want the most powerful one in that line of amps.

 

[Craig M.]

so when are you getting the 28b's?

 

[jaxwired]

Craig M.:so when are you getting the 28b's?

LOL. Busted. Caught in my own web of contradictions.

Well cost is a factor also....I'm not a millionaire....

 

[smuggs]

i had 2 amps from the 1970's and one was 25w per channel into 8ohms and the other 40w run a pair of tdl bookshelfs the 40w sound awful as you only touched the volume knob and it was loud but the 25w amp you got to get it to the 11o'clock postion and it sounded better. so power many be better,but he main thing i have found is to get the right amp for the job. I have the arcam alpha 9 and my speakers are driven with ease so maybe i could be better with the alpha 7. Cause so amps need alot of current through the parts to get the best.

 

[Anonymous]

smuggs:i had 2 amps from the 1970's and one was 25w per channel into 8ohms and the other 40w run a pair of tdl bookshelfs the 40w sound awful as you only touched the volume knob and it was loud but the 25w amp you got to get it to the 11o'clock postion and it sounded better. so power many be better,but he main thing i have found is to get the right amp for the job. I have the arcam alpha 9 and my speakers are driven with ease so maybe i could be better with the alpha 7. Cause so amps need alot of current through the parts to get the best.

to simplify and put it in in motorcar terms, comparing a 25w amp to a 40w amp (not talking about Class A or valve amps) is like comparing a 1400cc car to a 1600cc car ...

what I was refering to is comparing a 1400cc car to a 3 litre (40w to 150 watts +)

 

[Anonymous]

aliEnRIK:

More powerful amps also tend to have a better dynamic range (low to high frequencies)

The (bracketed) part of your post is incorrect.