To make apple pie a meal add cheddar cheese preferably 5 year aged.
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What time is dinner? 
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I had a pair of triode push-pull. They would have been great if I’d had the ESL63 at the time.
Thanks for the link, SDL! Yes, this SPL Calculator’s computation does provide a more realistic representation of what I Hear/Measure in my own dedicated music room!!! 
Ted
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At best we create the illusion of performance with a “hifi” system. Which to a degree explains the various systems, opinions and descriptions. I’d also suggest the mix creates an illusion of musical presentation that we may “prefer”. There is that and I do believe we hear and perceive music differently.
I am in no way putting down the notion of assembling the best you system(s) you are capable of or that one is more correct than another, just being realistic.
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I’ve been reading the Roon forum for quite some time. There are significantly worst threads then this over there.
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You funny!
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Good Heavens!
The OP’s point about 20 db peaks aside, my measly $0.03 (due to transitory inflation) is that as I turn up the system to 83-85 db or so, I am listening more to the far from perfect, node-filled, basement room than to the speakers. Putting up with room distortion in order to experience the ffff peaks, which may or may not be captured on the recording, is far from satisfying.
At some point in the past, I pushed a pair of Maggie MGII’s (~87 db sensitivity if memory serves) pretty satisfactorily with a C-J 50 watter, though fortified with an outboard power supply of some heft. Maggies also present a pretty consistent 4 ohm load.
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I’m listening to C P E Bach pieces and it’s rattling along at a very pleasant 60 - 65dB.
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I suspect there is an element of truth, although there is a fine line between being polite and sycophancy or idolisation (depending if you’re after a discount).
I’ve owned several pieces, don’t now, may do in the future, who knows, as I don’t buy based on brand names. There is good sharing of thoughts and ideas on this forum but, like you, it doesn’t influence my buying decisions. My buying in recent years has all been though one retail dealer, who does not stock PSA. The last PSA product I bought was a home trial from a former PSA dealer.
There may well be people who never come to this site, see a picture of the speakers in a magazine like Stereophile and buy a pair.
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Thank you, Chris, for that detailed explanation.
Online calculators normally give the total power needed under various circumstances. Stereo amps are normally specified as watts per channel, so the total power they give is double that rating.
On my main system the calculated power to give an 80dB average listening level with 86dB/W/m speakers at a 3m listening distance is almost exactly 1Wpc. Due to room reflections the actual average power drawn at that level is 0.66Wpc. If you use the European Broadcasting Standard which specifies that average signal level should be 23dB below full scale you need an amp which is 200x more powerful than your average listening level to allow for dynamic peaks (the American standard is actually -24dBFS, but I think they must have had a Texan on the committee!). That translates to an amp with about 150Wpc. If I increased the listening distance to 5m and the average listening level to 85dB then I would need an amp of over 1000Wpc, so the OP was in the right ballpark.
How do so many of us manage with relatively puny amps? We listen at levels lower than 85dB, our listening seat is closer than 5m to the speakers, and 23dB musical peaks occur very rarely and briefly (I have never recorded more than 22dB except with electronic ‘whine and click’ music).
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Chris, that’s great stuff, but surely your calculations assume an open space. Sitting 5m away in most rooms that large would put you close to the rear wall and you would be listening much more to the room than close by, so the increase in power needed would be much less than to1000w.
That said, I hit on 150-200w as being the maximum required for 86db Harbeth, using valves, stereo and mono Quad amps and a couple of others.
Please point to a comment in this thread where someone from PS Audio “blew off” the OP (or was otherwise discourteous, etc.)
The fact is, the OP inspired a pretty informative dialogue regarding the new speakers. However, one man’s observed “dismissiveness” is another man’s differing opinion.
Best regards.
Well I already have but here you go:
(See next post, not sure how to quote twice in same post)
Whether it was someone from PSA or not (no idea) it’s a frequent comment that never gets admonished. You asked. This was very early in thread before it devolved
This ^^^^
It implies the only ones who can question the speakers are those who intend to buy. I called it out as ridiculous at the time
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Time to clamp this cave shut.
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The online calculators for required power do assume that there is no reflected sound. However if you re-read my post you will notice that I sneakily switched from a calculated power value to a measured one, and then used that value thereafter. That took account of reflections in my room, but only in my room. There are so many variables involved in calculating required amp power. Speaker efficiency. Distance from speakers, Room reflections. Normal listening level. Amount of headroom allowed (for example if you listen predominantly to modern compressed pop/rock you only need about 10dB). Ideally you need to measure it yourself rather than calculating it.
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