I’m in the market for a new amp and certainly want to match amp output with speaker requirements. My current speakers have a sensitivity rating of 88.5 and the recommended power requirements are 50 - 350 watts.
I’m confused by these specifications and hoping someone can point me to reading material to help me understand. It would seem that at 2.83 watts at 1 meter, the speakers would have a SPL of 88.5 dB and at the recommended minimum power rating of 50 watts, the SPL would exceed 100 dB.
How does speaker sensitivity and power requirements correlate? I’ve read that the minimum power rating is the power needed before the speaker makes any meaningful noise so should I be looking at the calculation as 50 watts at 1 meter the speakers have a SPL of 88.5 dB?
Can’t answer much, but I’d say if the maximum recommended power is, say, 350W, you CAN drive the speakers without damage or clipping drivers with a 350W amp at max gain, given that the amp’s input sensitivity isn’t exceeded.
Below the recommended power, they just won’t likely perform as intended. The recommended power ratings as I understand, aren’t strictly correlated with speaker sensitivity. (As in, not a calculated value, just evaluated at the factory with ears and other parameters)
To figure out how much power you need to drive a speaker, you must also factor in room dimensions, especially how far you sit from the speakers. There are calculators available on line, some others might be able to point you to them.
Power ratings are complicated also, they give you an idea of how much power the speaker will take before damage. Rarely will unclipped music programming damage a speaker, no matter what the power rating. Music is dynamic and most ratings assume a constant signal that does not exist in real world use. I have never seen a speaker fail because of too large an amplifier in the real world of home hifi. It is the clipping that creates damaging heat that blows a voice coil. You will never use an amplifier at max gain. Any amplifier at max gain will produce damaging distortion. The large the amplifier, generally speaking, the less chance it will clip and damage a speaker.
The speakers should be matched to the room first, too small a speaker will not work properly in too large a room and vice versa. I would look the the speaker manufacturer, or a qualified professional to help your quest. There are too many variables to find out the information you want with out reading a high volume of materials along with real world experience.
Most people listen at a level such that the average power used is one watt per channel or less. The reason you need a more powerful amp is to handle dynamic transients in the music without distortion. The European Broadcasting standard says that average level should be 23dB below full scale. That translates to having an amp which can handle 200x your normal listening level. On my desktop system I need a 0.6Wpc amp! On the main system I need 80Wpc to handle party levels, 8Wpc for normal listening.
I do because I want the potentiometer to be less part of the circuit - I don’t have an exclusive Audio Note potentiometer so that’s why it matters. Still, of course I only feed the amp a maximum of 0.3V - its input sensitivity is 0.4V. So won’t damage anything.
You also should find out the lowest impedance of your speakers as that can be a factor. Most of these power handling specs are just a general guideline. When a speaker sensitivity falls below 90dB you may find more power drives the speaker better. Conversely, If you have a small room you may be just fine with a smaller 35-50 watt amp. What’s more important is that you have a good quality amp that won’t clip until it’s past the point of your typical listening levels. It’s a balancing act. But having more power is better than not enough power. Some speakers are really tough loads for amplifiers. Maggie’s for instance can sound ok with 50-100 watts in a small room. But give them a high quality 200-300 amp and they open up and fill the room in a completely different way. Do your homework and see what others who are happy with the same speakers use for amplification.
Arenith, By setting your preamp volume high and using your source as a volume control you are lowering the signal to noise ratio of the overall signal path. If you don’t want to use the preamp volume control eliminate the preamp from the circuit. For proper function you should have a fixed, relatively high signal coming from your source and use the preamp to control the volume. It is much more likely your preamp does a better job at volume control than your source, assuming equivalent quality equipment. If your preamp is not up to the level of the rest of your system I can see why you might not want to use it.
Hmm I trust you are right. I mean, it does sound somewhat “fuller” with the potentiometer maxed (it’s an integrated, Electrocompaniet ECI-1) and the DAC outputting around 0.3V… But I can’t deny it does have an edge of grain to it, although soft.
The ECI-1 is overall a very minimalist circuit design, the pre-stage is I’d say simple and good (even from the looks of it, it’s so minimal that the amp resembles more a power amp with an attenuator), though I have never had an actual preamp…
Would switch to tube monoblocks and preamp, but burn money burn.
I truly appreciate everyone’s answers. However, none of them seem to address my question. I’m not at all concerned about max power or room dimensions. It’s all about minimum power requirements and how this correlates to speaker sensitivity.
From what I know about speaker sensitivity, a 30wpc amp should adequately drive speakers with a sensitivity rating of 88dB to a SPL of >90dB (one meter from the speaker). However, my speaker power requirements are 50 - 350wpc. How does this minimum power requirement play into the equation?
I suspect they quote a range because people’s taste in listening level varies, both individually and in different circumstances. The range probably allows for adequate headroom.
Actually now that I did a direct comparison between pot at max, DAC at 20% (of 1.7V) and then DAC at 100% and same output level turned from pot… I do prefer the pot at max. Yes, the speakers do hiss and hum a bit with no signal this way, but not much. I don’t think the sound is polluted, it’s much softer and more natural.
Now, this scenario is VERY close to exactly matching the DAC voltage to the amp’s input sensitivity, with a little headroom to prevent amp clipping. The volume this way is the highest I can comfortably listen to.
I also noticed… changing gain settings from phono pre, the recommended setting that allowed the pot at clock 9 in the morning for loud playback, was worse sounding than the lowest phono gain with more gain from the amp.
Remember, this IS an Electrocompaniet. I actually emailed them about this and they said I can well keep the pot maxed if I want. They also said the DAC’s attenuation is digitally lossless.
Actually yes, I remember Hans Beekhuyzen saying the same - his experience has often been that the best sound is gotten with source attenuated low (if it has attenuation…) and integrated amplifier turned up to near max.
He didn’t explicitly state any hypothesis why this might be - so I’ll try my luck:
If the source (let’s consider a DAC) is good enough to have very low noise level when attenuated low, there should be no problem when driving its minuscule output into the amplifier who we assume is well-made enough to not have noise ratio issues itself when gain is maxed. Right? Good gear should be sufficient for such playback despite the theoretical problem that noise ratio rises. Should be undetectable, it’s 2022 soon- for me, the benefits in playback are most noticeable with the method.
My guess is that in order to sell pair of speakers, a manufacturer will not want to turn off potential buyers by requiring an amplifier upgrade as well. By saying 50 to 350 watts they pretty much are saying “whatever you have will work, please buy our speakers”. What is optimal? Got a few hundred amps to try?