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Does amp power affect speakers sound quality?

ra7c7er

ra7c7er

Hoarding records since 1990
First, It took me several tries to get a title for this thread. I couldn't figure out how to correctly ask my question without explaining it.

I have a pair of JBL LX500 speakers they are rated for 10-150 watts. My "amp" is a Fisher 122 stereo/receiver that pushes at best 25 watts per channel.

My question is since I am on the low end of the watts scale would the sound quality benefit from an external amp. Perhaps boosting the received power to somewhere between 75-125 watts?

I'm not really looking for louder as I live in an apartment complex so the volume never goes above 3-4.
 
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I think most of us would say yes, in your situation, an amp with more power is likely to sound better even at lower levels. If you had more efficient speakers it could be different.
 
Common sense comes into play here, in that the amp power will likely affect the sound quality if the amp power becomes a limitation.

I would say the biggest potential for improvement is on the low-end, where you are more likely to use up your available power. Going from an amp that is being pushed to near it's limits to one that has a good amount of available headroom usually results in tighter bass, with more punch.

Hard to say if your amp is a limitation in your situation; "3-4" is meaningless without context. Though I can't personally imagine having only 25watts to work with.
 
I think the general idea of more power (other than higher top volume) is that a higher-powered amplifier has more reserve to handle transient loads. So a lower-output amplifier may do just fine, never straining to supply demand, until a fairly loud transient demand hits it, and then it sags (if it has reached its maximum ability to provide power).

In my youth, people used to tell me that this type of distortion caused by lower-powered amplifiers being pushed too hard was what really caused speaker damage, as opposed to too much power. However, I'm only repeating what I've heard over the years, I can't say it is a fact.

Without knowing how near your smaller receiver is to its top end in terms of ability to provide clean output, I guess it would be hard to answer the question. As noted above, more efficient speakers would produce a higher volume for the same output power, perhaps putting you in the safe range assuming you're not there now.

Experimentation might be the way to go with this, perhaps by borrowing a higher-powered amp or receiver and simply trying it out to see if you hear a difference in sound quality.

I have high-powered amps (100+ watts) and lower-powered amps (10 watts) and I haven't noticed too much problem with either one, but like you, I do not listen at high volume. So the higher powered amps are probably idling most of the time when I use them.
 
If you aren't currently using all the available power you have, and you still have reserve left, a bigger amp wouldn't make any difference. Now if you are at times hitting the limits, than yes, a bigger amp will sound cleaner.

It's kind of like having a car that you never have to floor because you have plenty of power. Adding a supercharger wouldn't really wouldn't benefit you. But if you have a car that isn't fast enough, than yeah, adding a supercharger would equal more fun!
 
Depends on the amp. Some lower-powered amps sound great, some higher-powered ones not so much. With some brands the sweet spot seems to be in the middle. However, some people try to make that latter statement almost universally applicable, while I tend to believe that two words should usually be avoided in audio discussions: "always" and "never."

My 35wpc NAD C 740 receiver sounds very, very good to my ears, but I wouldn't use it for Maggies, Quad ESLs or very inefficient loudspeakers. My big Adcom GFA-5500 and 5503 sound great with pretty much any speaker, which is one advantage of a good high-powered amp; they're ready for just about anything. I'm hanging on to that NAD, though.
 
More power will usually give more control over the bass, so it will be tighter with more kick to it and the drums...

But it depends... Watts aren't all made the "same", current is an important factor, manufacturers distort specs (100 watts at 1khz is not the same 100 watts at 20hz-20khz), so much other stuff comes into play to. Also distortion levels should be taken into account 100 watts at 1%THD is not the same 100 watts at 0.003%THD.
 
Thanks guys, I have noticed that the bass is a bit muddier than when I use my Sansui SP-1000's which are rated much closer to the available power (Sansui's are 50 watts max). That being said I don't have any issues with clipping or anything even with more bass heavy music and overall the JBL's sound better than the Sansui's.

I will see if I can't find a decent 50-60 watt amp that is in my budget.
 
Yes.

Type of power
Amount of power
Quality of power
Character of power

In that order

Lots of great choices on Barter Town.
 
ra7c7er said:
First, It took me several tries to get a title for this thread. I couldn't figure out how to correctly ask my question without explaining it.

I have a pair of JBL LX500 speakers they are rated for 10-150 watts. My "amp" is a Fisher 122 stereo/receiver that pushes at best 25 watts per channel.

My question is since I am on the low end of the watts scale would the sound quality benefit from an external amp. Perhaps boosting the received power to somewhere between 75-125 watts?

I'm not really looking for louder as I live in an apartment complex so the volume never goes above 3-4.
Click to expand...
Forget power and first think in terms of "how good" or "how clean" is that power. I was at a friends home, a tube fan, and his amps (mono blocks) were rated under 50 watts, and likely wasn't driving them more than 1-5 (peaks). Sound was wonderful. Could have turned up the volume a tad more, but there was no need. I rarely run more than 1-5 watts at home, one receiver is rated 75wpc, the other 175wpc. Power on tap? Sure I agree, but for different purposes and reasons. Not befitting your circumstances.
 
ra7c7er said:
Thanks guys, I have noticed that the bass is a bit muddier than when I use my Sansui SP-1000's which are rated much closer to the available power (Sansui's are 50 watts max). That being said I don't have any issues with clipping or anything even with more bass heavy music and overall the JBL's sound better than the Sansui's.

I will see if I can't find a decent 50-60 watt amp that is in my budget.
Click to expand...
This sounds more like a speaker efficiency and engineering/sound design issue more than just a power issue. A speaker may be more sensitive and play louder but that doesn't mean they will soud better.

Secondly, can you even connect an external power amp to your unit? Does it have preamp outs?
 
I think everybody's said it, but I'll rephrase it again. Let's say you had two amplifiers that both reproduced signals with near perfection, but one was 7 watts and the other 700. As long as you weren't clipping or distorting the 7 watt amp, they'd sound identical. The current business matters but insufficient current will just result in clipping or distortion.

The problem is that you never find amplifiers of wildly different power outputs with identical characteristics within their operating envelope. Often low powered amps have capacitively coupled outputs and or quasi-complimentary circuitry. They tend not to over build the power supplies like larger amps. They tend not to have the wide flat response and low THD over the whole audio range. Naturally there are exceptions to every rule.

IMO, with a bigger amp what you're really buying in terms of improved sound quality is just a better amp design, built to a higher standard. I'd be looking for something in the 60-100 w/ch region, with a good reputation for both sound quality and reliability.
 
Possibly not an issue where you need more power but a different amp or amp design. My main system used a 50 watt amp and now I use a 20 watt amp. Just have to make sure you do not clip on peak dynamics. In fact a lower powerwd amp may prlduce less distortion than a higher powered one in the average power range because of the typical distortion vs power characroristics.

Do not worry too much about power ratings listed for speakers as most are meaningless. Your ears will tell you when there is is a problem if you listen.

There also is a thing called synergy. After comparing all the objective numbers sometimes it is just somehow certain components are magical when mated with others while others are just the opposite.

The Fisher 122 from memory was a 1st gen ss import from Japan after Fisher sold out. It may have a capacitor coupled output that tends to soften the bass, similar to classkc tube amps. Check and if so, you may want to look for a direct coupled output amp as a starting place. They tend as a very general rule to seem to have a tighter bass. Also amps with higher dampening factors tends towards faster bass but there is some diagreement as to at what point it becomes a nonfactor. MCIntosh years ago did tests and determined 40 was the max.
 
To me, it's headroom. You need reserves of power (mostly current) to help handle big transients, big drums, canons, etc. Every time I have added power to my Infinities, they just get better sounding. Not new speakers, just bigger power to run them :)
 
[flameproof underwear engaged] Actually people have had very little success in identifying amps in DBTs. I recently worked on a high end amp and compared it to a little DIY thing I had built. Small but adequate filter caps, darlington outputs, primitive non-diff input stage. Simple and cheap.

I was amazed at the sonic differences; the high end amp had more and tighter bass, a more realistic midrange and better top end. It was proof that big heavy over-designed high end amps were superior.

Or was it? When I tried to figure out what the real differences were, I followed a long path of eliminating bias, speaker placement issues, cable issues and gain differences. When all was said and done, there was no sonic difference at all.

I've had similar experiences when comparing wires, different conductor types and capacitors.

Thus, be careful about your conclusions. The brain is pre-wired to trip us up on audio comparisons and most perceived differences end up being BS.
 
ConradH said:
[flameproof underwear engaged] Actually people have had very little success in identifying amps in DBTs. I recently worked on a high end amp and compared it to a little DIY thing I had built. Small but adequate filter caps, darlington outputs, primitive non-diff input stage. Simple and cheap.

I was amazed at the sonic differences; the high end amp had more and tighter bass, a more realistic midrange and better top end. It was proof that big heavy over-designed high end amps were superior.

Or was it? When I tried to figure out what the real differences were, I followed a long path of eliminating bias, speaker placement issues, cable issues and gain differences. When all was said and done, there was no sonic difference at all.

I've had similar experiences when comparing wires, different conductor types and capacitors.

Thus, be careful about your conclusions. The brain is pre-wired to trip us up on audio comparisons and most perceived differences end up being BS.
Click to expand...

Could your Small DIY amp power a set of low-ohm speakers (4-6 ohm range)
like Maggies or Martin Logans as efficiently as the large, overbuilt "high end" amp?

For me, my choice of speakers dictated my amps.

MC30s were to LaScalas as the MC2500 were to the Martin Logan electrostats.
If I tried to swap the amps, the MC2500 would be overkill for the efficient
Klipsch, while the MC30s has no chance at powering the stats to a satifying
sonic level.

Although I'm comparing tubes to SS, the point is about the amp having enough
headroom to not break a sweat during sound reproduction.
 
foonsped said:
Could your Small DIY amp power a set of low-ohm speakers (4-6 ohm range)
like Maggies or Martin Logans as efficiently as the large, overbuilt "high end" amp?

For me, my choice of speakers dictated my amps.

MC30s were to LaScalas as the MC2500 were to the Martin Logan electrostats.
If I tried to swap the amps, the MC2500 would be overkill for the efficient
Klipsch, while the MC30s has no chance at powering the stats to a satifying
sonic level.

Although I'm comparing tubes to SS, the point is about the amp having enough
headroom to not break a sweat during sound reproduction.
Click to expand...

Maybe, maybe not, but operated within some defined envelope where the amps are able to reproduce the signal properly, they'd sound the same. Certainly the amp has to be capable of driving the desired load to the desired amplitude, and that's probably the main criteria for selection, along with reliability, cost and what you can stand to look at.
 
Generally speaking, when a company states the Minimum Amp Power for its speakers, they make it high enough to satisfy most customers, after all, they want you to be happy with their speakers. This Minimum power is based on the speakers Sensitivity, Nominal Impedance (Current Requirements), and an In Room SPL of their choosing, often about 95 db's.

The 10 wpc Minimum Recomended by JBL would produce about the 95 db's in room I suggested if they have a sensitivity of 90 db/w @ 1 Meter, which while hardly concert levels, is still pretty darn loud. Your 25 wpc, is enough power for most even operated at 1/2 power, Now its a question of Quality, not Quantity. I'd take a 32 wpc Leben or the 30 wpc Pass Lab's Integrated Amp over a bunch of Vintage and New Amps of Any Power Level for your speakers unless you need high SPL's.
 
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