SugarMedia said:
Fair enough response if you're speaking about tubes; but with speakers of anything less than 95dB efficiency (Aeons are 89db) it is a fact that amplifiers with less than 200 wpc are clipping (and that means distortion and non-linearities) frequently.
hey Sugar Man, I think you've been drinking too much Mountian Dew to make such a foolish statement like that !! ???? My Vantage's are less than 95db efficient and if you think for one minute they put a strain on my Plinius SA-102 your nuts !!!
I agree and disagree
The above numbers are measurements of Sound Pressure Level at one meter, normally weighted around a particular frequency based on human hearing. Research has shown that to create what is perceptibly a doubling of sound (twice as loud), the SPL needs to increase by 10dB. A 3dB increase in SPL represents a doubling of acoustic power, and a 10dB increase represents ten times the acoustic power. If (big if) you assume that the speakers are 100% efficient at converting electrical power to acoustic power, then to make them sound twice as loud as the rating above you need roughly 10 watts of continuous power. The more efficient speaker above will be louder at that level than the less efficient speaker. Ten or twenty watts is plenty, right?
Where the above falls down is in transient demands. These ratings are based on a steady pink/white noise, as opposed to dynamic music. The
instantaneous power demands could be much higher, which is where clipping becomes an issue. This is where the amplifier's
peak power rating comes into play. A 200wpc amp with a peak of 400wpc is a different animal than a 200wpc amp with a peak of 2000wpc. The latter is what we mean when referring to "headroom" in a system - how high can a peak power demand go before it clips...
For the Plinius as described above (actually for the 103, couldn't find specs for the 102), the rated continuous output is 125wpc. If this was it's hard limit, then it could play peaks roughly four times louder than the average level at 1watt/meter (e.g. - either 109 or 115 dB using the speakers above). Luckily, Plinius and other quality manufacturers have substantial momentary peak power handling in their amps above the continuous power rating.
Few of us sit within one meter of our speakers, so the power requirements are that much higher to achieve these sound pressure levels at our listening position, which is probably closer to three meters.
