Is there advantage in more watts, uneed?

My subject didn't fit in the space limits of the subject field, so it should read: Is there an advantage in having a higher output amp vs. amp with output exactly the same as your speaker's rated power handling ability?

Lets say, a 100 wrms speaker is powered by a 100 wrms amp. Will a 125 wrms amp have any advantage over the 100 wrms amp? Difference in volume would be inaudible, but is there anything else to consider? If not, then we can also say that a 75 wrms amp is practically exactly the same as our reference 100 wrms amp on the 100 wrms speaker?

Um...higher power amp will run cooler...doesn't have to work as hard to output same amount of power...25 watts is hardly an audible difference

Yes there is an advantage, it's called head room.  This means you can operate the amp at the proper levels for the speakers it is driving without maxing it out.  It requires careful setup and operation so you don't blow your speakers, but when done correctly will result in very clean sound.

-------------
Support the12volt.com

DYohn] wrote:

---

Yes there is an advantage, it's called head room. This means you can operate the amp at the proper levels for the speakers it is driving without maxing it out. It requires careful setup and operation so you don't blow your speakers, but when done correctly will result in very clean sound.

---

Maxing it out as in running the amp at its rated continous power output? Why is it bad?

vbel][ wrote:

---

UOTE=DYohn] Yes there is an advantage, it's called head room. This means you can operate the amp at the proper levels for the speakers it is driving without maxing it out. It requires careful setup and operation so you don't blow your speakers, but when done correctly will result in very clean sound.

---

Maxing it out as in running the amp at its rated continous power output? Why is it bad?[/QUOTE]

The more you demand from an amp the more noise you get.  Plus if you "run" at the rated output, a transient is more likely to put you into clipping and that also sounds bad.  Yes it can be bad.

-------------
Support the12volt.com

I would add that if you are putting that much power to your speakers, you are then running into the realm of taking your speakers past their thermal limits. Hence DYohn's "requires careful setup and operation".

-------------
The Flakman
I feel strange. I have deja vu and amnesia at the same time.

John | Manteca, CA

Will it help bass response since it requires more watts?

Regardless of the type of speaker, going past thermal limits will eventually result in burned out voice coils (unless box config and other factors cause over excursion first). It's good to match, but I think in general, running a little less than rated wattage for the speakers being used will not cause that much of a sound (loudness) difference. It can give you the headroom to run the amp cooler and cleaner if setup correctly. But it would be very easy to cross that line and get into the area of pushing past what the speaker can handle.

-------------
The Flakman
I feel strange. I have deja vu and amnesia at the same time.

John | Manteca, CA

Been through this topic once or twice before.

I too am a believer in "headroom", but as stated by DYohn, correct setup is critical.

Also note that theoretically it takes twice the power (or number of speakers) to produce a 3decibel gain in audible output. A gain of 10db is noted to be "twice as loud". You would need to go from a 100watt amp to a 200watt amp to see a 3db gain, of course there would be no point if the woofer could not handle the power thermally or mechanically.

For the sake of discussion, if you wanted the sub to produce twice the output, it would take going from a 100watt amp to almost 1000watts. Not to say you couldn't use a 100 watt amp on a sub rated for 1000w, but simply to make the point. However, put 1000watts to the 100watt sub, and most likely you will experience damage in a fairly short time. So IMO, the difference you will notice betwen a 100w amp, and a 125 watt amp, will be slight, if any, all else being equal and setup properly.

-------------