I have a 50 Watt amp and I’m very happy with how loud it can play. But what would it mean if I’d hook my amp to a big poweramp? Would I notice any difference in sound? What do you think?
Klassik had been using a 30 wpc @ 8 ohms vintage amplifier for the past couple of years until Klassik swapped that out for a 100 wpc @ 8 ohms amplifier that Klassik also had on hand. Klassik cannot say that the additional power of the bigger amp is really needed. The 30 wpc amplifier was more than sufficient for Klassik's needs even with highly dynamic classical music CD/SACD recordings where quiet passages can very quickly give way to loud tuttis with percussion and everything else.
That said, the other day Klassik was listening to a CD that has clavichord music tracks mixed in with organ music tracks. Klassik's initial plan was to turn up the volume on the clavichord tracks and then turn it back down for the organ tracks to have an even listening experience, but the liner notes for the recommended listening to the CD with the same volume throughout to get the natural feel for the clavichord. Ok, fair enough Klassik thought. Knowing which amplifier was installed, Klassik decided to listen to turn it up such that the organ parts were very loud and the clavichord parts were passably loud enough.
While bookshelf speakers, even large ones, without a subwoofer are hardly the ideal setup for organ music, Klassik was quite pleased with how everything sounded all things considered. It's probably the most realistic sounding reproduction of organ music Klassik has heard at Kasa Klassik without the use of a subwoofer. Klassik cannot say for sure without trying, but Klassik has some doubts Klassik could have replicated that same experience on the 30 wpc amplifier. Of course, most people aren't listening to organ music loudly like this so this is a rather extreme example of where a more powerful amplifier might be beneficial.
Isn't that something to do with speakers getting less & less efficient? Or, manufacturers recommending higher & higher power outputs to drive them?
One of the more interesting speakers to come out here in the last few months, in the US at least, are the Ascend Acoustics Sierra-LX 'bookshelf' speakers. For those who don't know, Ascend Acoustics is a direct-to-customer speaker company here in the US who assembles their speakers, even their budget offerings, in California. It's quite a respected brand here in the US. but Klassik reckons they are largely unknown outside this country due to their distribution model. Anyway, the Sierra-LX is one of Ascend Acoustics new speakers designed with the aid of a Klippel NFS which uses SEAS drivers in a very ordinary rear-ported cabinet to achieve a listed frequency response of 28 Hz-23 kHz. The price is $1500 USD/pair.
In all the marketing statements Ascend has with these speakers, they do make this claim:
Ascend Acoustics said:
The only sacrifice made is with sensitivity, thus the LX will require a bit more power than typical - but with today's affordable high powered amplifiers, this is not an issue.
https://ascendacoustics.com/collections/sierra-series-pairs/products/sierra-lx-pair
Klassik knows not what to make of that statement. On the one hand, it seems that these days, so many people are using little Chi-Fi tube amps, little Class D amps, AVRs with rather optimistic power output ratings, and things like that. For those people, that comment from Ascend Acoustics seems rather questionable. OTOH, perhaps those truly interested in small speakers with exceptional low-end performance are the kind who would be using larger amplifiers anyway. Well, presumably that is who Ascend Acoustics is marketing these speakers to at least. Perhaps Ascend Acoustics figures those with small amplifiers will buy other speakers with higher sensitivity and those with AVRs are not interested in speakers with good low-end performance since they'll likely be using subwoofers anyway. These speakers seem to be marketed to a pretty niche crowd of 2-channel music listeners with large amps.