power vs. sound

Posted by SMR [WizOp] [IP: 194.128.83.228] on August 09, 1999 at 22:11:12
Using Mozilla/4.5 [en] (Win98; I):

In Reply to: power vs. sound posted by Shawn Harvey on August 09, 1999 at 18:01:54:

Shawn,

Let's not confuse power output and available current.

You're quite right about loudspeakers not being a static load (like a test lab resistor) and they're not fed sine waves in normal use. The impedance of a loudspeaker can vary a great deal across the audio spectrum and an 8ohm load can dip down to as little as 2ohms.

This is where current plays a part. A high current amplifier, such as the ADA I'm listening to at the moment should be able to maintain a constant wattage into a wildly varying load or, what is a difficult load to begin with. If we look at many mass market designs, either their physical or design structure often prevents this.

So yes, you're right, wattage does play a part, but I'd venture to say that available current is equally important, if not more so.

Joseph Audio manufactures some excellent loudspeakers (I've known Jeff Joseph for a long time) and you're right to keep 'em. Bryston manufacture some excellent amplifiers, I'll bet they'll make a good match.

Stuart.

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