Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site

Only so much can be gained from thinking about speaker/amp matching in the abstract. At some point we have to decide what’s most important to us, personally. I think the idea of a “comfort zone” for given amps and speakers is objective to a point, and then it also becomes a personal decision. It seems to me that the “objective facts” of amplifier power requirements are that exponential increases in power are required for “linear” increases in speaker output, including so-called “nominal” increases in output power. Meanwhile, most amps and speakers are decidedly non-linear in terms of response, in terms of both power and frequency, as a given driver also responds one way with low amp power and another way as amp power increases. Multiple drivers and crossovers only complicate these issues; they certainly do not “solve” them, en totale. Factoring in to speaker/amp decisions are choice of Music, personal expectations, and limitations imposed by “outside” circumstances. Of all these things, I think the most overlooked “objective” issue is keeping speakers and amps “comfortable” at all times during listening sessions. It takes listening in a certain way to hear the “comfort factor”, but I am pretty sure most people who are at all interested to try it could pick it up easily enough. It is unusual to hear Big Music played forcefully without strain, not to mention that not everyone has any use for this capability, in the first place. I think it is even rarer to hear Music via a system that maintains Musical balance and composure from the softest to and through the most bombastic passages.>>

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Paul S>>

Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site