Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio Which amp should i get ?

Have you ever listened to a competition vehicle with 100 watts? Some of them sound excellent. Wattage is not the end all be all in audio. It never has been. 35 watts is more than adequate to acheive high quality sound.

BTW, how do you explain the loyal following of 3-10 watt SET amps? Are you saying that they do not produce deep bass?

I never changed what I was saying at any point. And our musical tastes could vary. I don't listen to country, if you do, we don't really overlap. If you listen to anything else, chances are, that I also do.

I knew i should have bought that 800w pyramid over my lowly powered a/d/s amp :p

Ok.Listen to me. I never said it was the only thing importnant, things like the quialty of the amp(who makes it) the db level as you said, the components used, etc..ANd LIKE I SAID BEFORE 35 watts is enough for it to sound fine, it will sound better than stock, BUT let me just explain this one more time. I work with music, i produce it in my spare time, so i here alot of it and SOUND CLARITY is extremely important to me. i dont care if its loud or slams, to me whats important is quality of sound. NOW 35 watts like i said with a good speaker will sound fine for the common ear,but I like quality and you are not gonna tell me 35 watts is enough to get the most of your speakers while being loud. NO WAY POSSIBLE. end of disscussion.

Well, I guess the discussion has ended...thanks for the pointless debate. I enjoyed myself a great deal. Believe what you will if it makes you happy and you can rest easier at night. I won't try to alter your opinion with any more facts.

I don't know about the rest of the forum readers, but I'm really enjoying this exchange. Ahhh... the classic 'science' versus 'but I know I'm right' debate. :rolleyes:

I think that the real power of the amp besides built quality was the reserves for transients and dynamics. Energy Storage in the CAPS. You can have great fidelity at low volume, but the speakers better be better than 90dB/watt in efficiency.

Is there a chance that a more powerful amp serves its purpose better even if driven at low power, compared to a low power amp driven nearer to its limits?

low power tube amps are mainly used for classical music (chamber) and jazz...I dont think many tubed amps are used for rock music. Everyone knows they wheeze at the low freq.. and distort. That is why some Biamp with solid state for low freq and tubes for high.

Basic question: How much does real life listening in the car tax the amplifiers. I never have my volume set higher than 40-50% and that is with gain all the way down. It would be ear piercing to have any more

At it's limits, the 35 watt amp should be able to compete with the 90 watt amp producing 35 watts, but for very dynamic music such as classical, the 90 watt amp would have a dynamic headroom advantage. How perceptible that would be is hard to say.


The musical taste thing is true, but there are a number of classic rock fans that don't like to get rid of that warm tube sound. There are some who do biamp as you say, but there are more people who just use high effeciency woofer systems with the tube amps. The biggest issue is the price and space involved with making them.


It really doesn't. The average listener driving their speakers to a comfortably loud level, will rarely ever exceed 30 watts or so. If you need excessively loud playback capabilities, than the 100-300 watt per speaker system really shine. Basically, don't expect the 35 watts to produce ear splitting levels with most car audio drivers, but if you use it conjunction with a high effeciency style driver with a compression horn, 35 watts can become painfully loud.

I think you obviously misunderstood me, becuase it seems your the one that relly doesnt know what there talking about. im tired of this nonsense. I have done testing because i am a engineer so i know personally exactlly what you are talking about.BUT what you do not seem to understand is that what readings and numbers the company gives you are usually off, and if its a lower brand name there way off. THAT is why im trying to tell you that the RMS watts along with the "peak power" output is extremelly neccessary. and as ive been saying all along this is only neccessary for people who want a serious sound quality.the average person wont be able to test a amp or piece of electrical eqipment accurretly so they go buy something based on reviews and comments, etc... So for the basic foe,the one thing that they really need to be conserned about is the rms power in general.NOW THIS IS FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT A SEROUS SOUND OUTPUT .this is no nonsesne people, believe me if you want, but ive heard the differnce and there is one.now i think you said your brother has got a ppi amp that puts out 35 or somehting like that. im sure his sounds good becuase he has a good amp, but put a jensen, or pyle , or pyramid, any cheap amp with the same wattage and YOU TELL ME ITS THE SAME!

In my original example, I made sure to state equal quality watts from equal quality amplifiers. I would never say that 30w RMS from a Jensen and 30W from something like a McIntosh are even remotely similar because the clearly are not. That being said, don't you consider the PG to be one of the better amps available? I certainly do.

BTW, My brothers system is in a 1966 Caprice and back about 6-8 years ago, he did pretty well in a 0-100 watts amatuer class (2nd IIRC).

Plus, I am not arguing that the extra wattage is a nice thing to have available. The original comment by you is that it would only work well with 2 speakers (140w x 2 into 4 ohms), I still disagree with that. He would be able to get very good SQ from that amp, his current speakers and a sub in the rear deck. If he ever wanted to upgrade the sub on the amp, he could use this amp to power the 4 door speakers. I just don't understand how you could say that it wouldn't work well? It may not be world competition level, but it is certainly more than competent when compared with the rest of the system mentioned. Can we at least agree on that?

Please enlighten with some specific examples. I'm more than willing to learn if you can provide a source that refutes anything I had to say. You might be able to say that I have been doing this for a little while as well and I'm not afraid to learn something new.