Salonchi
Established Member
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- Dec 18, 2012
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I am considering separating out my home cinema from stereo music setup, which would leave me needing a stereo power amp. I’ve always been a bit of a bigger is better thinker, but it has been dawning on me, after many years, that there might be some science in play!
The stereo components I have in place are Lumin T2 streaming Dac, and Amphion 3LS speakers. Current sharing an Anthem 525 Gen 2 (225W per channel) power amp with the home cinema setup. I use tidal and qobuz through roon for almost all of my music listening.
Lumin recommend is using the balanced XLR out, which provides 6Vrms. (RCA is available at 2Vrms)
The Amphion 3LS spec sheet on the web states, 50-150w recommended and the sticker on the speaker itself states 200W max. The speakers have a reasonably low sensitivity at 85db.
I generally listen at 75db max and often closer to 70db. If I started looking at some online calculators, it seems that a 50watt amplifier would would blast my head off with >93db.
So, it’s got me thinking that I shouldn’t be looking at 200w amps because they would hardly need to come out of standby mode, but I’ve always had in my head that watts equals quality, not volume necessarily, and headroom is good.
I am also pretty sure that I don’t want integrated. I like the ease of using roon with the leedh volume control. Though I did briefly consider the Lyngdorf for room perfect, but that definitely seem to defeat the of having such an expensive DAC.
I’m interested in people’s thoughts and to be educated on buying power amps. Usually I try to narrow my options based on specs and second values and then let my ears make the decision, but it feels that I am limiting my options if I start with a premise of >175watts. At the same time, I don’t want to get an amp that doesn’t make the most of the entry and exit points of the system.
The stereo components I have in place are Lumin T2 streaming Dac, and Amphion 3LS speakers. Current sharing an Anthem 525 Gen 2 (225W per channel) power amp with the home cinema setup. I use tidal and qobuz through roon for almost all of my music listening.
Lumin recommend is using the balanced XLR out, which provides 6Vrms. (RCA is available at 2Vrms)
The Amphion 3LS spec sheet on the web states, 50-150w recommended and the sticker on the speaker itself states 200W max. The speakers have a reasonably low sensitivity at 85db.
I generally listen at 75db max and often closer to 70db. If I started looking at some online calculators, it seems that a 50watt amplifier would would blast my head off with >93db.
So, it’s got me thinking that I shouldn’t be looking at 200w amps because they would hardly need to come out of standby mode, but I’ve always had in my head that watts equals quality, not volume necessarily, and headroom is good.
I am also pretty sure that I don’t want integrated. I like the ease of using roon with the leedh volume control. Though I did briefly consider the Lyngdorf for room perfect, but that definitely seem to defeat the of having such an expensive DAC.
I’m interested in people’s thoughts and to be educated on buying power amps. Usually I try to narrow my options based on specs and second values and then let my ears make the decision, but it feels that I am limiting my options if I start with a premise of >175watts. At the same time, I don’t want to get an amp that doesn’t make the most of the entry and exit points of the system.