why are people so hung up on power.

[i6s1]

Power is nowhere near as important as people think. Sound is rated on the dB scale. Each graduation of ten dB's means that there is a 10x increase of the amount of energy per unit area reaching the human eardrum. 3 dBs is around double the power.

All this means that 300 watts versus 600 watts is only an increase of around 3 dBs. Most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference, unless the 2 were played back to back.

Another neat thing is that power reaching your ear drops proportionally to the cube of the distance. Cutting in half the distance between you and your speaker increases the volume more then 4 dBs.

So if you have the choice between sitting closer and a more powerfull amp, sit closer.

People never use the top end on their equipment anyways. How often do you have your dial set to '10'? The only dial that gets all the way up is my CSW computer speakers. At 7 watts each. Even that is too loud for everything except for filling the house with music for a party.

It bugs me that power is such a selling point for amps and speakers. There are 3 things that are important in an audio component. Fidelity, selectivity, and sensitivity. Well, maybe features. And lots of buttons, and wires.

Anyways, enough ranting.

[Apex]

I think the issue is 3 fold:

1. Many very good speakers have a low sensitivity rating, like the maggies. Thus, you're going to need quite a bit of power to drive them.

2. Most receiver manufacturers overrate their output, and do not rate it with all channels driven (H/K is one of the only exceptions).

Take a look here:

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/3401/ratevsac.htm

3. Higher end components usually have more power. Though the power itself does not tell of the quality, usually it goes hand in hand when comparing products from 1 manufacturer.

[InfiniteNothing]

I think the issue of the importance of loudness and the importance of wattage (power) are two different things.
Wattage is a way for a company to make more money off of you. Numbers like 400 watts make it acceptable to slap on a large pricetag. If the double the wattage they think it is somehow acceptable to double the price.
I have a similar complaint to using GHz rather than Gigaflops which is a much better "meter" of computer speeds.
Also, I'm a bit confused. If dBs are an exponential scale then wouldn't 10Xing your wattage (say from a 200 watt system to a 2000 watt system) then increase the dBs by about 10 (assmuing 2X is a 3dB increase). I think I saw someone writing 30 which is big. 10 on the other hand is like if you asked someone to turn up the volume on the TV.
A word about power (I mean loudness). I think the point of more power (in cars)has a little something to do a cry for attention. If your speakers are so loud that people inside their homes can here your distorted fiberglass bass, you are desperate for attention. Or perhaps they are trying to compensate for thier other small assets.

[i6s1]

Originally posted by InfiniteNothing

Also, I'm a bit confused. If dBs are an exponential scale then wouldn't 10Xing your wattage (say from a 200 watt system to a 2000 watt system) then increase the dBs by about 10 (assmuing 2X is a 3dB increase). I think I saw someone writing 30 which is big.


You're right. 10x the power is 10db