How much amplifier power is needed?

This is a difficult question to answer because it depends on several factors, including:

  • the size of your speakers
  • the size of your room
  • the type of music you’re listening to
  • how loud you like to listen
  • whether you’re using a subwoofer

A bit of background for understanding… Immediately before people switched to Soundbars, Home Theatre Receivers were popular for those who wanted a rich sound experience in the home. Most of these were rated around 100 watts / channel or more.

In the old days of valve amps, such a high power rating was practically unheard of. A low power amp in those days would have been less than 10 watts / channel, medium would be 10 up to about 30, and anything above 30 watts was considered a high power amplifier.

Beyond about 50 Watts was “WTF, are you deaf?!” territory.

But, things were a little different back then. For a start, speakers were a lot physically bigger. With speakers, bigger means more efficient. (Meaning they make more sound for any given input power). They needed to be big back then to handle the bass notes well, since subwoofers weren’t in common usage, and amplifier power ratings were much lower than modern gear can provide.

Another factor was that the music people listened to back then was a lot less bassy than modern music (it takes a lot of power to produce loud bass).

With valve gear, extra watts come at a high cost. Also, valve gear drives speakers a little differently than modern gear. So if you’ve got one of our 15 watt amps, you might find it to be unexpectedly powerful. 

Also there’s different ways you can use your amp. One popular modern configuration is to have smaller speakers handling the vocals and instruments, and a separate subwoofer hiding behind the curtain doing all the heavy lifting with the bass. 

This takes a lot of power demand off the amplifier since it’s the bass that takes up a lot of the power, and subwoofers usually have their own amp built in. (This is the way most Home Theatre systems work, it’s why you can get such a full sound off smaller speakers… look for the hidden sub!)