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What speakers? How big is your room?
the HL5s like solid state and do not require allot of power. 70-75 watt integrated will works well.r.
Speakers are Harbeth Super HL5s. Room is approximately 10'W X 19'L X 7and1/2'H. The room is fairly live--the walls are concrete covered by wall paper but there is furniture, a few wall hangings and throw pillows to damp it a bit. I'm using a passive TVC for a preamp and CD only. Thanks.
I find that many users over estimate their power requirement by a large amount. If you guess is 10 dB high that's 10 times the power. The other day I returned a Hafler DH-200 to a local customer and measured only 3 volts at his highest listening level. That's 1 watt! 10 dB headroom is sufficient so a 10 watt amplifier is adequate for his needs. The important questions are:1. What is the sensitivity of your speaker?2. What is your listening level (a Radio Shack SPL meter is very useful and accurate for this)3. How far do you sit from your speakers?Alternate for 2 and 3. What SPL do you measure at 1 meter from your speaker?Alternate for all three questions is to use a peak reading voltmeter connected to your speaker terminals and note the highest reading on a AC scale. This is the best method. Many meters (most all Fluke Meters) have a bar scale under the number scale so you can see the peaks of the bar easier than the numbers. The range setting gives you the value of the top bar.
Thanks for the reply, Roger. Yesterday afternoon I had a chance to really turn it up and got some peaks of 3 volts but things were mostly in the 2 volt range. I live in an apartment, and I rarely listen at that high a volume so as not to overly disturb my neighbors.If that's only one watt or less, then your 35 watt EL-84 amp should be plenty, unless I'm missing something. What do you think?
My speaker specs are Sensitivity: 95 dB / 2.83 volt / 1 mAt 90dB at the listening position which is just under 3 m I got 5.39V
For the same settings could you measure the SPL at one meter?
~96dB
That sounds right. You have lots of headroom.