08-Jul-2019, 11:49
@David A Your points are well taken, except for the fact that this discussion has always been about peak power rather than continuous power (ref. your item (3)). Whether the amp can deliver a factor of 100 peak power (vs RMS power) will depend on its design. For example if it's driving music with a 20dB crest factor into a resistive load, by my maths it would need power rails with at least seven times -- that is, 10 divided by the square root of 2 -- higher voltage than it would need to deliver a sine wave with the same RMS power. Likewise the amp would also have to be able to deliver seven times higher peak current for that music than for a sine wave at the same RMS power. With a non-resistive load like a real-world loudspeaker I'd expect those ratios to increase: of course I may well be wrong, as I don't design amplifiers for a living.
As you said, we don't know what the peak power capabilities of the Expert series are compared to their rated continuous power which may or may or may not be something that keeps you (one) awake at night. If you listen to sine waves, probably not
If you listen to loud electronic music via low-efficiency speakers, possibly so.
To follow up one of your earlier points, albeit slightly provocatively: how can you be /really/ sure that your Expert amp is not clipping? That might very well be the case of course depending on what music you like listening to and how loud you listen to it, but the question still applies in principle. While I'm sure we'd agree clipping is very easy to hear in traditional transistor amps when it's happening frequently or continuously, there are two factors relevant to this discussion that might make it harder to be sure. Firstly, clipping on short transient peaks might not be so easy to hear and secondly, the Expert amps implement soft (so-called "elliptical") clipping which is supposed to be less obvious to the ear -- and I guess also less potentially damaging to tweeters. Given that, you could reasonably ask why are we even discussing it, but I think in the more general case it's still a valid thing to talk about.
As you said, we don't know what the peak power capabilities of the Expert series are compared to their rated continuous power which may or may or may not be something that keeps you (one) awake at night. If you listen to sine waves, probably not
If you listen to loud electronic music via low-efficiency speakers, possibly so.To follow up one of your earlier points, albeit slightly provocatively: how can you be /really/ sure that your Expert amp is not clipping? That might very well be the case of course depending on what music you like listening to and how loud you listen to it, but the question still applies in principle. While I'm sure we'd agree clipping is very easy to hear in traditional transistor amps when it's happening frequently or continuously, there are two factors relevant to this discussion that might make it harder to be sure. Firstly, clipping on short transient peaks might not be so easy to hear and secondly, the Expert amps implement soft (so-called "elliptical") clipping which is supposed to be less obvious to the ear -- and I guess also less potentially damaging to tweeters. Given that, you could reasonably ask why are we even discussing it, but I think in the more general case it's still a valid thing to talk about.
Roon (Mac Mini), Wilson Benesch Full Circle, Expert 1000 Pro CI, Kaiser Chiara
Warwickshire, UK
