How much amplifier power do you really need?

[RebelMan]

What you have defined is energy.  Power is the capacity for work per unit time.  Never mind, it doesn't have that much bearing on the discussion.

Incorrect.  Energy is stored work.  Work is the amount of energy transferred to or from a system by a force.  Power is the rate at which work is performed. Implicit in my explanation was the matter of time.  My mistake was assuming you would grasp this.

One of the interesting points of the video was that it did indeed measure instantaneous power delivered to the load.  To be really explicit, the meters on the amplifiers showed the amount of power needed to drive the speakers with a faithful (undistorted) signal at the set volume level.

I don't disagree but it still only shows half the picture which makes their point all the more meaningless because it is taken out of context.  I can Dyno test my car to 600HP but that doesn't tell you a thing about how fast it really is.

GOOD, power that is sufficient in supply at any given time for any given load.

CLEAN, power that is free from artifacts inherent of the architecture's design and components.

LINEAR, as the demands for power increase (instantly or continuously) the supplies of power also increase in lock step.

None of those qualities are inherent to power in itself (where do they appear in the definition of power?).  Of course I agree that they are desirable characteristics of an amplifier.

Are you trying to be obtuse?  You asked for a "distinction" between terms and I provided it to you.   A symbiotic relationship exists between power and amplifier that can not be divided.  If you found a way then apply for a Noble Prize.

The video shows that the amplifiers are delivering up to 600 W per channel peak power into the load at some points.  Assuming the amplifier knows how to properly measure the peak power it's delivering, the power is just what the meter shows it to be whether it's into a 1-ohm, 3-ohm, 6-ohm or any-other-ohm load.  You don't have to make any assumptions whatever about the load -- or any other "conditions", for that matter -- if you believe that the amplifier is designed so that the peak power meters are accurate.

Correction, they said 750W peak, but that's beside the point.  The amplifier is not telling us anything more than what the power was at a given time.  750W into an 8 ohm load is vastly different than 750W into an 2 ohm load.  So which is it?

How can you conclude that an amplifier needs 100 times more power available for peaks when we don't even know what those peaks are?  That's purely conjecture.  You cannot solve what you do not know.  Again how do you know?  You need to measure.

It's not my conclusion.  It follows directly from the definition of crest factor, as explained in the article I linked to, without any interpretation or assumptions on my part.  Neither is it conjecture, unless you disagree with the values of crest factor that are quoted by that article and other independent sources.  I am not trying to "solve" anything, in your words.

I never implied it was your conclusion.  However, you adopted the conclusion to buttress your position.  Although, if you were more open minded about the case of power vs sound quality "you" as I used it would have been interpreted as defined by Merriam-Webster... —used to refer to any person or to people in general

I suspect our conversation has gone beyond the point of being interesting or useful.  You're welcome to continue if you wish but I will bow out here.

Not so fast.  Talk is cheap.  Time to put up or shut up.  I made you an offer to put this issue to the test.  Will you take it?