lets assume high end amps such as AUDISON

is 60W enough for midbass driver or 100W better?

is 4 *60W enough to run thru a 3 way bi-amp x-over? therefore 60w for tweeter & midrange and another 60w for midbass. or is 100W better

Is 180W enough for a 10" SUB or is 300-400 Watts better.

Looking for really good SQ. NOT SPL

To keep things as dynamic as possible put all the power you can to the speakers.

Boog-ass............. you can get exceptional SQ from limited power. The amps should match with the drivers you have purchased. This whole MORE power thing is so BS............. mind you, if you want it, I'll hazard a guess that all of us in the retail/distribution side of things have no issues selling it too you. But do you really need it is what you have to ask yourself.......... or should I say, do your speakers really need it to work optimally?!??!?!? Some do and some definitely don't.

My opinion is go with lot's of power, but I'm building for a very specific goal (IASCA).

In Rina Beckhams truck she has 1600 watts and 5 speakers. Really she's only putting out maybe a few hundred because the gains are all the way down, and the crossover levels are also turned down.

Why so much power when we don't use it ?

The system has the ability to be dynamic and never run out of power (thus causing poor reproduction)

Two ways to go, lot's of power, or efficent drivers, or both.

I wrote in another post (same topic) my opinion on this one. Do a serch others also posted on this one.

Me.....I like big power and good drivers [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

go with as much power as your wallet allows, its always better to not have to drive your amplifiers into clipping, which could easily be done with a 60x4 amplifier when you really get on the volume, more power is not bs, and the benefit of having alot of power is that its easier to match to the speaker

Try and get enough power that you can turn it up without hearing distortion to your maximum listening level. ie: If your speakers handle 100 RMS but you never turn your radio above the point that delivers 50 RMS before it's too loud, then 50 RMS would have been enough.

In general, more power is better. Turning it up is harder than turning it down. You'll never get 150 RMS out of a 100 RMS amp (excluding underrating) but it's real easy to get 50 RMS out of a 100 RMS amp.

In the words of Christian Slater in True Romance "It's better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it." Buy as much power as you can afford, then buy more.

In reference to Audison VRx amps:

They use an output distortion limiter to curb the amp from being overdriven. At 2% distortion, the input gain is rolled back to limit clipping on the output stage. Simply put, they have a volume control to turn down the volume when you exceed the output capability of the amp.

Some other amps have this feature as well, but they do cost a fair penny. (this being one of a plethora of high end features)

For an actively powered 3 way, I'd recomend 50 watts for tweeters, 50 watts for midranges, and around 100 watts for midbasses. Assuming a moderately efficent speaker system is used, this should give realistic reproduction of most all music.

For an actively powered 2 way, I'd use 50 watts for tweeters, and 50 to 100 watts for midrange.

But....

I'm a bit of a dynamic headroom junky, so I subscribe to Jamie's formula if you can afford it.


Just as a note, some of the best high end home audio amps in the world are under 50 watts per channel.

Adam

but they arent typically used to listen to metallica or 50 cent at warp level for 30 minutes straight, all the while not providing the proper amount of current to the amp

Aren't most high-end amplifiers underrated like a "mofo," as one might say ?