An amplifier's first watt

I am getting close to publishing my memoir! It's called 99% True and it is chock full of adventures, debauchery, struggles, heartwarming stories, triumphs and failures, great belly laughs, and a peek inside the high-end audio industry you've never known before.

[petersouthernboy]

Many audiophiles use Crown, QSC, and other Class D Amps in active crossover (DSP) systems for the bass drivers with excellent results.

[johnlebeau]

As a lover of flea watt single ended triode amplifiers, yes the first watt is important. So is the other watt.

[NormDPlume-mcdh]

Remember a friend (who is now running his music gear store he started in 1985) playing a turntable through a Phase Linear power amp and big Community Light and Sound horn loaded PA speakers. Sounded great at the time (~1976) or at least LOUD and fairly clean. It was five years later when I began gravitating toward "high end" with a Harmon Kardon PM660 amp and Infinity RSb speakers. PS Audio's Infinity affiliation is definitively affinitive relatively infinitely for me.

[janedoe]

First Watt Amplifiers are some of the best in the world. Nelson Pass. Passlabs.

[Joshualbm]

That Crown DC300 could start a car. But they also did exceedingly well with difficult and challenging speaker loads. The stability was stunning. Also, since guys were trying to have rock concerts in their homes back in the day, nobody came close to the power and fidelity that the Crown could deliver. The specs were about as good as anything before or at the time and in many ways, the DC300 did very well in critical listening reviews. Stereophile gave it about as glowing a review as the voice-coils were getting on JBL drivers all over the kingdom. Anyhow, I've had some pro audio amps in and out of my systems, always willing to give one a try. But they never satisfy with all of the nuance and sonic realism that hi-fi companies strive to create. But damn, the Crown DriveCore class D amps offer insanely great value and performance with many liking their hi-fi sound.

[ericnortan]

I have a Crown XLi2500, a "lower end" AB amp, a lot of power. It does a nice job especially with rock, electronic, blues. Not trying to say it is HiFi or anything, but definitely good quality, good power, neutral sound. Great for it's purpose.

[NickP]

Thank you for the explanation as usual, Paul. No mention of Nelson Pass and his company, First Watt?
I think Nelson AND Paul McGowan are both living legends of audio!

[johnstone]

The original DC300 was fully discrete. The DC300A used a ua 739 in the front end. Both measured flawlessly for their day, but sounded terrible. Many accused them of having very poor TIM performance. I'm not sure if that's true or not. The frequency response dropped like a rock just above 20kHz, and it used massive amounts of negative feedback.

[Theineluctable_SOME_CANT]

I love how this guy acts like he has all the answers...

[charliedavidson]

Best video yet and Paul Nailed it !!! One and done . If you can't get the first watt right all the rest will follow . I'll name one amp that has been ignored for years McIntosh MA6100 . Not the greatest specs or the greatest power but one of the juiciest amps ever made . This amp wasn't made for specs, it was made for music love making .


Best example in getting the first watt right is speakers with 106 db 1 watt 1 meter efficiency.




Okay I have made the argument that efficiency is not done across a full 20 Hz to 20 kHz width but at 1K but still that one watt is going to make some noise . I guess if your speakers are 80 db 1 watt 1 meter I wouldn't worry about those first 15 watts (this video is not for you). Sad emoji for you and ha ha emoji for me .

[ssgeek]

I wonder if PS Audio ever thought of building a PA power amp.Used to own a Chameleon Audio 1 unit high amp(Not class D) sounded very nice whatever volume

[elongatuspiranha]

Wonder what Paul thinks about Parasound?

[mauriziob]

Paul, when you say the first watt is class -A and then goes to class D etc etc etc... does it mean that if i listen at 2 watts the first one will still be provided by the class A section?

[ponypowerperformance]

Live music is evolving sir, theres definitely alot more hifi in live shows now than ever before with certain shows- example- alt j

[kubockferre]

hi  , i want
to make this nelson pass f6 amp  and i got toroidal transformer at home but its not 18
volt secondary  but 24 volts so i got 6 volts excess. my question is.
can i use this transformer! is this  a good solution to put resistors
between capacitors to reduce voltage supply!  and what resistor value
will be correct and watt of the resistor so this amp works with 2 amperes
about.thanks  for your help you can see the shematic at diyaudio

[brunorivademar]

Here's the thing. Unless you are sitting a LONG distance away from very inefficient speakers, at normal listening volumes you are probably never going to use more than a few watts and 90% of the music you listen to will be in the 0.1 to 1 watt range. The first watt is the most important.

[bournelucid]

Watt degree do you have to do to get into audio and stuff like that?

[kencohagen]

Watt? I had a Harmon Kardon 30watt reciever. I always wondered how much power it was putting out so I bought a wattmeter from RadioShack and found that at a pretty loud at only 2 Watts. Sure it would put our more under peak loads, but it still wasn't that much. A while later my buddy invited his friends and we had a party. One of the guys wanted to hear what my stereo sounded like so I fired it up. It was about mid May at the time and when I put on Pink Floyd's we don't need no education with the door and windows open and cranked it loud enough to enjoy, we heard cheering. I stuck my head out the door and looked at the High School Football field next door. We discussed what might be going on because it was long long passed Football season, so one the the guys ran over to take a loot. He peeked through the vines that were growing out the fence, and he came running back, beer in had yelling turn it off. When he got the the apartment I asked what was going on, and the school was holding its graduation. So we shut ever thing off closed up and turn out the lights. Sure enough no sooner than we went silent the police showed up shining their light through our window. After a few minutes the left. But it didn't take much more than maybe 5 or 10 Watts to get arrested! Luckily they didn't knock on our door. There wasn't much room in the apartment for fifteen guys!

[jeffharper]

Paul,
I keep hearing the term (low level detail).
I understand it's meaning in business management but not in audio, can someone define this for me?

[genez]

The Crown IC 300 had a sound like a strongman lifting heavy weights. Powerful. Yet, also straining.