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Have any of you noticed a correlation between amplifier gain and/or sensitivity, and the general characteristics of how an amplifier sounds, or maybe the general way in which amplifiers with certain gain and/or sensitivity specifications handle things like dynamics?
I am asking about solid state amplifiers, or maybe hybrids with SS output stages.
I have several amplifiers here with gain between 26dB and 39dB, and sensitivity between 0.54Vrms and 1.5Vrms and I am curious whether I should be able to ascribe any particular sonic characteristics to their gain and sensitivity structure, or is those simply a point of interest with respect to how high the volume control needs to be turned up (i.e., how many volts they need to be fed) to achieve a certain volume level?
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Standard power amplifier gain is 26 dB. More sensitive amplifiers have appeared in the recent past to handle low gain preamplifiers and AV receiver outputs. The former usually provide little or no gain and the latter often only reach a maximum output of only about 1.5 V. The most significant downside of high gain power amplifiers is compromised noise performance. With high sensitivity loudspeakers (> 93 dB/w/m or so) gain related noise can become a significant factor.
Makes sense. Thank you for the thoughtful answer. The amp I tend to like best has the 26dB gain and a more typical sensitivity of 1.4Vrms.
The high gain/low sensitivity amplifier does sound a bit more dynamic with respect to micro-dynamics but is not quite as smooth/refined as the other amp. The more dynamic amplifier is sometimes more "exciting" but on some music it is a bit too much and I think I can better live with the other for the long haul.
Fortunately, my preamp has no gain, although it is buffered so it is not a passive, more like an active preamp with no gain.
> I am curious whether I should be able to ascribe any particular sonic characteristics to their gain and sensitivity structure,
> or is [that] simply a point of interest with respect to how high the volume control needs to be turned up
My guess is that it's probably the latter; i.e., how high the volume control needs to be turned up to achieve a certain volume level. My advice would be to select an amplifier with a sensitivity and gain structure that allows your volume control to be placed between 12 o'clock and 2 o'clock for normal listening. My amplifier has input attenuators so I can adjust them to achieve the most desirable volume control setting.
As far as power amplifier gain is concerned, 39-dB sounds awfully high to me. That much gain in a power amplifier might be desirable if you're using a resistive passive preamp. My Parasound Halo A21 power amplifier has 29-dB gain and that is plenty for my needs. I still have to use its input attenuators in addition to reducing my control preamp's gain to its lowest setting of +4-dB. Consequently, I would say that even 26-dB gain might be sufficient for my purposes. My power amplifier produces 50-volts RMS at clipping and this requires an input of 1.774-volts RMS at 29-dB gain. It would require an input of 2.506-volts RMS at 26-dB gain.
Best regards,
John Elison
Yes. If I had to do a comparison between two identical amps with different sensitivity, I would choose the one most sensitive. They sound more dynamic. More agile.
I'm running my speakers active and for a while was changing out the individual amps.
At times I had one very sensitive amp (0.5V for full power) mixed with rather less sensitive ones and once the gain is appropriately adjusted there is no audible difference.
Edits: 06/12/16
Yes. I equate it to a performance car. I own a late model sports car. It has drive by wire throttle control. The factory puts in a program on how fast the throttle works. It is variable by a switch for a couple different modes. The sports mode is a faster ramping up. It makes the car seem more responsive and agile. Same car, same engine.
I eventually removed the sensitive amp because its sound quality was lacking compared to the other amps. It lacked in smoothness, was more noisy and less able to take control of its associated driver.
None of these things I put down to its sensitivity. It was simply not as good an amp as the others.
Thanks guys for the responses.
As I just posted to rkeman above, the amp with the lower sensitivity rating (the more sensitive amp) and high gain does indeed not sound as smooth as the amp with more typical specs. However, in my case the more sensitive amp is a highly rated and very expensive amplifier. I just don't quite like it as well as the other amp in my system. I suspect this may be more about personal preference but I thought I might learn something about correlating specs with sound.
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Still no.
...how it sounds will depend a lot on the loudspeakers it is used with, regardless of any specs or measurements.
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