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P=I**2XR, but watts is (V x A) so ----- longggg

Posted by loony on February 11, 2005 at 06:59:23:
Or care and feeding of maggies and other planer devices!
Power is a different rating than watts.
At 120 volts on a 20 A line you, in theory have 2400 watts available.
Don't believe me, go look at you wifes hair dryer. I'll bet it's a 1200, 1500, or even for the super hairy, 1800 watts!
So most tranny amps transform the voltage down to 36-55 volts.(SS) assuming no tansformer loss, which is a falicy, you could generate a real world 43-66 amps of continous current. Tubes go the other way and favor voltage over current.
And---- if you have so rated output devices in parallel, and assuming no current hogging, again a falicy in all but the tightest matched output devices. (What you really pay the money for to the likes of Nelson P. or Dan DA,) you can see some real world amperages.
Also keep in mind, with some of the oil can type capacitors you can store a huge, charge, and that will for short periods allow you to exceed the wall wattage. So to claim 120 amps capability for short term is in fact true.
But---- let me tell you, dumping 120 amps even at low or modest voltage into your foil traces will render you accoustic coupling device (loudspeaker) junk in miliseconds.
The real question is what value is the high current capability.
Answer: In theory it will allow you to track even the most demanding peaks on music those which last 20-40 miliseconds or less.
The old NAD adage of yore. But the real issue of current and current tracking comes down to discharge rate of the capacitor, and damping factor.
Conservation of energy. Energy can neither be created or destroyed, which means that you can disipate energy, you can aborb energy, you can convert energy, conversion is an audio systems worst enemy. Conversion of electrical energy is usually HEAT.
The reason I get into all this is back EMF (electromotive force) or the ability of the amp to deal with all the "watts, volt/amps" delivered to the speaker. Some is lost in heat, some in magnetic radiation, etc, but the lions share comes back to the amp. Dealing with that return current is an issue, and let me assure you all amps are not created equal in dealing with back EMF's, another reason we pay big $$$$ for big amps.
You got two camps: 1) The TT camp (tiny triode), my guess is the wife wears the pants in those houses and mandates NO LOUD MUSIC. (just kidding no flames please) 2) Or, the you can't get a big enough amp, usually the maggie, apogee, martin logan, quad, acoustat crowd.
Either way it's a number, I'm an engineer, and I have:
Drum roll, 350 watt tube amps on mine, prior to that I had T-hold S30 II, and Pass X350. The T-hold was no contest, even at it's rated 120 amps peak, 40 amps steady state rating. (from memory I may have slightly wrong numbers)it just couldn't get it up like the Pass or Manley. The Pass is clearly up to what ever challenge I've thrown at it. The Manley's are a different sound, and they ain't all that tooby. The highs are on parr with the Pass, and the bass is second to none, God Bless my older, and aging KT90 type II's.
The mids on the Manley are slightly better than the Pass, were talking hairs here folks, and the depth, surprise---- goes to the T-hold lst, and Pass 2nd. Now that was a surprise. (could be toob age)
I change my mental sound habits as often as I change my underware, well maybe not that often, but I go back and forth. For now the Manley's in, ask me tomorrow what I have in, it will probably change.
It would be nice to settle in on one amp, and decrease the sound-room clutter.
loon