I've just watched this for the third time and this time I took notes! I have just retired and now have time to learn more about Hi Fi and this video was extremely helpful. Nice balance between being technical yet understandable for someone who is not a tech whiz. Add to this is Tarun's typically professional and pleasant presentation.

One of the best hifi channels on KZfaq.

Well hey there Tarun. I just want to thank you for putting this together. I found this direct, concise and informative. Thank You, for all you do. Keep Smiling... Cheers...

A very good and informative video. One thing not mentioned though, is that a speaker's sensitivity rating is for ONE speaker, not a pair of them in a room. For two speakers playing in the same room, the output will be 3 dB higher. Another thing not mentioned is how live or dead the room is. Highly absorptive rooms will require significantly more power to achieve the same SPL at the listening position as rooms that are highly reflective, such as the one you were sitting in when recording the video.

Wow, you really know your stuff. I'm usually the one teaching others about audio but you explaining how impedance/sensitivity works helped me to better understand it

I agree with the others, you explained in a way that we can easily understand not only the concepts, but also their interactions in a very practical way. The other thing I see is that this kind of videos are educational, they help us to be more thoughtful when the inner Max wants to change the amplifier or the speakers without the need to do so. Implicitly we find financial education (... make informed and effective decisions with our financial resources). Thanks for what you do. Keep up the good work.

Great learning for me! Used my money on a nice streamer instead of the poweramp. My area is only 30m2. ( 250W Icepower 250ASX2 before). After a lot of testing in my flat and using LED to show 1W and 2W levels I realiuzed I very, very seldom passed 2W per speaker output. Typical flats in Sweden are usually 40-100m2 and smaller amps work fine. The frequencies below 100Hz goes thru KEF KC62 and I can use smaller speakers above 100Hz. Again many thanks for this great and very pedagogical and clear presentation of facts!

As always, so informative and great presentation. It's really refreshing to hear someone talking about the hobby and not about the next shiny new thing. Also, the gear at hand does show that u can produce great sound without jeopardizing your marriage or mental health. Big thumbs up

Now I understand 🙏🏼 after so many KZfaq videos. Great stuff. Thanks

Your success is well earned, Tarun. You consistently find the sweet spot between the quantitative reviewers who make our eyes glaze over with graphs, and the qualitative reviewers who do little more than report how a piece of equipment made them feel when they listened to a favorite song. You might want to tweak the reflective surfaces in front of your microphone, though - you've got a bit of an echo chamber going on. Other than that, all aces - as usual.

Loving the enthusiasm and shameless number crunching. I'm sold

I almost never log in to leave a comment, but this is one of those cases. I really love the way you explained this here - this topic has never before made as much sense to me as it does now. Best wishes, Lucas

Very informative and well presented. Sometimes the way something is said is as important as what is being said. You have a gift that many clever people on youtube lack that makes them difficult to learn from.

Paul McGowan (PS Audio) did an excellent explanation of the relationship between decibels/power/watts a while back...... but I think this explanation is actually better. Many thanks

Tarun, I am a new comer to, what I call high end audio. Ever since back in 1999-2002 ish I heard my mates Dali floor standing speakers through a Marantz KI Signature CD player and KI Signature amp, it played Bruce Springsteen Streets of Philadelphia, I was blown away, the hairs on back of my neck were up. I vowed then that one day I would get myself a decent sound system. Fast forward 20 years, wife and kids and couple of house moves out the way, we have moved into our 'forever home' and I am finally going to take the plunge. Your videos are helping each one I watch, I wish I could say I understand 10% of what you are saying, but this video has helped me a lot, I think I get it. After research I was going to be settling on the Cambridge Audio CXA81 and the Cambridge CXN V2, as I stream my music now, all sorted. Or so I thought, the shop I am using, a well respected chain then threw the NAIM Uniti Atom, now I am considering going this route, however it has a rating of 40w and the speakers that I am considering are Focal Aria 926 or the Triangle Genese Quartet floorstanders, and I was worried that the NAIM would not be up to drive those. If I think I have got it, I think I should be fine and not need to buy a separate amplifier, as the NAIM is retailing at £500 over what I wanted to spend on amplifier and streamer. I live in an old Yorkshire stone built property, the walls just under 1m thick all around, but the room is large where the sound system will live 6m L x 4m W x 4m H (96 cubic meters) and I will be listening from about 3.5m to 4m distance. So after all that, I hope, if you read this you have not nodded off, I think I will be fine and your video has put my mind at ease. Roll on the demo of said equipment on 17th Feb. Once again, thank you as it is a struggle to find a British channel that reviews and gives out advice.

Very warm and authoritative explanations, very pleased to have had KZfaq recommend this channel. He's definitely the sort of guy I would happily buy a second hand car from!

You’ve earned your subscribers with quality content. Keep it up…..and thank you for taking out the omnipresent ambiguity in HiFi.

Great video Tarun. I often demo in the lab how load 1 watt can be. There are of course other important factors, damping factors being one and of course bandwidth is measured at the 1/ power point, going above 1/2 power will compress the frequency range. Active crossovers add another advantage of reducing inter modulation in the power amp. Love the fact the those original Naim Naits go for silly money, giant killers to this day.

solid video. years ago I began thinking about some of these issues and took my system outside. it was humbling.

Well presented. I cannot imagine listening at 70, my wife gets all over me at 54, 48 being the happy place. And it is plenty for my space and neighbor considerations. Thank you for a concise explanation that let me know that my gear is room/level appropriate.

I absolutely love your videos. You're one of my favorites. Being pedantic, I have to point out that the Klipsch Heresy has a sensitivity of 99 dB. Regardless, keep up the brilliant work!

Bravo! Your video has been the best I have ever seen on this subject. I learned that 3 decibels increase in sound equated into twice the power from an amplifier maybe 20 years ago. When I learned this a lot of other light bulbs went on. I won't go into details but I am running my speakers at around 2 ohms and I have plenty of power to spare. Nelson pass had it right when he said it's the first watt that matters. By the way, I have just subscribed to your Channel based on this video alone. Just thought you'd like to know.

Great new channel to me, excellent explanations. Looking forward to more.

I’ve just started watching your videos and am very impressed. There are so many KZfaq channels run by people who have no idea about hi fi. The only thing I’m disappointed about is that you haven’t got a record deck as that’s what my passion is along with all my friends. I’ve tried but just don’t like listening to digital music and after years and thousands spend trying to find a decent player I’ve given up. My deck and records just sound so much better. I will now watch a few more of your videos, thanks for excellent work.

This is quality content man! Your numbers will climb no doubt

This is a such rare case, where the explanation makes sense. Listening to a lot of demanding classical music (large orchestras and operas) in very modern recordings with a lot of dynamic range, statements that 40 Watts would be enough never matched my experience. Maybe if you are listening to a jazz trio, although would have to be at moderate levels for low sensitivity speakers. When auditioning gear, my experience has been that when I needed the "horses" lots of candidates for amplification (and speakers) did not perform as great as what small ensembles hearing would suggest. Excellent!

You answered many doubts I had with amps and speakers. Thank you!

Succinct and clear as well as covering all the bases- Very informative and enjoyable.

Great video as always Tarun. I recently started working at richer sounds and was feeling a bit overwhelmed but thanks to discovering your videos, I am beginning to become less and less nervous about going to work lol

Good video Tarun. You have a gift of explaining complex things in an easy to understand way.

That was the best explanation I've heard that I truly understand.

Brilliant video, great, clear, and informative way of describing a complicated subject.

For me it has always been 200WPC as a sweet spot and when I listen to them, they are barely hitting 20WPC but when dynamics and crescendo happens, its heavenly sweet.

Good video. Tarun, I've been around HiFi since the early seventies so I very familiar with all the technical aspects you discussed. My take on amplifiers is that when putting together a system 1.) Find speakers that you like the sound of. And 2.) Find an amplifier that will properly drive those speakers. 3.) Choose which playback format you are going to use most often and get the best possible piece of equipment that you can afford. 4.) Then spend weeks, months even find the best sounding placement of those speakers in your listening room. Since 1984 I've been using systems with a vacuum tube preamp and a very good solid state power amp. I've been using a Forte 4a (50 wpc pure class A) power amp since the mid nineties. Fortunately, all the speakers that I own are easy to drive. That said, I would rather have a great sounding 50 WPC amp than an average sounding 200 WPC amp. Back in '96 I brought my Forte amp to a friend's house to compare it to a Parasound HCA 2200 II and the Forte blew it away (it sounded more "musical", the high frequencies were much more defined and smoother, had better pace, and actually sounded more dynamic).

I did not really learn anything new here, but i think you explain something important for audiophiles in a pretty practical way. It is important to think about (esp. speaker sensitivity) your equipment requirements before desciding on the final product for your room and listening preference! thanks for putting numbers intoo practicality, this was good. And i hope more people understands their needs after watching this video! :)

Very Informative. It is very kind of you to take the trouble to explain these technical terms which now finally make sense. I will watch this again sometime.

Well, I’ve 50 years of experience since my first ‘hifi’, though I’ve never been able to afford the top notch stuff, and I’ve learnt loads from the Internet including from your videos. I particularly appreciate your more technical approach ( I’m an engineer myself, though not your sort ). I just love music and the better detailed and more lifelike, the better. But if there’s one single thing I’ve learnt is that you never stop learning! Please keep up your excellent videos. Have you done interconnects?

6:10 When I worked as EMC test engineer, we had an anechoic chamber for emission testing. While it was an anechoic chamber made for EM waves instead of air pressure waves, it also did its job for audio. So one time, we had permission to use it for personal experiments on a Saturday afternoon (business was normally closed on Saturdays). Everyone of my test department brought some audio equipment from home to test in the chamber by performing some basic measurements. We already expected that It would sound a bit weird; it's noticeable while talking inside the chamber, but with music it's 10x worse, so it sounds very nasty. It's like there's a black hole in the corner of the room where all sound is drawn in to; it really kills everything about music. Nevertheless, it was a fun and interesting Saturday afternoon.

I'm impressed with your presentation and facts you present. Especially the buchardt s400 review. Very good

Best explanation I’ve found yet! Thank you!

I have seen a couple of videos on this topic as of late, and I feel that your video gives the most accurate and useful information of the videos. The only thing that you could have provided to bring things home would have been to measure the voltage at your speaker terminals to verify what you are explaining. I listen to music at a similar volume as you, but my speakers are more efficient than yours, about 90db sensitivity. When I checked the voltage on my speakers, I seldom exceed.5 volts. A large peek of.75 volts was rare. And if I turned it up louder than I like normally, I would hit 1 volt. That is still not 1/2 watt of power. So my average power output is between 1/4 and 1/2 watts. And with your speakers in your room you would likely have a higher demand on your amplifier, but I would bet that you would be in the 1/2 to 1 watt range. In one of the videos they used a scenario similar to your setup, and he calculated that you would need north of 250 watts to listen to dynamic audio programming, at an 85 db average volume. Just ridiculous. I have a 100 watt solid state amplifier that I use, but I also have a 4 watt single end triode amplifier that I use. And I have no problem reaching suitable listening levels with that 4 watts. And I used the same kind of amp to power a pair of ProAc studio 1’s. They were a little bit more efficient than yours, but not much. I think they were maybe 87db sensitive. Keep up the good work.

Hey Tarun seems your videos are like addictive soap operas I have seen this video so many times and every time learning new things ... similar to your other videos they are addictive as we are gaining knowledge from your experience. Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge about High-end audio .. 🙏

Relatively new to HiFI and love your video's, the detail in your reviews and the educational piece like the video above. Keep up the excellent work

Thanks Tarun for a highly informative and interesting video, you’ve managed to explain this really succinctly.

Thank you 🙏 spot on watts doesn't mean how loud you're speakers are it's all about the sounds with wattage equal dB and Ohms if you say you got 8ohms and you're speakers is only 100 watts and yes you're got watts you haven't got power! Compared 6ohms 100 watts speakers! Then you're got power ! Is very much depends on your equipment because it's all about driving those speakers and what type your amp your got. And the room is a big player in this games.

In my experience over the years of playing with all sorts of power amplifiers, I prefer high current amplifiers. Also a higher wattage amplifier of like 300w per channel with high current capability is all you will ever need. Even though you may not use all those watts the music just sounds more effortless and you for the most part cover all your speaker types without going into extremes. I would just say the sound is not strained because you have so much power on tap and the amp is up to any task. Just make sure its a well designed amp, since there are many powerful amplifiers out there that are just dj amps and do not sound good with a few exceptions, which I actually use in my set ups. They are called sleeper amps and are somewhat of hidden secrets. Some class D amps are not to bad, but in my opinion a well designed classic AB amp is hard to beat unless you pay K's of dollars and you can definately avoid that.

Even though I do not get all of the information you are passing out ......I still feel that I have learned something more than before . Thanks

I love your teaching about understanding HIFI. This was very helpful, albeit I have to rewind to the point about our perception of loudness of sound, that's a bit confusing, but I'll get it. All in all, this was very helpful. Thank you.

At last an explanation that gives me an understanding of why I find my Sugden A21a and ProAc floor mounted speakers perfectly loud enough at low volume control settings! Is it the whole story of what power you need? Probably not, but given I knew nothing before I watched this, I think the amount of detail and maths was pitched perfectly (sorry about the pun).

Hi Tarun, thank you for explaining some of the myths and misconception. But I am still a bit confused. In your excellent review of the H95 (60W) you compared it to your H160 (150W) and mentioned (at around 11:05) the extra current capabilities of the H160 comes into play and that the effortless dynamics and wider and deeper soundstage were expected. Is this a matter of power only? In other words, if you had two completely identical amps but one with 50W and the other with 100W, would the bigger amp produce a more enjoyable experience (presentation, dynamics, soundstage) at the same reasonable listening level? Regards from Canada.

I owned the 1SC for about 6 years and everything you said about these is accurate. I had an extreme tax issue and had to sell them and everything else and have always regretted it. Hang on to these as long as you can; they are special.

Hey, great videos mate, I had a Denon 80 watt per channel amp and a pair of 12" Tannoy dual concentric speakers, sounded nice. I turned it up a little too much one day and burned one of HF voice coils. Brothers in arms is a pure digital recording on CD. I just wanted that little bit more but no more BS, I went out and bought two NAD amps, 1x C-270 and one C-370, both approx 120 watts per channel into 8 Ohms, both are bridgeable and are bridged. Now I have 300 watts into each Tannoy giving heaps of overhead. I approached the local loudspeaker engineer (Krix Loudspeaker Engineers) and asked them to construct 2 new enclosures including the drivers and amps from their Siesmix subwoofer model. Total bliss, blows me away every time and yes you definitely gotta be careful of your ears. Been browsing for a nice DAC lately to upgrade my system as all digital sources are a little dated.

i just want too enjoy the music. doing a bit research before the purchase eg go listen to a few diffrent combos. hi fi shows. helps u thru the maze. .great presentation thank u

i think this listening room is crying out for a carpet. since the dawn of the 80s these modern floorings have been an absolute godsend for hifi dealers.

Very well done. Organized and understandable. Thank You!

Great explanation and very helpful! Greetings from Jakarta, Indonesia.

Great videos! i want to understand one thing, or absolutely necessary need a subwoofer for bookshelf speakers?

Thanks, Tarun, that's the first explanation I've heard that lets me run the numbers for my own gear. It also explains why Americans generally demand more powerful amplifiers than Europeans; they have bigger living spaces to fill.

Got to learn many things from this video, explained with all technicalities. Thank you. Loving your channel. You have a very different approach of reviewing audio gears which is quite enjoyable and adds to knowledge. Found the channel today only (auto recommendation by youtube) , subscribed and watched a lot of your reviews. Enjoying them.👍👍👍

Great presentation...inded...I am electrical engeener...and with some 40 Years of experiance in Hi-Fi... but never the less I am at home with all this ... it was my great pleasure to listen to You. BTW at home I have varios hi fi audio stereo systems in three rooms...but in "A" system I have also Proacs, the Studio Monitors w. 88dB/1W/m and SET tube amp. I listened and watched also the others yours videos...They are great too ! Best regards...be safe!

One of the biggest myths: AVR power ratings. They might say "180 wpc!" which is only measured at 1khz @10%THD, not 20hz-20khz both channels driven. That means maybe 1/3 rated power in the real world. These things almost never deliver the power they claim. Not even close.

Yes now we can hear your room, echoooo😉👍

Been into hifi for years. this is great, cleared a lot of things up

Super helpful thank you! I've always wondered how a 15w systems can seem to be "loud enough" and an 80w system can feel like there's not much headroom. I'm starting to understand the importance of a good preamp now. When I was using a vintage receiver it felt like once I went past 11 o'clock I was "turning it up" and now that I'm using something with a cleaner circuit it feels like anything below max volume is just "turning it down". So I guess if you are running low watts you better have a nice clean preamp so that you can ride the level in the upper register without any degradation to the sound.

Nice echo room you have. You could do yodeling, the sound would bounce off the walls for several hours.😀

A lot of acoustic treatment needed in that room.

Very successfully presented info. Love your logical approach. Thanks

I was already aware of the dB scale but the example of Max has explained how easily the power required multiplies. And the impedance explanation was excellent, I understand volts, amps, watts and ohms but had never thought of the consequences of an impedance varying with frequency and how significant it is to the required amplifier power.

I must disagree with a lot of commentators here - I am far from thinking, that this is a good explanation. It is a basic explanation at its best. The huge wattage amps often have much better control - even at lower listening levels. They also tend to clearly make the music stand much more "in the room" out of the loudspeaker boxes - so to speak. No technical explanations - give the same experience of what really works as listening in real life. My Snell Eiii's sound quite good with my 80watt integrated stereo tube amp - But they sound way better with my friends 200watt audio research mono blocks.. At the same average listening level - the mono blocks make the speakers dissappear! My integrated 80watter cannot do that... Even though its a great amp

im fick,went right over my head

This was so helpful! I didn't realize how exponentially power climbes, it's crazy! I also learned that i only need a few watts! Awesome!

Hi, thanks for another very well done video. Like you say, there are other factors, pushing a 40 watt amp might bring you into non linearity, greater distortion (not the good kind!) and even damage. I generally run higher power which keeps the amp running in a favorable place. My speakers are in the mid 85 SPL's like yours and I find the transients and headroom from higher power amps does make a difference, especially with respect to dynamics. Since I design my own amps I have the benefit of adding L/R level controls so this gives me the best of both worlds.

Thoroughly enjoyed watching your video. Very informational and you made it very easy to understand. Thank you!

These are great videos. Learning from your presentation style too 👌🏻

Nothing much has changed since julian hirsch of stereo review explained these to us in the 90s.well explained tarun.

Another really informative and insightful video. Thanks! 👍

Very good explanation. Most of us use less power than they think. The VU’s on my Accuphase confirm you’re explanation. Most of the audiophiles prefer class A amplifiers but they have mostly less power, take the Accuphase E-650 =30Watt the E-470 = 180watt. Driving large B&W’s witch a tube amp of 30 watt and never had lack of power. No earbleeding levels for me...

Great explanation with the numbers. Thank you.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts - it is very helpful and helped me as I figure out a new system.

I think you have everything it takes to grow a successful channel! I'm sure in some time you'll be well known

Great stuff! Thanks! i would love to hear you speak about the differences in tube and solid state amps. Thanks again

Nice explanation, indeed. One factor is also input levels from source. Just learned that with a new TT set-up, a VPI Super Prime Scout with a Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC* cartridge and a Vincent PHO701 preamp going to the aux in of an integrated amp (Rotel RA1572). With previous set-up (Ortofon 2Mblue to Phonostage of Rotel) I turned volume to around 35%, with the new set-up I have to crank it up to 50% to get similar sound level. This has to do with gain of the phono-stage and the low output MIMC cartridge.

Very helpful indeed. I learned some interesting things about my power needs.

Very informative and practical/useful information! Thank you.

Great video. I cannot agree more. 95% of us need 20W or less. Just built (DIY) monoblocks class A 25W @ 8Ohm. They replaced 350W @8Ohm monoblocks class D and sound fantastic. speaker sensitivity 91.5dB/v/m, 50m2 room, 2m from speakers, average listening volume 75dB, peaks 83dB. No need for more power. Invest in quality, not in Watts!

Just want to say I am getting back in the hi-fi hobby after a 10 year break. Your videos are easy to understand, clear and concise information. Kudos to you sir, well done and I have just subscribed, P. S. Can you please do a review on the speakers you have in the background, cheers and again thank you, greetings from australia.p.s. bought my first hi-fi in 1991.denon all made in Japan, lx44 jbl speakers. Harmon kardon amp, thorens turntable, cost me $5.500 bucks back then. Saved very hard doing 3 jobs, so time to take it out of storage and give it a whirl. Cheers again and thanks, sorry for my long drawn out rant,

Thanks Mr. Tarun. Excellent video

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience. I learn something new with every video.

Appreciate your insight on the topic, learned a thing or two today.

Original rega Brio and 4 ohm totem mites. More than enough for me, especially with A REL t5i filling in the sound. Very informative video

This is a very good and detailed explanation of how it actually works. Good job!

A very informative video, A pleasure to my ears, Thank's a lot.

Great explanation for a relative beginner like me. Thanks Tarun.

Thanks for the info, very informative, like all of your videos

Thank you, I've really learnt a great deal today. Great stuff!

Perfect. Everything I needed. thank you

Way back when, I was shopping for my first no apologies stereo gear. I got it down to a Sansui AU517 and an Onkyo amp. The specs were identical. The salesman said "check this out": he set the display amp switching system up to A/B the amps. The Onkyo had bass like a Chihhuahua. The Sansui had bass like a bullfrog. The difference was the capacitor banks. The Sansui Had a vast array of capacitors. Yes, I still have it. It needs a set of new capacitors.

Great explanation of headroom and why power is important to handle the dynamics of music - especially particularly complex pieces. “More power” is better to a point, but from this simple calculation for a moderate sized room with even inefficient speakers there is clearly a point where you do have more Watts then you could ever possibly access at reasonable listening levels.

Well done Tarun... you clearly accented the wild nature of different listening scenarios. But there is a simple solution to all of this ... If the manufacturers would just put clipping indicators ... a little blinky light that comes on when the amp is used up... on their equipment, we would have a visual indication of two important things... First overdriving the amplifier and Second, needing more power for our listening habits. It's simple, set up a listening gig at your usual levels, watch the clipping indicator... if it's flickering you need more power. For the question of headroom. The streaming services have answered that one for us. Most standardize their levels at -16 dbfs... so you need 16db (a 39 to 1 power ratio) of headroom to avoid clipping on the more dynamic pieces... for an 87db speaker that amounts to about 40 watts per channel of peak power. Average power is, of course far less. My listening habits are rather like yours... 75 to 80 db at about 3 meters. My power meters almost never get over 5 watts and typically hover around 2 or 3. My amplifier is 50w/ch and it serves me just fine.

Thank you - very lucid as before. I really have no idea what my power amp can do, because there's an awful lot of headroom there. It's a Quad and I take the view that all that excess capacity is probably just another case of Peter Walker being right as usual. Anyway, it's imperturbable and lets me use a passive pre, which is one of the less obvious advantages of those big flux dumping amps.