just curious. i know it's subjective...so give me your opinions.

75w components being powered by 100w versus 125w components being powered by 150w.

noticeable difference in the S?

 

No........looking at power only, not a considerable difference......you need 4 times the power to be twice as loud.

If you want an exact idea, just model the speakers in WinISD or some other program.

 

I somewhat disagree with Cubby.

He's right about the power (sort of - you'll see in a sec). It does take a ton of power to make a huge difference. However, a small difference can be noticeable (depending on begining level - the higher your SPL, the more power it takes to make a difference). You also have to bring in the sensitivity of your ears. Purely going off dB, Cubby is 100% right. However, we're looking at the effects of that dB increase to the human ear. i.e. going from 25dB to 30dB is noticeable, 140dB to 145dB is not as noticeable.

Speakers also come in to play here. A more efficient/better speaker running off 100W can be louder than a less efficient speaker running off 150W.

 

Sure....but it is very likely in this scenerio that the speakers will have very similiar sensitivities. The human ear needs a 2-3dB increase to be perceptable....based on a 50 watt increase, and assuming similiar efficiencies, I doubt the poster would noitce the small difference 1-2 dB especially considering the sound environment of the S.

Neutered you do bring up an important point, I think the speakers are the bigger factor than the amount of power in this scenerio.

 

go listen to the speakers, because power handing capabilities are more marketing gimmicks than anything else. just because a speaker can "handle" more power doesn't mean it will sound any better. nor does it always mean it will actually play louder w/o distortion.

if you are going to evaluate speakers by a number, then sensitivity is probably more useful in determining how "loud" they'll go. just be sure to compare apples to apples (with 4ohm speakers, dB/2.83v/1m requires 2watts, so it's really 3dB down compared to typical db/1w/1m).

 

what speakers are you considering? those seem like kinda low power ratings for anything halfway decent...

 

This is what philbert just commented on...power handling is not a measure of quality.

 

Perfect example, Cubby:

I swapped a pair of SEAS 1" neo soft dome tweeters into my S, replacing the Diamond Audio Hex tweeters I'd run for the past year. In this instance, the improvement in speaker quality was so great that I had to turn the gain on the amp down by a sizable amount as they were overpowering the woofers (65Wx4 amp) that have the gain adjusted all the way up.

Surprisingly, the SEAS tweeters cost me a whopping $80 for the pair. Diamond Audio tweeters from a dealer were $160