Tape Project Albums > Suite Espanola

Your Spoiling Us!

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jcmusic:
Two watts is more than enough with the right speakers, try some Klipsch speakers horns and sensitivty.

Jay

ironbut:
Yeah, that tape's got some wide dynamic swings. I think it's sent more than a couple of us to the drawing board to rethink our gear, but I think that's a good thing. Or rather, I think that's a great thing about these tapes and one of the promises that they've fulfilled. Having a true reference source and not just what the industry would like us to think is one totally eliminates the front end of our systems as a limiting factor. And once you have your system set up to play these tapes to your satisfaction, you can sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor and know that new kinds of media will come and go, but they'll never demand more from your rig.

steveidosound:
Well said Steve !
Some thoughts on dynamics and power-
Ben, if your system's real undistorted peak power is 2W and your speakers are 96dB 1W/1m, then your system's max level into the room (not counting the rooms own acoustics) would be 99dB (double the power = 3 dB more). If you went to 5W it would be 103-4ish.
You should be able to observe this with a simple spl meter from Radio Shack.
Something to remember here is 3dB more speaker efficiency = doubling the amp power = a just preceptable change in level.

So, if you set your current system volume for around 98dB at your listening position (probably possible in small room) on orchestral peaks, the minimum volume would probably be some 70dB down from that, which, you are right, is pretty darn quiet! Lower than the ambient noise level in most rooms. If you raise the minimum to say 40 then the max goes to 110 ! So that is more like 10-20 W from your amps. I am not sure if the tape has an observable dynamic range of 70dB. That is pretty extreme for ANY analog media. A real live symphony in a hall can be more like 80-90 range.

Digital media is supposed to give you that sort of dynamic range, and it might do that but there are obviously other sound issues we hear. The irony is that most pop music today is compressed into less than a 5dB dynamic window down from "0". I have observed with vinyl and cds that just a few more than that, say 10dB peaks over the average level is the minimum needed to give pop music any type of "punch" or "life" even if the music itself has no real dynamics.

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