Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Amplifiers

My experience from VERY informal testing over the years is that a powerful, high quality amp will give a small but noticeable improvement in sound quality. I'm talking about going from a 40-50W inexpensive but decent amp to a >200W great hulking amp.

Note that this is NOT from careful A/B testing and certainly not from blind testing, just my observations from playing around. I *think* the difference was too great to be just "expectation of better sound" but I would have to do more testing than I have time (or the amp) for to be sure.

If I had the money and was building a stereo system I would definitely invest in a good power amp... but only if I was already happy with speakers, room treatments and maybe player.