I am a almost begginer in the hi-fi equipment universe and so I have lots of questions and no one to ask to.

I've been seriously thinking of buying a pair of M3ti and I also look forward to buying a stereo integrated Amp.

My question is: Can an amp such as the Cambridge Audio A500* alone, drive the M3ti to reasonably loud levels, in a small room (~10m2)? Or do I need more amplification?

* - Some specifications of the A500:

Speaker Impedance   4-16 Ohms

Power Output (Max) 65 watts RMS (8 Ohms)
85 watts RMS (6 Ohms)


Thanks a lot.

You have selected a very good combination with the M3s and the A500 for your room. The system will play loud and clean. Down the road you may want to look at adding a powered sub-woofer.

Ian Colquhoun
President & Chief Engineer

I have found this web-page to be very helpful in addressing the "how much / how loud" question:

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/Buying_Tips/articledisplay.asp?ArticleID=66

The article is very comprehensive, including tables that let you make your own assessments, but here is a particularly relevant excerpt:

"Stating power capabilities in dBW is useful in another way: you can simply add dBW power figures to a speaker’s sensitivity rating to get an approximate value for the maximum undistorted sound level that can be generated by a given receiver (or amplifier) with that speaker. With a speaker having typical sensitivity — say, 90 dB sound-pressure level (SPL) with a 1-watt input — a 17.25-dBW receiver will generate up to 107.25 dB SPL at 1 meter, which is very loud for a home theater or listening room (the SPL at the main listening positions may be somewhat lower since most people sit more than a meter away from their speakers). You can actually trade off receiver power for speaker sensitivity — as power in dBW goes down, speaker sensitivity should go up by at least an equal number of dB SPL. A very careful shopper can save money by buying a less powerful receiver and still end up with a system that can play very loud if the speaker sensitivities are high."

Something else to remember when you're shopping is that makers of better audio equipment are more honest and forthcoming when it comes to power. Companies like Cambridge Audio, NAD and Arcam produce amps that sound wimpy with 60 watts per channel, but those are accurate estimates of power across the frequency range. An RCA or Technics receiver, on the other hand, that claims "100 watts x 5" usually means that any one channel at 1 kHz can reach 100 watts. Cheap receivers will crap out long before a well-made amp with even modest power.

funny, I never heard the Cambridge Audio amplifier but I bought and returned their highly rated D500SE. Muddy, blowsy bass, weaker mids and highs than my 8 year old JVC CD player. When I got my M3Tis I got a Technics SADX 940 for under $150 to hold me over until I found my sound. (5x100 though I only used it in 2 channel mode) I had to go a long way to improve on the Technic's sound. I preferred it to the Harman Kardon AVR65 and AVR310.

Further on the subject of power - I finally ended up with the wonderful Antique Sound Labs MG S1 15 DT integrated tube amp which sounds better than the Technics, produces the most wonderful, lush yet accurate music from my M3Tis and puts out 5 watts per channel in triode mode. Yes, that's right, 5 little watts. Sourced from an Ah! Njoeb Tjoeb tube output CD player, those 5 little watts fill my living room with incredible, almost live performance sounding M3Ti music. (I use a little Velodyne 8" sub to fill in down low). Just my opinion.

Hello delbianco!

Its really a shame that the audio equipment manufacturers can't (or more precicely WON'T) conform to a universal standard when it comes to rating amplifier power (and many other specs as well)

One of the best ratings that many manufacturers use and have used over the years includes a rating that gives a continuous amplifier power output in a specified load (usually 8 ohms) in a specific frequency range (normally 20 - 20K hz + or - 3 db[and the + or - part is very important]) with a maximum specified harmonic distortion level (such as no more than .5% or .08%THD).

If you can find such ratings, it is easier to compare amp to amp. Unfortunately some manufacturers choose to over emphasize power at the expense of load ratings (impedance) distortion or frequency response, and that makes it hard for the consumer to make fair comparisons!

Every manufacturer has the same cost/power limitiaions in their designs and construction. These days, it is fairly simple to design and build a reasonably priced and good performing amplifier up to about 100w per channel. When you go over that magic number of 100, then the costs incerase drastically for minor incerases in power. Given the logrithmic scale of SPL to power output, your best bang for the buck resides in more efficient speakers driven by amps in the 70w - 100w range. when rated something like this:
Power output: 90W per channel (continuous or RMS) at 8 ohms, 20 - 20K hz +or- 3db, with no more than .05% THD.

If the 90 watt amp (above) is well designed, it will put out more watts at lower impedance levels (i.e. 6 or 4 ohms) - but usually with a higher THD rating - such as .5%

Bottom line - when comparing the amplifier portion of receivers or integrated amps - always compare oranges to oranges

Good Luck!

Randyman