you're talking about max levels of 90 dB; that's a whole world of difference.
I am? Where did I write that?
It may well be the case that the average and maximum were close to the same as it was no more than 30 seconds before I turned the system down. No need to annoy the neighbours and all.
I've also measured some classical pieces where I had peaks over 105db. This was on my 2808 which is rated at 110 wpc I believe. Again, all was very clean.
OK, you sucked me in. According to the Crown calculator at a distance of 3 meters, a listening level of 85 db, sensitivity of 91 db, head room of 20 db (a lot more than needed for most applications) and room gain of 5 db, I still need only 71 watts of peak power. Push that up to 25 db of headroom and you get close to 300 watts.
Some reading on power requirements from the Crown site. Note that their calculator is intended for outdoor use so you need to factor in room gain. Crown recommends 6db. I use 5.
Since Crown makes these commercial amps, and amps are usually driven harder in commercial applications, I'm inclined to take their recommendations seriously.
Now, I don't often listen at 85db. Its usually closer to 70, so to give me that 20 db of headroom I crave, I need a whopping 2 watts.
By the way, have you checked out the Peavy IPR series? The folks at Danley Labs did some testing and these things are the real deal.
