Newbie here. I currently have an Elac Debut bookshelf, a Yamaha solid state amp, and a Cambridge Soundworks subwoofer with 6 drivers in a sealed boxer design.

I am plan on getting a Klipsch RP-8000F tower with reported sensitivity of 92 dB (although Klipsch claims 98 dB). I do mostly 2 channel listening in a medium sized room with speakers that go within a few feet of a corner next to a media console where my TV sits. I listen to mostly classical, pop, rock in the <90 ish dB range (probably most < 80 dB) but also enjoy using my speakers for the occasional home movie with 2.1 sound.

1) What is the sonic differences between the 2.3W Super Zen and the 5-6W Rachael? Since they are both single ended triode amps, I presume they will be fairly similar.
2) Let's say I'm listening to something at an average volume of 75 dB, would there be any differences in dynamics between the two amps? Does the extra 3-4 watts translate to anything audible or palpable
3) Am I correct in assuming that since the Rachael is 5-6 watts, I'm getting an extra 3dB of potential volume over the Super Zen? In the case of the Klipsch with a 92db sensitivity, I presume I may get up to 98 dB (depending on room placement, listening position) over the Super Zen topping out at 95 dB or so?
4) I am leaning toward Rachael with the variable output to connect to a sub for watching movies. Any feedback on how well this work?

Thanks!  :)

Hey Derek,

I am sorry more replies have yet to come in but fingers crossed. This is a common sort of question here with various thread names, and I suspect if you wander through General Discussion and Frequently Asked areas, you might find useful reads.

In my medium/large room, relatively near field, the speakers are more-or-less centered on the long wall of a wide and shallow rectangular shaped space. So the speakers are relatively close to the seat, and have lots of room to the sides. My head in my seat is about 8.5 feet from the tweeters of the HR-1 speakers that measure only about four feet apart inside to inside. They are rated 92.5, and Bob, the maker, to me is utterly honest and forthright, so I trust that.

My loud listening for total immersion, using a .10 second speed setting in a iPhone app called Audio Pro, I get 70-80 dB averages, and pretty occasional transient peaks from something like 82-90 depending on the recording.

With a pre-Rachel version of a SE34, in this setting it was really good on a lot of music with my 94 rated speakers by the same maker, but lacked enough headroom to avoid distorted peaks for immersion listening on enough recordings to be an issue for me. I loved the sound, but got a Torii to fix the issue, which has many traits I like more, especially after taming the extra bass it brings to my system/room, and tuning for fine and inner detail with cables and tubes, etc. A bit of a trade off between SE and Steve's extraordinary push-pull versions, but to me the Torii, especially set up for it, can have similar spacial clarity but with richer/fuller sound and more ample power. Overall, I came to prefer it aside from having more headroom with my speakers. But I could well have loved the SE34 more with the right more efficient speakers, and applying all the years of system/room refinement tuning I did with Torii... both really good amps to me.

All this projected listening volume stuff is pretty hard to predict it seems, so many variations in room volume, distance, absorption versus reflection, treatment, speaker setup, front end voltage, etc. But I was running a pretty standard voltage 2 volt front end and was at times underpowered for my serious listening preferences with the SE34 and 94 dB speakers pretty close to me. Who knows if this would apply to you and your setup, but my story.

And by the way, the fairly widely held view that a pre stage can raise the source voltage and end up creating more volume is in my experience a myth for low powered amps, unless the source is rated at a less voltage out than your amp is rated for. I love pre stages for sound tuning, actually using a heavily modified ZBIT, ZRock2, and CSP3 in series now! But greater voltage into the amp, though it can make the sound bigger, denser, tighter, more extended, the Torii still drops into distortion at about the same volume level, just lower on its dial.

My experience anyway.

Hope this helps.

Will

Thank you Edward, Will and Brian!!! Appreciate the thoughtful, helpful comments!  [smiley=icqlite20.png]

- Derek