In article
,
wrote:
On Oct 13, 9:10 am, Jim Lesurf wrote:

And even if they do, the trouble with listening in shops is that the
listening room is very different from where I will be using the
amplifier.

Indeed. However that is a vastly harder problem when choosing speakers
than amplifiers. And you seem to have chosen your speakers, so this
can't be impossibly difficult. :-)

Well, the room in which I compared the speakers was quite a bit bigger
than my actual listening room (11'x13'x8') so I'm not sure really
whether I chose the best of the three I compared. They are probably too
big for my room but then I don't need to have them very loud to "fill"
it.

This is the difficulty with comparing in shops.

Yes. And it tends to matter far less when choosing an amplifier than
speakers. If in doubt, make sure they have a larger room than yours, and
try to get them to play the amp with speakers that have a lower efficiency
and lower impedance. This will make it likely the amp has enough power for
you if OK in the shop.

However if your audiolab seems to you not to clip or overheat I doubt you
will have a problem with most other = 50Wpc amps in terms of power unless
your speakers drop to low impedance. The 8000 series tends to have pokey
small heatsinks[1], but can IIRC deliver reasonably high peak currents.

Above said, I haven't yet seen you say anything that makes me feel you
would benefit from a new amp. Except perhaps in the way of feeling pleased
to own and use a newer and - allegedly - 'better' one.

Slainte,

Jim

[1] The 8000A I have in bits has heatsinks smaller than my old Armstrong
626s. Both designs have tiny heatsinks by 'super fi' standards. (Although
the 8000 disguises this by hiding them inside the box.) Yet generally they
work fine for classical or other acoustic and uncompressed music without
overheating.

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