411 on amps

danger boy

I don't know much about amps.. and i'd like to know more about how they work. I'm not at the point yet of buying one. maybe later this year or next. I currently have two Marantz MA500 mono blocks to power the fronts from the Marantz SR5000. eventually i'll add three more amps.

My ? is... what does an amp with 110wpc say as opposed to an amp that drives around 250wpc. is it the same theory as bigger is better? I noticed a slight improvement in sound when I added the mono block amps. 125wpc as opposed to 70wpc from the receiver.
thanks

jcaut

Here's a link someone posted here a while back that I thought was interesting enough to save. I'm not sure if it is the type of information that you're looking for.
http://sound.westhost.com/amp-sound.htm

A higher powered amp will have more headroom for musical peaks, meaning that it will be less likely to "clip". That, on a very basic level, is one reason that more power is better. Musical transients are very demanding on an amp, and you simply can't have too much power no matter what your listening habits are.

The pros and cons of using a receiver for a preamp have been discussed at length here. While it's certainly not the ideal setup, it will work and you WILL get the benefit of the better amp. There are issues like sensitivity and gain, coloration of the sound and introduction of noise from the receiver, etc., all of which I can understand, but a better amp is a better amp.

That barely begins to scratch the surface, but that's all I have for now. Others on here know far more about this sort of thing than I do.

Jason