Having enough room inside a building so that even tall people don't hit their heads is a wonderful idea. Especially if you are tall.
Doesn't matter much if you're short.
And we're bringing this up this morning because of the flood of mail I received concerning yesterday's post where I pointed out Watts are Watts. I apparently ran counter to quite a number of folks who thought we all agreed that headroom is essential in a high-end audio system.
Well, we still agree. So, what's the discrepancy?
I think I might have leaned too far in one direction in my attempt to explain an often misunderstood concept. That concept is that the loudspeaker takes what it wants regardless of what's powering it.
If the loudspeaker demands 20 Watts to reproduce X frequency at X volume, then it doesn't matter if you have a monster amp or a weenie amp connected. You will still deliver only what the loudspeaker is asking for (as instructed by the music and that's the missing element).
Is there then a difference between connecting a 1200 Watt amplifier to a loudspeaker vs. a 100 Watt amplifier? Heck yes! And that difference is called available headroom (among a myriad of other benefits we can discuss in a future post—like added transparency, depth, and spatial isolation).
I like to use automobiles as examples when it comes to headroom. We can all agree that the size of a car's engine doesn't matter much if you're loping slowly through a 20 mph school zone. My Tesla's not going to outperform someone's Toyota Prius in the school zone. But add some dynamic requirements and we have an entirely different story.
The instantaneous cannon blast, the thwack of a bass drum, the snap of a snare drum sounds quite different when they are unfettered by the limitations of a small amplifier. Listening to an orchestras dynamic swells with a smaller amp is a very different experience than that of a bigger amp that excels at headroom.
For one thing, small amps don't sound effortless. Sure, they supply the needed power but at what cost? A Prius can accelerate at a respectable rate, but it's hardly effortless.
Headroom matters.
