How can the little GLOW Amp One sound better than transistor amplifiers that have 100 or more watts per channel?
Transistor watts are cheap. You can buy a 100 watt receiver for a few hundred bucks at most any electronics outlet. But Big Name audio power ratings are NOT a reliable way to determine how an amplifier will perform. A useful analogy is to compare a complex musical signal to a winding mountain road. Which would be better suited for such a road…. a small, well balanced sports car, or a monster truck? Sure, the big truck’s massive engine can produce more torque and more horsepower, but does all that power allow it to navigate the mountain road with the same ability as the little sports car? Power rating tests are conducted with a stable, non-musical signal, usually from a white noise generator with a constant 8 ohm load. This is not music. Unlike a white noise signal, music provides a much more complex signal for an amplifier to recreate, presenting a varying, and not a constant, load. In short, the wattage ratings of the typical Big Name amplifier tell you nothing about how the amplifi
