Newport Test Labs measured power output only for the SoulNote A-2’s conventional stereo mode, the results of which are shown in the ‘Power Output’ table accompanying this review.
At 1kHz, both channels driven into standard 8-ohm loads, the SoulNote amp delivered a maximum undistorted power output of 117 watts (20.6dBW), which very slightly exceeds the manufacturer’s specification. Driven into 4-ohm loads under the same conditions, Newport Test Labs measured a power output of exactly 200 watts per channel, which was exactly as specified by SoulNote for this impedance.
Look closely at the tabulated results and you will notice that the SoulNote A-2’s output increases compared to the both-channels-driven figures when only a single channel is driven, suggesting an unregulated power supply, but you can also see that when both channels are driven using a low test frequency (20Hz), the power output drops a little, to just 111 watts per channel when both channels are driven into 8 ohms, and to 169 watts per channel. This may have been due to the mains voltage dropping during testing — does not keep constant voltage on the basis it doesn’t represent a ‘real-world’ situation — but it is not significant, since it’s still higher than
