esox said:
Hi
Guitar question.
It is said that a 30w valve amplifier is very loud compared to a
transistor amp. I've heard that 30w valve puts out more than 100w
tranny.
Why do they sound so loud?
I had thought it might be that they are often class A.
Any ideas?
Cheers
First off, careful with this question. I've asked it several times
(not in this ng, but other places where electron-heads hang out) and
i've gotten a lot of response to the effect of "tube amps louder?
that's b.s.- watts are watts".
While "watts are watts" is definately true, my best scientific guess is
that tube amps have a much broader and more powerful frequency response
in the midrange, which means they put out more of the waveforms that
the human ear can pick up best. SS amps can put out the same power
(watts) but the frequencies will always be different, some of which are
in the frequencies that the human ear can't hear so well, some more of
which might be "wasted" in freqs that we can't hear at all (above 20khz
or below 20hz).
There is also something like an empathetic vibration amongst harmonics
that tube amps are better at creating- i.e. the whole even-order /
odd-order harmonics difference. SS amps tend to create more odd-order
harmonics that clash and fight with each other, so some of the power is
affected that way before it even gets to the speaker.
(I don't have any references to data or any better explanation to hand
out, so it is very possible that someone may come along and correct
me.)
I don't know about the 30w Tube == 100w Transistor comparison (this is
like saying 1 Mhz on a Mac == 4 Mhz on a PC... too much other things to
consider)...
But i will say that my 5W Reverend Goblin (All-tube) will completely
blow away my 45W Peavey Pacer (All Solid-State). Yeah we're talking
different qualities of amplifier and different price points, but the
proof is still in the puddin' :-D
If there are any non-believers, i usually suggest them to go into a
music store, and ask one of the sales d00ds to plug into a 30W or 60W
Peavey Classic or Fender Blues Deville with the eq set flat. Let the
non-believer twist the gain and volume knobs around. Then have them go
to a Solid State amp of the same wattage and repeat. Another good
comparison is a 10W Champ vs. just about any SS amplifier on the floor
under $300.
Nobody's ever done it tho... or at least has told me afterwards..