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200 vs 300 "tube watts"

#83
Mr. Foxen said:
Quite a lot of definitions applied to watts as applied to amplifier output.
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You cannot re-define a Watt - it's energy, and therefore an exact quantity of energy. It can always be measured inappropriately or perhaps misinterpreted.

I guess that maybe we should even consider the efficiency converting electrical energy into acoustic energy. Does a solid state amp with high current capability at low voltage produce the same effect in a voice coil as a higher voltage, lower current design? I don't know.
 
#84
When used as a unit of measurement for amplifier output, you can use various definitions though. That's why things can have various watt ratings, they are all right subject to their parameters. This whole section of the forum is about amplifiers, this thread is about output ratings. Understanding context is important.
 
#86
In the end game, everything about tone and power is in the ears.. that is the way I hear it!
beans-on-toast said:
A wattage rating with a THD+N over a specified bandwidth means more but even that doesn't provide the whole picture. People get too hung up on ratings. Loud enough, really loud, and really really loud is all you need. You decide this by listening, which kind of makes sense. A lot more so than 100W, 200W, 300W, etc.
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#87
Mr. Foxen said:
When used as a unit of measurement for amplifier output, you can use various definitions though. That's why things can have various watt ratings, they are all right subject to their parameters. This whole section of the forum is about amplifiers, this thread is about output ratings. Understanding context is important.
Click to expand...

I think I see the light. Those definitions should be clearly labeled and measure by industry standard; common acceptable practices in the case of no regulatory standard. Watts RMS, Peak Watts, etc.
 
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#88
BadExample said:
I think I see the light. Those definitions should be clearly labeled and measure by industry standard; common acceptable practices in the case of no regulatory standard. Watts RMS, Peak Watts, etc.
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Problem is watts are entirely unsuitable for measuring anything useful about amp output. I guess they stem from valve amps where there is an impedance switch, but obfuscating reality suits marketing departments, so they remain in use.
 
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#89
@FunkHead You may not be interested or nasty know this already. ..
But- the YBA300 responds very well to different pre amp tubes. From memory- I put a 5751 in V1 position of mine. Gave a much crunchier pre amp tube break up.
I ended up liking it more than my pedal that I was using for drive at lower volumes. ...whereas prior to the tube swap I wasn't THAT enamored with the pre amp gain maxed.

And. ....addressing the OP question. .. I certainly like my Super Bassman's 300w over other 100,200w amps. I find 300 tube watts just sweet for me. I'm mainly using a CLEAN tone and for my needs. . a couple of 200w tube amps I've used were 90% of the time perfectly fine. ..but that other 10%... I love the amount of power the SB300 has and that I can use virtually any cab to get what I want outta it.
 
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#90
rodl2005 said:
@FunkHead You may not be interested or nasty know this already. ..
But- the YBA300 responds very well to different pre amp tubes. From memory- I put a 5751 in V1 position of mine. Gave a much crunchier pre amp tube break up.
I ended up liking it more than my pedal that I was using for drive at lower volumes. ...whereas prior to the tube swap I wasn't THAT enamored with the pre amp gain maxed.

And. ....addressing the OP question. .. I certainly like my Super Bassman's 300w over other 100,200w amps. I find 300 tube watts just sweet for me. I'm mainly using a CLEAN tone and for my needs. . a couple of 200w tube amps I've used were 90% of the time perfectly fine. ..but that other 10%... I love the amount of power the SB300 has and that I can use virtually any cab to get what I want outta it.
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Good info. Thanks. I will get my hands on a 5751 and give it a try.
 
#91
Basshappi said:
Woody sure know how to get the magic power out of an SVT that's for sure! :bassist:
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I saw them in Burlington, Vt during the late 90's at an outdoor gig, he had a great tone and you could tell it was SVT's the second you heard it. He had the classic big warm tone that you could walk on that SVT's are known for. I was with my father and could only stay for three tunes (too loud for my father) but the tone stuck in my head all these years. I remember going to see bands in clubs when I was in my late teens, early twenties during the early 70's, when you could hear the bass out in the parking lot before you even got out of the car you knew it was an SVT. Those were the good old days.
 
#92
Turkeypills said:
I have a few big/biggish tube rigs.

My Sunn 2000s is only rated 120w but due to the ultra linear design, and by most other manufacturers standards you could "call" it a 200w amp. It's not, but I'd put it up against any 200w amp out there in terms of volume.

I do notice a substantial difference, but I am more than tripling the wattage rating.

My big rig is a Peavey Classic 400 into a pair of greenboy dually cabs.

Efficient cabs and more muscle than a SoCal beach in the mid eighties.

As for two ohm stable... I built a series box to run my cabs at 8 ohms. Problem solved, and now I can run 4x215s for a 4 ohm load so that's cooler than what most people are having for dinner.

View attachment 908434
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All these ladies over here talking about 200 and 300 watt amps...

Im over in my corner with a smirk.

Invalid Link Removed
 
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#94
I've used and directly compared my share of 6x6L6 vs 6x6550/KT88 amps. The ~300w guys just have a lot more depth and solidity on the low end. Might just be the power tubes.

A nice comparison might be 6x6L6 vs 4x6550.
 
#96
paulears said:
You cannot re-define a Watt - it's energy, and therefore an exact quantity of energy. It can always be measured inappropriately or perhaps misinterpreted.

I guess that maybe we should even consider the efficiency converting electrical energy into acoustic energy. Does a solid state amp with high current capability at low voltage produce the same effect in a voice coil as a higher voltage, lower current design? I don't know.
Click to expand...

It depends. Given that almost all audio power amplifiers are trying to mimic ideal voltage sources, this is sort of meaningless as the amount of current produced by an amp is directly proportional to the output voltage at any given time via Ohm's law. You can't increase the amount of current going to a given load without increasing the voltage. So there's no point in designing a 2000W amp that clips by hitting the power supply rail at 10V but can source 200A of current if you're driving a nominal 4 Ohm load because you will ever only be able to use 2.5A of that current ( i.e 25W) before the amp clips just as there's no point designing one that clips at 200V but can only source 10A, as it will only ever be able to put 400W into 4 Ohms. At, say, 1V output voltage with a 4 Ohm load you wouldn't expect any difference between these two amps as that is well within the voltage limits of one and the current limits of the other.

That said, if we're looking at behaviour at and beyond linear limits, then the current capability of an amp begins to matter a great deal An amp with current reserves beyond what maximum output voltage requires at its minimum load impedance will behave differently than one that reaches its current limits well before voltage clipping occurs when you start banging up against their respective linear limits. You might be surprised at which design would sound better under dynamic conditions.

Gross oversimplification and no one would ever design actual amps like these examples but that's the gist of it.
 

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