Amp Wattage Ratings...?

"the back" is generally (maximum) AC input power, not what it puts out into speakers.

 

As stated - those are the power consumption figures, not the output.

 

Yep, input wattage by the power connector/cord. Output wattage is at the speaker connectors if equipped. You'll always have to put more in than you get out.

 

And your going to find this entirely backwards in newer amps. They are going to say they produce a lot more power than they draw.
Peavey has a paper on it: www.peavey.com/support/technotes/hartley/chapter_4.pdf

 

More a case of antiquated rating standards. We all know you can't get something for nothing. Newer amps can have efficiencies of 90%, whereas when the standards were developed you were lucky to reach 50%.

 

100 tube watts = x? Soild state watts? (Sorry for going off the path a little but still a watts question).

 

Electrically/ electronically no difference, perceived difference when adding distortion with one or the other is a different story.

 

Powersoft and Hoellstern do it the same way. One key to understand those specs is to understand the physik of audio signals.
My Powersoft Digam 5000 is rated to 5000 Watt output power. However the sticker besides the main reads 1200 Watt consumption at the line socket.

QSC provides in datasheets numbers for line-current consumption for 1/8 and 1/3 of rated output power (pink noise) which indeed tells us nearly the same what we want to know!
It's much more easy to look at the amplifier how much power or current is drawn at the socket instead of reading a datasheet that is mostly not on hand!

 

300 watts of power is what the amp draws in order to produce 100 continuous watts of clean amplified power.
Fender is very forthright and honest it it's wattage ratings. Other brands, not so much.

 

That's true only for sine waves.

If the input signal was a signal like a bass guitar than the reachable clean amplified power will be restricted to something like 1/8 of 100 Watt (or something similar). The average power consumption at the line socket will be reduced to appro 15..20% of 300 Watt for this case (rough words).

It depends. If I'd like to know the average consumption for a sine wave than Fender does it the right way. If I'd like to know the average consumption for a heavily ovderdriven output than yes Fender does it the right way. However if I'd like to know the average for an audible clean audio program than no, Fender does not publish any average number for any real world scenario.

 

Just look at any of Fender's schematics. They are very readily available to anyone as pdf's. They show the wattage at both 100 Hz and also at 1kHz at 8 ohms and also at 4 ohms. No one else does that. I am so tired of all the anti-Fender lies. The truth is readily available to everyone that wants to know the truth.

 

The point is not slighting Fender, the spec they show is a steady state like most people. That was a standard from home audio that does not represent the duty cycles of live instrument production. The standard is the question here not the manufacturer.

 

Thank's a lot for clarifying.

 

I know sometimes the translations can be a problem.

 

Sometimes a manufacturer gives information for "standard" and average consumption.
http://www.gallien-krueger.com/wp-content/uploads/1001RB-Owners-Manual.pdf

Page 16 reads as follows:
Power Requirements:
880W (full power)
165W (average power)

So far I remember both ratings can be read on the amp sticker as well.

880 Watt is not a really practical number because nobody turns all the way all knobs like Gain and Master and Boost/Drive to full crank up. By the other hand the term "full power" might properly interpreted as a short term "peak power" because a bass guitar signal has plenty of very strong transients.

165 Watt represents the average consumption if the amp output is driven hard with a signal like a peak limited pink noise. The pink noise does a similar strain to the amp like a bass player would be able to do.