fronobulax
Bassist, GAD and the Hot Mess Mods
- Joined
- May 3, 2007
- Messages
- 24,778
- Reaction score
- 8,909
- Location
- Central Virginia, USA
- Guild Total
- 5
First let me say that I am lazy. I would much rather post here and glean wisdom from several people I believe know what they are talking about then find a book or website. Besides it helps post counts.
Second, there may be no practical application for the answers although I am noticing a few things about playing bass through a guitar amp that I don't like as much as I used to. Bottom line (insert rimshot here, please), there may be a new amp in my future but no guarantees I will actually use my new found knowledge.
Several people have stated several times that tube amps are louder. Being the anal sort who measures things, this initially bothers me.
I assume that, regardless of design, the sound level from identically rated amps, operating at the rating spec, into the same speaker load would be identical. If that's not true then please explain.
Otherwise, the reason people say tubes are louder is that amps are rated at a distortion level and tube amps have a pleasing and usable sound at higher distortion levels. So if the amp is rated at 1% total harmonic distortion (THD) but is usable at 5% then by definition it will be louder than the rating (20W RMS @ 1% THD into 8 ohms) might suggest.
So if I am not totally mistaken...
If my goal is to reproduce the input exactly then THD will be driving my decisions and the perceived volume should not be different between tubes and solid state. Correct?
Is there a rule of thumb to compare amps rated at different THDs? Obviously the usable distortion level for a tube amp is a subjective matter, but is the output at the sweet spot approximately 1.5x the rated output? 2x? 10x?
Is there an amp spec that gives you an idea of how much headroom there is?
Anything else I should have asked to understand the assertion that tube amps are louder?
Thanks.
Second, there may be no practical application for the answers although I am noticing a few things about playing bass through a guitar amp that I don't like as much as I used to. Bottom line (insert rimshot here, please), there may be a new amp in my future but no guarantees I will actually use my new found knowledge.
Several people have stated several times that tube amps are louder. Being the anal sort who measures things, this initially bothers me.
I assume that, regardless of design, the sound level from identically rated amps, operating at the rating spec, into the same speaker load would be identical. If that's not true then please explain.
Otherwise, the reason people say tubes are louder is that amps are rated at a distortion level and tube amps have a pleasing and usable sound at higher distortion levels. So if the amp is rated at 1% total harmonic distortion (THD) but is usable at 5% then by definition it will be louder than the rating (20W RMS @ 1% THD into 8 ohms) might suggest.
So if I am not totally mistaken...
If my goal is to reproduce the input exactly then THD will be driving my decisions and the perceived volume should not be different between tubes and solid state. Correct?
Is there a rule of thumb to compare amps rated at different THDs? Obviously the usable distortion level for a tube amp is a subjective matter, but is the output at the sweet spot approximately 1.5x the rated output? 2x? 10x?
Is there an amp spec that gives you an idea of how much headroom there is?
Anything else I should have asked to understand the assertion that tube amps are louder?
Thanks.