I have a Randall Warhead cab and wanting to get an appropriate head for it. I'm 98% sure that I'm going to get the Randall RH300G3 head. The head is 300 watts power. The thing is though that my cab can only handle 240 watts. What's a little confusing about this is that the Randall Warhead amp that's supposed to be made for my Warhead cab (obviously) is 300 watts also. If the head is 300 watts, wouldn't it blow the cab at high volume? I mean the Warhead amp and my cab were made for eachother so how come the wattage of the head is higher than what the cab can handle? Would it be OK for me to go ahead and get the RH300G3 head, been's the Warhead amp was 300 watts also?
Amp Head Watts
- Thread starter Lagotto
- Start date
greendy123
New member
Re: Amp Head Watts
If I'm reading the specs correctly this is a ss amp with a tube in it? If it is so SS amps don't have as much RMS output, as they say technically. The speaker output is supposed to based on RMS. Tube amps usually have tighter spec on output and are louder than SS amps, so they need to match closer to speaker output. Someone else should be able to confirm all of this.
If I'm reading the specs correctly this is a ss amp with a tube in it? If it is so SS amps don't have as much RMS output, as they say technically. The speaker output is supposed to based on RMS. Tube amps usually have tighter spec on output and are louder than SS amps, so they need to match closer to speaker output. Someone else should be able to confirm all of this.
3th3r
New member
Re: Amp Head Watts
I had this question myself many years ago, and then I found it's a very complex issue with no simple answer.
Here is page that explains this whole speaker-watts thing much better than I ever could:
http://www.onhifi.com/features/20021001.htm
I had this question myself many years ago, and then I found it's a very complex issue with no simple answer.
Here is page that explains this whole speaker-watts thing much better than I ever could:
http://www.onhifi.com/features/20021001.htm
Rich_S
HomeGrownToneBrewologist
Re: Amp Head Watts
greendy123 is close...
The major difference in "tube watts" vs. "solid state watts" has to do with output-stage distortion. In reality, there is no such thing as a "tube watt" - a watt is a watt. (Let's assume for the moment that published specs are never exaggerated, and two differnet amps with the same published power output really put out the same amount of power. We're talking about RMS rating, here.)
In solid-amps, the output stage will go up to rated power, then clipping occurs. SS clipping is sudden - it just chops the top off the wave form. It's an ugly sound and it's very hard on speakers. Trust me, you don't want any output stage clipping in your tone. SS amps get their distortion from their preamps, which then must be faithfully reproduced by the output stage, at or below its max output. SS power amp ratings imply (or specify) some low level of distortion at which they can generate rated power.
Tube amps on the other hand, distort more slowly. If you drive them a little hard, they distort a little; drive them harder, they compress and distort more. The resulting distortion is musical, useful, desirable - in fact, output stage distortion is a major component of many people's tone. A tube amp might be rated at 50 watts (at some level of distortion comparable to what the SS amp makes), but that's not where we operate the tube amp. By the time we crank it up to get that good tube distortion, the amp might be making 60 watts.
Short version: to be meaningful, power ratings must include a corresponding distortion spec if apples-to-apples comparisons are to be made. Once we mode beyond specs, though, we give the tube amps and unfair advantage by allowing (even desiring) them to distort, which in turn cause them to generate more than their rated power.
Back to the Randall question: Remember, you don't want to hear your SS output stage distort. It sounds like crap, and makes all sorts of bad harmonics that heat up speakers and blow them out. You want a SS output stage that has extra headroom, so you don't get into the clipping region. This is why the "matching" head has a slightly higher power output than the cab. Besides, you'll never use the whole 300 watts, anyway.
greendy123 said:
greendy123 is close...
The major difference in "tube watts" vs. "solid state watts" has to do with output-stage distortion. In reality, there is no such thing as a "tube watt" - a watt is a watt. (Let's assume for the moment that published specs are never exaggerated, and two differnet amps with the same published power output really put out the same amount of power. We're talking about RMS rating, here.)
In solid-amps, the output stage will go up to rated power, then clipping occurs. SS clipping is sudden - it just chops the top off the wave form. It's an ugly sound and it's very hard on speakers. Trust me, you don't want any output stage clipping in your tone. SS amps get their distortion from their preamps, which then must be faithfully reproduced by the output stage, at or below its max output. SS power amp ratings imply (or specify) some low level of distortion at which they can generate rated power.
Tube amps on the other hand, distort more slowly. If you drive them a little hard, they distort a little; drive them harder, they compress and distort more. The resulting distortion is musical, useful, desirable - in fact, output stage distortion is a major component of many people's tone. A tube amp might be rated at 50 watts (at some level of distortion comparable to what the SS amp makes), but that's not where we operate the tube amp. By the time we crank it up to get that good tube distortion, the amp might be making 60 watts.
Short version: to be meaningful, power ratings must include a corresponding distortion spec if apples-to-apples comparisons are to be made. Once we mode beyond specs, though, we give the tube amps and unfair advantage by allowing (even desiring) them to distort, which in turn cause them to generate more than their rated power.
Back to the Randall question: Remember, you don't want to hear your SS output stage distort. It sounds like crap, and makes all sorts of bad harmonics that heat up speakers and blow them out. You want a SS output stage that has extra headroom, so you don't get into the clipping region. This is why the "matching" head has a slightly higher power output than the cab. Besides, you'll never use the whole 300 watts, anyway.