E34L vs (E34ii or KT77 )

[Rex_Rocker]

Do you use a "power amp distortion meter" to measure "power amp distortion" ?
Like how you know you're there ?

On modern amps, it's not hard to tell. They sound farty in the low-end and horrible.

Harder to tell in 100W beasts because at that point, they get really loud. But with lunchbox amps, you easily get there even before even reaching full-band volumes.

It's not something that happens suddenly either, but you get there gradually the more you turn up.

I guess if you wanted to get technical, you could measure it with an oscilloscope the same way techs measure where to adjust the bias to get the amp over crossover distortion. I'm not sure most people have one at hand, tho.

 

[beaubrummels]

Do you use a "power amp distortion meter" to measure "power amp distortion" ?
Like how you know you're there ?

One way to tell is to use an amp that only has 1 pre and 1 power tube, and you can tell. (If you leave everything else the same and only change the power tube.). The other way to tell is to dime a non-master volume amp in a studio, which I have done.