Tube amp wattage?

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: Tube amp wattage?

Then, to complicate things further, there's the Inverse Square Law, which states that a source sounds four times louder as you cut the distance between you and the source in half:

Take the change in distance between you and the source: 1/2
Invert the change: 2
Square the inversion to get the multiplier of perceived sound: 4

Same thing applies as you move away from a source. If you move twice as far away from a sound source, it will sound 1/4 as loud:

Change in distance: 2
Inverted: 1/2
Squared: 1/4

- Keith

 

[cream123]

Re: Tube amp wattage?

aahhh, I got ya. Thanks for the info!

 

[Sludgenutz]

Re: Tube amp wattage?

Lots of watts are wasted, because the room/garage/small stage does not allow the guitar player to hear the amp even remotely on the center axis of the speakers.

A 15 watter combo on a table/bar stool can put out the equivalent volume of 50-150 watts of floor amped music to a player's ear.

I think 50 watts is the least I need, because of my wasted watt theory, and the types of music I play.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Tube amp wattage?

Well since it's logrithimic, higher wattage is wasted in any case. If we assume that it takes wattage squared to double the volume, as in the the case of 10 x 10 = 100, then it would take 900 watts to double the volume of a 30 watt amp, all other things being equal. Our exponant must not be to the power of 2 in all cases, but the power required curve would start to get pretty steep at higher and higher volumes, nonetheless.

This would mean that a typical 35 watt tube amp could be plenty loud, compared to most 50, and even 100 watt amps, especially driving V30's.

 

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: Tube amp wattage?

Well since it's logrithimic, higher wattage is wasted in any case. If we assume that it takes wattage squared to double the volume, as in the the case of 10 x 10 = 100, then it would take 900 watts to double the volume of a 30 watt amp, all other things being equal. Our exponant must not be to the power of 2 in all cases, but the power required curve would start to get pretty steep at higher and higher volumes, nonetheless.

This would mean that a typical 35 watt tube amp could be plenty loud, compared to most 50, and even 100 watt amps, especially driving V30's.

The Inverse Square Law applies to changes in how far you're sitting from the amp, not how many watts it's putting out. Different experiment, bro.

- Keith