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Original Message
Re: I have a number of amps on hand .........
Posted by krisjan on March 10, 2007 at 10:46:56:
After seeing your first post and before seeing this one, the first thing that came to mind was that the 70-watter was likely a tube amp and the 150-watter was solid state. I see that initial thought was right. From experience with both SS and Tube amps, I have come to this rule of thumb: a tubed amp sounds about equal in volume to a SS amp at about half the wattage of the SS amp. I have found this rule of thumb to be pretty true. The question becomes why is it so. My guess is that tubes can be pushed into higher power before sounding stressed (i.e. before the generated distortion becomes objectionable). It is the fundamental nature of the difference between tubes and SS. It also explains why I like the dynamics of tube amps much better than SS. Tubes respond dynamically more musically than SS. This explanation is independant of the pure electrical calculations found in this thread. If you follow those calculations, the 70-watt tube amp is less capable of generating SPL's than the 150 watt SS samp. But I'll bet the 70-watter sounds better and more dynamic.
Mark