tube watts vs solid state watts

I think tube amps have 3 to 6db more headroom then ss amps at any given pwoer rating before serious levels of distortion become evident.

Larry

Samuelaudio,

Your question is complicated by the term perceived loudness. Loudness is the preception of sound level. Had you asked do they vary in produced sound presssure level (SPL), that depends on the gain. One 60 watt amp might reach full level with a .5 volt input, another 1.5 volt, a case in point being the old Mac 60 and Dynaco 60. Obviously the Mac 60 had much higher gain. It also depends on how well the amp matches the impedance characteristics of the speaker. Some speakers are notorious for dipping down to very low impedances at certain frequencies.

Loudness, OTH, has many characteristics. Distortion is a main component, so even a moderate SPL can seem loud, just visit the "HIFI" room of most Circuit City stores. In so far as tube amps might be more prone to introduce distortions, e.g. tube microphonics, they can indeed sound louder for a given input.

db

I am not so concerned with the location of the volume knob or which amp gives more volume on a given setting. That of coarse is dependent on the gain of the amp and the matching between the two components.

I have experienced over and over that tubes amps just simply play louder per watt of rating. I am not a tech guy but know what I have experienced playing with perhaps 15-20 SS and tube amps in my home.

One other thing I have noticed. I love both SS and tube amps and will always have one of each on hand. My ears find that SS amps fire the sound out of the speakers more than tube amps. They attack the listening position more. Tube amps seem to float the sound out of the speakers more. Again, this is something I have found to be generally true. The one exception was my Mac MC402 amp which did not fire out the sound like most SS amps but floated it out. Just like the reviewer said " it was the best tube amp I have ever heard".

It seems to me that there are low, or lower, watt tube amps paired with speakers that one generally would never dream of doing with the same watt ss amp.

Watts is watts! But since you can drive most tube amps well past clipping (into serious distortion) without hurting your speakers, many tube users routinely clip their amps to high distortion levels to get a little extra volume.

If you do that with a solid-state amp, the odd-order harmonic distortion will grate on your ears, and you'll likely burn out your speaker's tweeters. This is why solid-state users prefer to use amps with more than enough power to get the job done, while tube users take advantage of the tube's soft clipping nature and many times use an amp that is way underpowered to drive their speakers. I guess they don't mind/notice the compression, and they welcome the extra fuzziness of the distortion.

And I don't know of any tube amps that have 3 to 6dB of headroom. Actually, not too many amps of any type have that much headroom.