How do tube Watts compare to SS Watts?

My jadis OR with KT90's will drive your speaker. Used, $1500. Also look at the Ming Da tube amp with KT90's/new at $900. The Cayin KT88 "might" work. But I surmise it may be a tad on the soft side. There's not many tube amps used under $1K that will offer "slam". 2 imporant factors that go into makinga great tube amp that has "punch" is the quality of trans and the quality of tubes. Neither of which come cheap. ....There are ss amps under 41K that will give some authority, but as far as fatigue factor and lack of musicality, I couldn't live with it.

good comments mostly. JOLIDA amps used and modified will get it done in that price. 86 db is low tho and even tho amp offers 4 ohm outputs, if your room is large and you like it loud you may need more watts. thiels do like power but i am sure tubes work fine as long as watts are there. $1000 is getting kinda thin for more than 60wpc choices imo. i use 60 wpc unit with 89 db spkrs in larger open sided room and need most of it for big stuff peaks. your room will determine much. closed rooms offer 'free' boost in spl level which can mean a lot when you have to double down power needs at higher levels. imo a watt is a watt until you get clipping. just different sound tween ss and tubes

The reason you hear a lot about tube watts being more effective somehow is due to distortion- tubes make less of the distortions that the human ear finds objectionable- and so *seem* to have a greater percentage of usable power relative to transistors.

The effect is real enough on account of the way our ears work, but if you measure sound pressure levels for the most part watts is watts.

A lot also has to do with the load, in particular tubes in general behave differently from transistors, i.e. they do not double power as impedance decreases. Often though they may *increase* power as impedance increases. Sometimes this gives you more punch on certain box speakers that have a low frequency resonance.

Bottom line is that there are a lot of variables but with many speakers you do get the impression that tube power carries more 'weight'.

>>Bartok says ....SET amps with 300B, 845 are low power, "no slam" "no authority"<<

That is sheer profundity. It's a combination of the speaker and amp, not totally dependent on the amp. I've heard plenty of SET amp/speaker combination with "slam" and "authority". Conversely, I've heard speakers that would make your amp melt down like Chernobyl.

Your statement is totally incorrect. Learn the subject matter before making such disingenuous and sweeping statements.

Thank you.

03-14-07: Eldartford "The sound level that can be produced by a tiny amount of power"

Now that I can agree with ... :-)