a Power vs Volume Question

thanks for your enlightening responses.

Actually, if your speakers' sensitivity are 85db/1W/1M, then, of course with 1 watt of power at 1meter, you'r SPL will be 85db. Since you'd need to double your power to increase your SPL by 3db, you'd need 536,870,912 watts to double your volume to 172db. So, if your SPL was X at your listening distance with 200w,and you now raised your power by 50% you're only raising your SPL by 1.5db. Not very much.

Ohhhhhh, THAT'S where I miscalculated! I thought I needed 536,870,913 watts.

Sheesh, and yet another 37.062017-foot Marshall stack!

172dB??? Wouldn't that cause incontinence, impotence, deafness, blindness, and sudden death? WOW, now that's really something to shoot for!

You think 172dB is double the volume of 85dB? You are kidding, right?

Maab, the ampunt of power delivered is determined by the input to the amp and the gain of the amp. The gain is basically how many times the amp multiplies the strength of the input signal. A 10W amp can have the same gain as a 1,000W amp, but the 10W amp will reach it's maximum limit and clip before the 1,000W one will.

If both amps have the same gain then they will produce the same volume with the same input. The differences are as Suarbrie pointed out and the headroom.