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Power output of tube amps compared to solid states

I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how tube amp power output relates to solid state power output. I've been looking at the classifieds for tube amps and I see lots of tube amps with 50w or 60w output, but nothing close to the 250w output typical of solid state amps. So I have no idea what type of tube amp is required for my set up, right now I'm using totem forests with a required power rating of 150w-200w at 8ohms. The bass is so powerful on these that I have the sub crossover set to 40hz. My question is, are tube amps so efficient that 50w from a tube sounds like 150w from a solid state? Or will 50w output from a tube severely limit how loud I can play my speakers? If so, are tubes usually meant to be driving super-high efficiency speakers? I had previously tried a tube pre-amp with a solid state power amp (both musical fidelity) and didn't like the results because the imaging suffered greatly, even though the music sounded nicer from a distance. Now I want to try a solid state pre-amp (bryston) with a tube power amp (no idea which brand to look at), but I don't know how much power output I need or if it will even be possible with my speakers. Does anyone know what I would require? Acrossley  (Threads | This Thread) 03-07-10

Responses (51-100 of 154)

Click title to read one, or click date to read all below it. 03-18-10   Once again, i return to how radical a departure arthur's pos ...   Trelja 03-18-10   I thought ralph's point was that the choice might be because ...   Pubul57 03-18-10   ' i do know this about power, i seem to want as little of i ...   Mapman 03-18-10   Unsound, the point of my post was in fact that all humans do ...   Atmasphere 03-18-10   How does this discussion apply to tubes versus ss in preamps ...   Pubul57 03-18-10   Aball's comment about "electron mobility being about a ...   Davemitchell 03-18-10   Doesn't the signal have to fight through all that copper wir ...   Pubul57 03-21-10   This is a great thread. my personal experience as a trained ...   Emorrisiv 03-22-10   Yes pubul57, the signal does have to fight its way through a ...   Davemitchell 03-22-10   Well, for whatever reason, tube amps sound better to me, and ...   Pubul57 03-22-10: Unsound Atmasphere, I would really like to read that GE report in complete form. Unsound  (System | Threads | Answers | This Thread) 03-23-10   I've only seen snipets but its easy to prove if you have som ...   Atmasphere 03-23-10   I'd be more interested in seeing at what volumes, ratios, an ...   Unsound 03-24-10   Unsound, seriously, just try the test i outlined above. it w ...   Atmasphere 03-24-10   Atmasphere, i don't have that kind of equipment. it's not th ...   Unsound 03-25-10   Unsound, its not. almost any service shop would have such ge ...   Atmasphere 04-02-10   I wonder if ge performed these tests to determine how airlin ...   Emorrisiv 04-02-10   Atmasphere, that might be true, but then there is the issue ...   Unsound 04-04-10   Unsound, sounds like right here is the point where you are g ...   Atmasphere 04-04-10   This is strictly my opinion/impressions having owned some s ...   Rugyboogie 04-04-10   Atmasphere, the "why" for me is; never mind the is ...   Unsound 04-04-10   Unsound, i think you hit on it, some speakers simply need ss ...   Pubul57 04-06-10   Unsound, for your answer: http://www.atma-sphere.com/papers ...   Atmasphere 04-06-10   Atmasphere, thank you. i read the link again, it's a good re ...   Unsound 04-06-10   Unsound, well, not vehemently at least :) all the things i ...   Atmasphere 04-06-10   Atmasphere, what speakers cannot be driven by ss and why? ...   Mapman 04-06-10   Is there such a thing? seems like ss can drive anything, it ...   Pubul57 04-06-10   Atmasphere, it's exactly here where we diverge. ime, speaker ...   Unsound 04-06-10   Mapman, pubul57, it would seem to me that speakers with a be ...   Unsound 04-08-10   Here are some speakers that are not well driven by transisto ...   Atmasphere 04-08-10   Atmasphere, interesting. does wilson then state that the w ...   Mapman 04-08-10   Interesting conversations. the original conversations chang ...   Minorl 04-08-10   Atmasphere, i suspect that some like; jim strickand of acous ...   Unsound 04-09-10   Unsound, if they disagree, its only because they have not be ...   Atmasphere 04-09-10   atmasphere, i do believe your argument has merit. it's just ...   Unsound 04-09-10   Unsound, you are right, a lot of esl designers do work with ...   Atmasphere 04-10-10   Atmasphere wrote: "what tubes bring to the table is th ...   Audiokinesis 04-10-10   Atamasphere, again i think your argument is sound, but, once ...   Unsound 04-10-10   Duke, perhaps a bit off topic, but in a previous thread atma ...   Unsound 04-10-10   Unsound, amplifier/speaker synergy can definitely be used to ...   Audiokinesis 04-10-10   Duke, ralph, unsound, thank you for the dialogue - very inte ...   Pubul57 04-10-10   Duke, thanks, that all appears to make sense to me. i do hav ...   Unsound 04-10-10   Unsound; i think you are referring to the ge study in the 60 ...   Koegz 04-10-10   Koegs, actually i was referring to more recent post by atmas ...   Unsound 04-10-10   Speaking of damping, don't drivers in speakers have their ow ...   Pubul57 04-10-10   critically damped means a q of 0.707. it is a function of t ...   Shadorne 04-10-10   Shadorne, well done. the link atamasphere provided is reall ...   Unsound 04-11-10   Koegz, i read that paper some years back, but i have not see ...   Atmasphere 04-11-10   I do not.   Koegz 04-11-10   thanks - yes it was very interesting and useful. please bea ...   Shadorne

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