First off, power is only important if you need it. Meaning, that if you are using speakers with a sensitivity of 105db, you could run them with a transisitor table top radio. You would only need about 500 milliwatts, half of a watt. But if you have maggie 3.6, or Sound lab, then you need a few hundred watts, like 500wpc into a 4ohm load. The load presented by the speaker is important, and the sensitivity also is impoprtant. Finally, they need to be synergestic, less concrete, but very real. I like well matched SS and well matched tubes. A friend has the latest legacy whisper speakers rated at about 96db sensitive, and we compared a 70wpc vs a 600wpc SS amp. Which had the best bass??? The tube amp, best mids, tube amp, best treble...you guessed, tubes. This SS amp is said to be a great match for the legacy whisper, but tubes beat it. All tubes won't as my quickies were a bit slow on these speakers. they are great with mine, 3.6's. Factors like damping factor, speaker sensitivity need to be included in the consideration of amplification. I prefer tubes, but cheap good watts are also available with SS.Jallen
LETS COMPARE TUBE AND SS AMPS. TECHNICAL
I am seeking some very technically minded people to chat about differences in sound quality, dbs, and power ratings. I have not dived into this much yet but in my past study, I find that some SS amps are uniquely rated (lie about it). Maybe there is special "sound watt" used when comparing input fusing and wire size to rated output. When looking at tubes, their rating for power is much lower. 50-120wpc seems about right. However, I hear people say it comes down to "current" BUT, current and watts are directly related. Since the voltage or wave amplitude depends on the sound to be reproduced, it only makes sense that the only variable is the current, thus the wattage. I run a Rotel RB1080 on my RF-7s at 400wpc. I have to wonder the difference in dbs from a comparable tube amp.
Sure sounds like tube is way more expensive but can really give some nice sound. My experience with tube is only on guitar amps and I would not touch a SS guitar amp now!
Has someone compared tube with SS directly for dbs, accuracy, THD, etc??
Sure sounds like tube is way more expensive but can really give some nice sound. My experience with tube is only on guitar amps and I would not touch a SS guitar amp now!
Has someone compared tube with SS directly for dbs, accuracy, THD, etc??