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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??
viper6383

Showing 1 response by magfan

magfan
1,583 posts
 
Watts is Watts, at least into a resistor, which NO load is, as far as I know.

One major difference is the delivery of power into reactive loads, which to a greater or lesser extent includes ALL speakers. Huge phase angles at low impedance will take the wind out of many amplifiers sails.
Transistors typically do better. I don't remember which, but tubes don't like either Capacitive or Inductive loading, again as a general rule.

The articles ref'd to in an above post are a good read. Thanks! Also, Nelson Pass has at least 1 article on the web concerning Current Source amplification vs Voltage Source along with extensive testing of some single driver systems.
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