watts is watts, which means if if you get more usable watts because of soft clipping then you got more watts!
Someone mentioned distortion, distortion can be percieved as being 10 times louder than it really is. Accepted practices of one percent distortion setting the standards for the amplifiers quoted power rating as Sean mentioned makes most 60 watt tube amplifiers like 20 watts.
But unfortunatley everyone missed the point and continues to miss the real reason tubes sound louder than solid state.
http://stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/806halcro/index4.html
See figure 9 on the link above.
Halcro DM88 Monoblock is playing at 100 watts and look at the complete lack of harmonic content with a 50hz input
Now compare.
http://stereophile.com/tubepoweramps/306yamamoto/index3.html
Yamamoto tube amplifier look at the harmonic by products which are ADDED to a simple 50hz signal, now these byproducts do not effect the voltage or WATTS, so in this case the tube 100 watts offer a great deal more sound than the SS watts.
The factor I just demonstrated with the comparison and the soft clipping has everything to do with tube watt sound like more than a solid state watt.
But depending on your speakers getting tubes may be a bad idea as speakers are not always compatible with two very different amplifiers. Many speakers are not designed well enough to have solid state run on them and the ones that are do not sound very good with tubes. So your speakers are going to determine which amplifier type is best for you.
Someone mentioned distortion, distortion can be percieved as being 10 times louder than it really is. Accepted practices of one percent distortion setting the standards for the amplifiers quoted power rating as Sean mentioned makes most 60 watt tube amplifiers like 20 watts.
But unfortunatley everyone missed the point and continues to miss the real reason tubes sound louder than solid state.
http://stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/806halcro/index4.html
See figure 9 on the link above.
Halcro DM88 Monoblock is playing at 100 watts and look at the complete lack of harmonic content with a 50hz input
Now compare.
http://stereophile.com/tubepoweramps/306yamamoto/index3.html
Yamamoto tube amplifier look at the harmonic by products which are ADDED to a simple 50hz signal, now these byproducts do not effect the voltage or WATTS, so in this case the tube 100 watts offer a great deal more sound than the SS watts.
The factor I just demonstrated with the comparison and the soft clipping has everything to do with tube watt sound like more than a solid state watt.
But depending on your speakers getting tubes may be a bad idea as speakers are not always compatible with two very different amplifiers. Many speakers are not designed well enough to have solid state run on them and the ones that are do not sound very good with tubes. So your speakers are going to determine which amplifier type is best for you.