Tube Watts vs. Solid State Watts - Any credence?


I've heard numerous times that Tube watts are not the same as Solid State watts when it comes to amps running speakers. For example, a 70 watt tube amp provides more power than a 140 watt solid state amp. Is there any credence to this or just sales talk and misguided listeners? If so, how could this be? One reason I ask is a lot of speakers recommend 50 - 300 watts of amplification but many stores have 35 watt tube amps or 50 watts tube amps running them. More power is usually better to run speakers, so why am I always hearing this stuff about a tube watt is greater than a solid state watt?
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Showing 2 responses by bdp24

Kijanki is very right---a hard clipping amp is dangerous to the health of your tweeters. I had a low-powered SS amp burn out a dome tweeter in the blink of an eye when it clipped, and the volume was pretty low.
Tim deParavicini (EAR) has said that he can tell what an amp's bass will sound like by looking at the power transformer. For bass, the larger the better. Unfortunately, the larger it is, the worse it is (all else being equal) at high frequencies. An amp designer has to balance the two against each other and find the best compromise.