Members gardo Posted December 2, 2012 Members Share Posted December 2, 2012 I understand watts in a relative way as in more watts = more power. My amp tech told me that with the upgrades and mods my combo amp should be pushing about 50 watts and"trust me that's a lot" . I understand this ,what confuses me is that I have a vintage Pioneer stereo system that's rated at 120 watts RMS per channel yet even 30 watts of tube amp power seems so much louder .Can you explain this to me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PrawnHeed Posted December 2, 2012 Members Share Posted December 2, 2012 Two major reasons.Firstly, the power rating of an amp is the power it is producing at the point where it starts to distort. For hifi, that is the end of the useful range, for guitar amps, the start. A guitar amp can deliver much more than its rated power.Secondly, the rating is an electrical power ouput. How loud it sounds depends on the efficiency of the speakers. Typically, hifi speakers are much less efficient than guitar speakers (because they need to be less coloured). So with the same power input, a guitar speaker will be louder (at least in the relevant frequency range) than a hifi speaker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Special J Posted December 2, 2012 Members Share Posted December 2, 2012 Watts do not equal loudness. At least not in any kind of linear manner. All things being equal, if your guitar amp was 120 watts instead of 50, it would be capable of about 4db more volume at the same settings. 4db could be considered "just slightly louder". There are a lot of factors at play that ultimately determine loudness, including efficiency and design of the speakers, program material/source (it takes a lot more power to project low frequencies, hence why bass amps are more powerful in general), and listening environments. Wattage ratings are further complicated by the fact that there are no industry standards for them. Therefore, manufacturers can pretty much list whatever they want on their product. These are often referred to "marketing watts". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Radar-Love Posted December 2, 2012 Members Share Posted December 2, 2012 Originally Posted by gardo I understand watts in a relative way as in more watts = more power. Watts is power, just like horsepower is power and calories, BTUs, and joules are also all units of power. A 400 watt bass amp has the capability to produce a half horsepower. Originally Posted by PrawnHeed ...hifi speakers are much less efficient than guitar speakers Originally Posted by Special J Watts do not equal loudness... Wattage ratings are further complicated by the fact that there are no industry standards for them. If complete systems (amp + speaker) were rated in dbW (the product of decibels and watts), a so-called 100 watt guitar amp would blow away a so-called 100 watt hi-fi system -- at least as far as far as power efficiency goes -- with both producing 1 watt of power. There was a movement a while back in the hi-fi world to standardize on loudspeaker volume (efficiency) using dbW at a given distance such as 1 meter on axis in front of the loudspeaker cabinet. A hi-fi system operating at 1 watt RMS would likely produce sound at a comfortable listening level in a given apartment dwelling without complaints from neighbors, whereas a guitar amp running at 1 watt RMS might be loud enough to emanate sound through the wall into the adjacent apartment to garner a complaint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PrawnHeed Posted December 2, 2012 Members Share Posted December 2, 2012 Originally Posted by Radar-Love .....calories, BTUs, and joules are also all units of power.... No. They are units of energy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted December 2, 2012 Author Members Share Posted December 2, 2012 So lets say amp watts and hi-fi watts do not directly relate to each other because of speaker quality distortion and most likely the lack of a consistent standard for comparison . And watts do not necessarily = volume, but the increased power has the potential for more volume If so ,I'm good with that Thanks for the responses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Radar-Love Posted December 2, 2012 Members Share Posted December 2, 2012 Originally Posted by PrawnHeed Originally Posted by Radar-Love .....calories, BTUs, and joules are also all units of power.... No. They are units of energy. Woops, now they are: calories/time, BTUs/time, and joules/time are also all units of power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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