Slight concern in my mind

  • Anyway


    Somehow, somewhere, I was told that 600w output from a digital amp was similar to 100w from a tube amp, hence the journey I've taken, never expecting to run it on full volume


    However clearly that's bollocks, and I can't remember how that notion got into my head, but it came from somewhere, however, I think the logical option is to swap out the 8ohm speaker for a 16ohm, that sounds like it improves the headroom, however based on use age so far, I've never taken it over 1/3 of it's play, so I can only hope it works without blowing everything


    Does my international support team think that's the most sensible path?

  • Somehow, somewhere, I was told that 600w output from a digital amp was similar to 100w from a tube amp, hence the journey I've taken, never expecting to run it on full volume


    Short version: Tube and solid state amps aren't rated the same.


    Long version: This is a half-truth that, unfortunately, has been spread around the guitar community for so long that everyone believes it.


    Amps are rated in terms of how many watts they can push out without distorting the signal. This is called clean headroom, among other things. You can keep turning any amp past that point, which is where tubes and solid state differ.


    Tubes distort in a soft, pleasing, musical way - this is where distortion originally came from. Since people like it, amp makers set the volume knob to reach 100w at, say, 5 out of 10. You can keep turning it up, the amp will push out more than 100w, but it won't be a clean signal anymore.


    Transistors, which replace tubes in a solid state amp, sound like garbage when they distort. In fact, it's such a nasty distortion that, with low frequencies, your speakers start seeing a DC signal rather than the AC coming from your pickups. DC fries speakers. Knowing this, amp makers set the knob to reach full wattage at 10 out of 10.


    For a 100w tube amp versus 100w solid state, you're obviously going to get a lot more volume out of the tube amp because it can run at higher than 100w. Good luck playing clean though.

  • Just make some easy maths about dB, as i suggested!
    I guess that at 1/3 of the knob excursion and with 16 ohm you should not have issues. But checking it won't hurt. You don't even need the new cab to do it.


    PS: feel free to drop a PM should you come again ;)