Tubes

Neskahi

Thinking of getting a tube amp soon. A tube amp rated at say 40 watts
would be close to what wattage in solid state. And would a 40 watt tube
drive 2.3TL's ok. I know this is elementary to many but I know nothing about
tubes except what I have read here.

fumoffu

I think a watt is a watt. I am pretty sure that tube watts are the same.

ShinAce

When tubes clip a signal, it's a lot softer on the ear. If you're pushing the system into higher power levels, tube wattage seems to work better.

Overall, a watt is a watt and you want efficient speakers for low power tube amps(generally 5-20 watt triodes).

F1nut

The rule of thumb says that tube watts are roughly equal to twice that of an SS amp because of the soft clipping. However, I don't think a 40 wpc tube amp is really going to drive your 2.3TL's very well. It will probably do ok with your 2B's and maybe the 1C's, but that's pushing it.

mhardy6647

a watt is a watt. one joule per second. 745.6 watts is one horsepower.
a symphony orchestra playing at full tilt puts out about 1 watt of acoustic power.

What sound quality and quantity will be associated with that amplifier watt the OP's asking about will depend on the sensitivity and impedance properties of the speaker(s), and the amplifier topology (single-ended or push-pull, class A or AB, tube or solid state, pentode or triode, local or global negative feedback or none, capacitor, transformer/autoformer, or direct-coupled, etc.).

nikolas812

I am relatively new to tubes but to me 50 watts with my tube amp sounds like 50 watts. But yes you can go a little louder because of the lower or softer distortion factor but other than that it sounds like 50 watts. But its the difference in sound that is amazing to me. Compared to the SS amplifiers I had. I will never go back. Much much smoother and warmer. Not to mention tube rolling. It gives you chance to tweak the sound a bit.

I think I was expecting a lot more from my amp because of different people saying how much more powerful tubes amp sound in comparison to SS amps. I told one guy that 50wpc didn't sound like it was going to be enough and he said 50 watts of tube power is like 200 watts of SS power. I don't think so, but I have VERY minimal experience in the tube amp department. Maybe different styles of tube amps are more immpressive than others when it comes to power.

Just my experience so far, so take it for what its worth.:)

Early B.

F1nut wrote: »

The rule of thumb says that tube watts are roughly equal to twice that of an SS amp because of the soft clipping. However, I don't think a 40 wpc tube amp is really going to drive your 2.3TL's very well. It will probably do ok with your 2B's and maybe the 1C's, but that's pushing it.

Agree.

I owned a Jolida 502a tube amp that cranked out 60 wpc. It was just as powerful as the Odyssey Stratos 150 wpc SS amp it replaced.

george daniel

I would look for a tube amp with about 80 watts or more for 2.3tl's,I'm sure that they will sound very sweet. If it were me,, I'd rather have more power(if there is such a thing) than not wnough. Good luck.

madmax

It will work well at lower volumes. The more efficient a speaker is the less power you will need to drive it to the same volume. Out of all the SDA's the most efficient is the SDA SRS and they take the least amout of power to sound ok. From personal experience with SDA SRS 50-60 wpc was ok but for louder stuff I really wanted a little more. The 2.3's are slightly less efficient so slightly more power would be good. My 2.3's were still pretty reasonable at 50-60 wpc. I'm guessing 40 wpc would get you by but forget about anything very loud.
madmax