rogonzab
259 posts
Apr 03, 2013
8:42 AM
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I found this interesting test:
http://www.amptone.com/g112.htm
The results:
40 watts is 94% as loud as 50 watts.
30 watts is 86% as loud as 50 watts.
25 watts is 81% as loud as 50 watts.
22 watts is 78% as loud as 50 watts.
20 watts is 76% as loud as 50 watts.
18 watts is 74% as loud as 50 watts.
15 watts is 70% as loud as 50 watts.
12 watts is 65% as loud as 50 watts.
10 watts is 62% as loud as 50 watts.
9 watts is 60% as loud as 50 watts.
8 watts is 56% as loud as 50 watts.
7 watts is 55% as loud as 50 watts.
6 watts is 53% as loud as 50 watts.
5 watts is 50% as loud as 50 watts.
4 watts is 47% as loud as 50 watts.
3 watts is 43% as loud as 50 watts.
2 watts is 38% as loud as 50 watts.
1 watt is 31% as loud as 50 watts.
3/4 watt is 28% as loud as 50 watts.
1/2 watt is 25% as loud as 50 watts.
1/4 watt is 20% as loud as 50 watts.
1/10 watt is 15% as loud as 50 watts.
50mW is 13% as loud as 50 watts
20mW is 10% as loud as 50 watts.
10mW is 8% as loud as 50 watts.
5mW is 6% as loud as 50 watts.
1mW is 4% as loud as 50 watts.
0.5mW is 3% as loud as 50 watts.
0.1mW is 2% as loud as 50 watts.
50uW is 1.6% as loud as 50 watts.
10uW is 1% as loud as 50 watts.
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5F6H
1599 posts
Apr 03, 2013
9:22 AM
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Interesting but a little flawed. These comparisons do show the logarythmic nature of volume, but playing a 50W amp through a 90dB 10W 8" speaker is bound to end in disaster and I'm not aware of any 4x10" or 6x10" 100dB speakered 5W amps in commercial production...
We don't hear in W, we hear in dB and such a comparative test would need to be through a common cabinet...2 different 40W amps can be percieved as twice/half as loud as each other. In short all other factors need to be equal... and they never are.
E.g. a 12.5W 1x10" amp should just need to be plugged into a 4x10" cab to be as loud as 50W (or louder than 50W)...but the 50W amp already has a 4x10 cab, bigger power supply, less sag under load, better dynamics
Amp Wattage (RMS) is also a diagnostic test/state, nobody plays a signal generator at a gig, nobody sticks 4 to 100mVAC into an amp used for harp with all the controls set halfway, or fully up.
A genuine 15-30W at the (reasonably efficient) speakers, whilst playing the amp with a harp can be loud enough to gig with. Even a 5-10W amp (measured) with an efficient design (big transformers, high voltages, fixed bias) & speakerage can be surprisingly loud...if you've ever had a power tube fall out of a 2x6L6, fixed bias, Fender during a gig, chances are you noticed the change in tone, but finished the gig...
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Last Edited by 5F6H on Apr 03, 2013 10:05 AM
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1847
618 posts
Apr 03, 2013
1:19 PM
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the little smokey is one watt
i,d bet pretty close to 100 db's
i have used it with a 2 12 cab
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tipjar
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STME58
400 posts
Apr 03, 2013
3:22 PM
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It seems to me that rating an electrical device by the watts consumed is a bit like rating a car by the fuel consumed. A car that uses twice as much gas should be twice as fast, right?
A big resistor will draw a lot of watts and do nothing for performance. Why should I care how much wattage an amp consumes? If the amp gets loud with out consuming a lot of electricity that's great!
I don't know a lot about amps and would appreciate hearing from someone who does about whether there is much use for the wattage number on an amp, other than marketing.
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timeistight
1173 posts
Apr 03, 2013
5:13 PM
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@STME58: The watts we're talking about measure the power the amp delivers to the speaker, not the watts it draws from the wall plug. These are two completely different numbers.
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Playing music... it's a privilege.
Kim Wilson
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SuperBee
1045 posts
Apr 03, 2013
6:25 PM
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I like to think of it like cicadas. Any two cicadas of the same type will be pretty much as loud as any other two cicadas. If two cicadas are sitting on top of a hill, chirping away as they do, and you are scouting around on the lower slopes looking for a good place to dig a hole for your morning toilet, chances are you wont hear those cicadas. But if there are a couple of thousand cicadas together up there, you might forget about that hole for a while and instead go looking for what the heck is making that godawful racket.
So, the moral is, if you want to generate a godawful racket which will make folks forget about their shit for a while, you need to get a whole bunch of cicadas together. Its one thing to get them together, But you gotta be able to feed them all or they die. Dead cicadas are noticeably quieter
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Last Edited by SuperBee on Apr 03, 2013 6:27 PM
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nacoran
6647 posts
Apr 03, 2013
7:43 PM
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Chirp. :)
Everyone together now!!!
Chirp.
Chirp.
Chirp.
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STME58
401 posts
Apr 03, 2013
11:32 PM
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@timeistight,
Thanks for the clarification. There are products, such as electric vacuum cleaners that use the amount or power drawn from the wall as a rating. There are many cases where a common spec given for an item is utterly useless in comparing items. Glad to hear amplifiers have at least a semi useful spec in wattage.
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