Well, not all watts are created equal. Everybody knows that tube watts
are better than solid-state watts.
However,
A funny thing happened on the way to the opera...
I've worked with sound systems (both live-sound and recording studios)
for over 30 years now and have used amplifiers of all ilks. In almost
every case, the solid-state amplifiers were all better behaved on all
forms of audio content, but tube amplifiers excelled at certain kinds
of audio content.
My all-time favorite sound-system was a bi-amped pair of Tannoys
powered with two sets of Yamaha sound-reinforcement amplifiers. This
system was almost magical in sound quality and had a presence that
I've never been able to achieve anywhere else. Yup, I loved those
Tannoys and have kept an eye out for second-hand studio units for
years, but the engineers in those studios seem to lay claim to them
when they get decommissioned.
But back to the amplifiers...
One of the Yamahas went to live in the great sound-system in the sky.
We replaced it with an equivalent set of Crowns, then QSC, then Mackie
amplifiers. It just didn't sound right until we finally tracked down a
used roached-out Yamaha of the same model. We installed it and the
Tannoys sang like they hadn't sung since the original bit the big one.
An amplifier has two purposes: To move the cone and to stop the cone
from moving.
It doesn't take a lot of amplifier to move a cone. Those 800 gillion
watt amplifiers that weigh 20 ounces can move a speaker cone with no
problem. But the problem then becomes that the speaker cone will then
continue to bounce like an old car with dead shocks.
Higher quality amplifiers are designed with the ability to move the
cone (which takes a surprisingly small amount of power), but the
wholesale resistance to allowing the cone to freely move on its own.
Most people don't realize that most speaker transducers are actually
electrical motors. They're linear motors, but they are still motors.
The amplifier is passing electricity to the motor to move it. But what
happens when the elecricity goes away and the speaker is moving? It
actually becomes a generator.
So, a super-duper amplifier doesn't really need much power, but it
does need to withstand the generator effect of the speaker.
Traditionally, the higher-quality tube amplifiers have this capability
and it's actually more native to the design of a tube amplifier than a
solid-state amplifier which accomplishes the same task through
different means.
AG
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