Music Banter - View Single Post - 150 watt amp head louder than 100 watt combo amp?

~~Odyshape~~ · 09-08-2011, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuitarBizarre

NO. TERRIBLE IDEA.

1 - Amplifiers are heavy because they contain huge power transformers. These are responsible for feeding the rest of the amp with the juice it needs to do what its being asked to do, like jumping from "silence" immediately to "loud". That takes a LOT of power.

2 - If your amp has more power and doesn't weigh as much, then the laws of physics dictate the amp is running its transformer harder. It will be less reliable, and most importantly, WAY less dynamic.

Simply put, it will have less nuance and be one dimensional, along with being more likely to break and less pleasing overall.

Get the 100 watt amp, its going to be a much better piece of equipment.

Also, be aware, a *LOT* of professional musicians gig with comparitively SMALL amplifiers. The reason for this is because if you want to get that gnarly power tube distortion out of ANY amplifier, you need to run the amp LOUD, so that the power amplifier clips. The higher the wattage of your amplifier, the louder it will have to be to achieve this, because it will have more clean headroom. As was said earlier, with a 100 watt amplifier, you're already going to absolutely stomp all over any drummer on earth, no matter how loud they play. And you probably still won't be loud enough to REALLY juice those power tubes and get that nice breakup. A 150 watt amplifier would only make that more difficult and you'd have to rely on preamp and pedal distortion forever.

On top of that, as was mentioned, a 100 watt 2x12 will be MORE than loud enough for any gig. Hell, Brian May uses an AC30. As in 30 watts. As in, 5 times less than your 150 watt head.

Its mic'd up. It doesn't NEED to be any louder than a 30 watt amplifier is capable of, because there is absolutely no way you're ever going to need more volume than that before you're playing to crowds that are so large the people at the back wouldn't be able to hear ANY amplifier that wasn't mic'd up and going through the PA. Now its true that for a 30 watt amp the AC30 is bloody loud, but its not louder than a 100 watt amplifier and its still more than enough to get any job done you care to mention.

WATTAGE IS A FARCE. MORE WATTAGE IS VERY RARELY BETTER.

Portability is really important to me though. I don't need to crank it super loud or anything and where I am potentially playing is probably small venues where I just need to be heard over drums. PA systems aren't really something I need to worry about either. A difference in 11 pounds is quite big for me as im a skinny dude. Do you have any direct experience with one of the heads. The amps are so new its hard to get reputable information on them.