50 watts vavle VS 100 watts transistor ????

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Colwarter

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Hi,
I'm now using a head/bottom amp Hughes & Kettner 100 watts transistor, and I want to upgrade to a Marshall. I really consider the Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 50. It is a valve head, but I don't know much about valve amps. Is 50 watts valve is pretty much the same as 100 watts transistor ? Or at least can we play with a drum with the DSL 50 ?? If anyone has the dsl 50 feel free to tell me what you think about it. Thanks a lot guys !
 
The Volume difference between a 50 watt amp and a 100 watt amp is minimal. Some people like a 50 tube head over a 100 watt tube head because the 50 watter will break up sooner.

A 50 watt tube Marshall will keep up with (or be louder than) a 100 watt transistor head.
 
I think generally anything over 15 watts tube will keep up with a drummer for practice and/or a mic'd gig.

The position in the room of a 15 watt tube amp can actually over power a drummer.
 
Trust me - a 50 watt marshall will ROAR with a 4x12 cab. A 50 watt head with a 1/2 power switch will still ROAR over a drummer at only 25 watts...with the added bonus of total power tube saturation and wide open master volume without being unbearable. I don't think you can go wrong.
 
A watt is a watt and will result in one volume level (given one speaker) regardless of what produces it.

However, there are different measures of output for amplifiers. One we used to see - not so much anymore - is "RMS" (root-mean-squared). Another is "program", and the other is "peak". In order to compare and contrast outputs from different amps, you must be sure that the measurement is done in the same way.

Farview is also correct in that a doubling of power (watts), given the same load (speaker), does not yield a doubling of volume. Far from it.

Another - huge - factor is the speaker. A given speaker is capable of a given loudness. Once it has reached that limit of loudness, you may be able to pump more power through it, but it won't get any louder.

The reason we hear so many people say (mistakenly) that tube watts are louder than transistor watts is that transistors typically clip in square waves, whereas tubes, when they reach the limits of output, distort in more musical ways.
 
a 50 watt marshall would definitely be loud enough.

volume is determined by the surface area of the speakers you are using. its just a matter of how much air a speaker can push. more wattage in the amplifier will result in more power to the speaker, causing larger vibrations of the cone. so increased amplitude of the vibrations. however, more speakers will do much more for volume than more watts.

with all that being said i can play my 12 watt fender princeton reverb with a drummer and it only has one 10inch speaker
 
Well, I play a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. 40 Watts of tube through 1 12 inch speaker. If I turn volume to 3 out of 12 I can jam with a drummer, at about 6 my ears will hurt. Yes, 50W is plenty to jam with a drummer
 
Thanks a lot for you answers ! It really helped, cause now I know I definately want the DSL 50. Thanks again
 
I have a 50 watt marshall avt head, its pretty much solid state going thru a 1960a cab and its too loud for practice. It's been gig'd with several times and IMO blew away the crate head the other guitar player used. 50 watts is plenty.
 
except for the fact that the marshall 2000 is not really a good amp (YMMV)

cheers - alfred
 
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