is 30W enough

P

pedro_sandchez

New member
hey guys, like I said in a past post, I'm looking for a nice little amp to practice with...after going off of some input here, and playing numerous amps at local stores, I have decided that the vox valvetronics amps have exactly the features I'm looking for.
Basically, I'm going to be using the amp just for quiet practice in my appartment, and maybe (very rarely) to play wiht a couple buddies. The question is, is the 30 watter going to be loud enough to play with say a bass and maybe some drums every now and then?
if not, then I think I'll just get the 15W amp and keep saving for a better larger amp to use to play with friends because right now I cant afford or justify purchasing anything more pricey than around 250 (which the ad30 fits into just right)
The one thing that makes me lean towards the 30 the most, is the adjustable wattage on the back. So when playing in my apartment, if I'm having to crank up the gain and volume to get the sound I want, I can just lower the wattage to keep from being too loud...the 15 doesnt have this option.
 
30 watts will be fine. You might have to put it on a chair to hear it (because it's a combo, you have to do the same thing with a 100 watt combo).
 
pedro_sandchez said:
hey guys, like I said in a past post, I'm looking for a nice little amp to practice with...after going off of some input here, and playing numerous amps at local stores, I have decided that the vox valvetronics amps have exactly the features I'm looking for.
Basically, I'm going to be using the amp just for quiet practice in my appartment, and maybe (very rarely) to play wiht a couple buddies. The question is, is the 30 watter going to be loud enough to play with say a bass and maybe some drums every now and then?
if not, then I think I'll just get the 15W amp and keep saving for a better larger amp to use to play with friends because right now I cant afford or justify purchasing anything more pricey than around 250 (which the ad30 fits into just right)
The one thing that makes me lean towards the 30 the most, is the adjustable wattage on the back. So when playing in my apartment, if I'm having to crank up the gain and volume to get the sound I want, I can just lower the wattage to keep from being too loud...the 15 doesnt have this option.
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I use a 22 watt Fender Deluxe Reverb for jams and gigs. It's plenty loud.
 
one thing I'm curious about is why the valvetronix 30 watter has switchable power rating? can't you just turn down the volume instead?
 
Amp vary on how they work. Some have all the overdrive in the preamp channel. Others get some of their grit sound from the power amp section.

Many amps have this to better control when the amp goes into overdrive. When set to highest power, overdrive occurs at some volume level (all other settings being the same). When set to lower overall power, this occurs at a lower overall volume level.

Ed
 
Farview said:
30 watts will be fine. You might have to put it on a chair to hear it (because it's a combo, you have to do the same thing with a 100 watt combo).
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If you can't hear a 30-watt guitar amp in your bedroom, you need a hearing aid.

For a practice amp, 5 watts is okay!
 
30 watts is all kinds of power.

If you really need more, there's probably a PA involved and you can mic into that. Anything bigger than 30 and your playing options diminish a lot - you have to crank a bit to get tone.
 
thanks guys.
I was just a little uneasy because I though it would be enough but the guy at store was really pushing the 50 watt one saying that the 30 wouldnt be loud enough to play with any drums or anything.

personally, I trust you guys more since you arnt trying to sell me a product...at least I dont think you are
 
I have the ad30 and it gets used quite a lot during Friday night jams in my studio. It has no problem keeping up with the drums and the bass. Not a bad little practice amp for the price IMHO.
 
There's a big jump between 15 and 30 and a smaller one between 30 and 50, as the louder you get the more power it takes to push another decible. But 50 watts really is a hell of a lot of power - and with that, do you expect to get tubey tone with your gain set to 2?

Unless you plan to spend a lot of time on stage with a Big Hair band, go for the 30 watt unit. And if you do need more power, remember the PA. That'll give you hundreds of watts.

If you need more power where there is no PA then people are all playing too loudly.
 
AGCurry said:
If you can't hear a 30-watt guitar amp in your bedroom, you need a hearing aid.

For a practice amp, 5 watts is okay!
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I was talking about when he was playing with a band.
 
TravisinFlorida said:
one thing I'm curious about is why the valvetronix 30 watter has switchable power rating? can't you just turn down the volume instead?
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This has to do with the tone. They SAY that by turning down the power level, you can still drive the tube in the power section, so you'll get tube-saturation. If you just turn down the volume (which can also be done, of course), you'll not drive the tube, and the sound will change. The difference is quite noticable, between turning down the volume and turning down the power level.
IMO the amp still sounds best crancked (I've also got the 30-watter), but there aren't many places where I can crank it....when we're rehearsing with my band, I usually set it to abou 1/3rd, and it's more than enough.

Stan.
 
I did'nt realize that these amps have a tube power section. it's about time someone did that.

edit: I guess it's not a real tube power amp? it uses a 12ax7? wtf? confused.
 
pedro_sandchez said:
thanks guys.
I was just a little uneasy because I though it would be enough but the guy at store was really pushing the 50 watt one saying that the 30 wouldnt be loud enough to play with any drums or anything.

personally, I trust you guys more since you arnt trying to sell me a product...at least I dont think you are
Click to expand...

BS, I've played several worhsip services (acoustic, bass, drums and vocals) with the valvetroni AD15, probably on like 1/3rd of the volume or less. Also, it was fairly rockin' music too.

I've done the same thing with the Vox cambridge 15. I also own a 30 watt tube amp (okay, yes there a difference), the Laney VC30 (killer vox clone) which has enough volume for LOUD gigs on about "2".

You will have no problem with the AD30.
 
TravisinFlorida said:
I did'nt realize that these amps have a tube power section. it's about time someone did that.

edit: I guess it's not a real tube power amp? it uses a 12ax7? wtf? confused.
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Yeah, it's pretty amazing actually. A good hybrid compromise. They actually use a preamp tube (12AX7) in a power circuit. It produces about 2.5 watts. Those 2.5 watts are then amplified further - so it's sort of like micing a 2.5 watt tube amp through a 30 watt (or whatever) PA. Except, there is no mic, and it's done internally.

They are great amps for a backup to a Tube amp. Except Vox has crap reliabilty and doesn't do recalls (ala Cambridge -insufficient Optocoupler- and I've been hearing, the Ac30CC series) when there is a major design flaw.


BOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
 
Treeline said:
There's a big jump between 15 and 30 and a smaller one between 30 and 50, as the louder you get the more power it takes to push another decible. But 50 watts really is a hell of a lot of power - and with that, do you expect to get tubey tone with your gain set to 2.
Click to expand...

There is actually little different between those ranges. Power and loudness are on a log scale. It generally takes 10 times the power to double the precieved loudness, regardless of power level. Thus a 100W amp is about twice as loud as a 10W amp. Most of your practice will be likely be much less than 1W. Most speakers produce about 96db for a 1W input. That's already a lot of volume.

Your 30W amp will more than enough for practice and most gigs as well.

Ed
 
Yeah, I was always understanding volume in regards to Wattage was exponential. So to get something twice as loud as the 30, you'd need a 300 watt amp, or head+cab setup. That's pretty fooking loud. 25 or 30 RMS should suit you fine for most situations, tell your drummer that you want to save your ears, and to play slightly softer! Oh yes, and ear protection... You don't want to be deaf before you're 40!
 
Yes, I understand the physics of the wattage thing, but it doesn't seem to play into real life . . . perhaps the bigger cabs/bigger speakers/more speakers of bigger amps really do a lot in the perceived loundess, because I know for a fact a 10 Watt amp on full does not sound as loud as a 100 watt amp on half.
 
It's more of a coverage thing. If you plug a 10 watt amp into a 4X12 cab it will be about as loud as a 100 watt head on 1 or so.

You will notice that a 100 (tube) watt head generally won't get any louder when you get the master volume above 5, it just gets more distorted.
 
Not sure if this is relevant, because you're talking about Vox amps, but I have a 30W Roland Cube which I like a lot and I also sometimes play through a 15W cube, the tone on the 15W is somewhat nasty in my opnion in comparison to that of the 30W model and I wonder if it could be something to do with the smaller speaker size (8" versus 10")
 
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