Hello,
I wish to buy a Class D guitar amplifier, and i want it to be loud.
It will only be used at home, but i want it loud.
How many Watts do i need?
I wish to buy a Class D guitar amplifier, and i want it to be loud.
It will only be used at home, but i want it loud.
How many Watts do i need?
More.
Actually, a guitar amp for home use needs little more than 20W to ear piercing if you use a proper guitar speaker. They are very efficient in a rather narrow frequency range.
Actually, a guitar amp for home use needs little more than 20W to ear piercing if you use a proper guitar speaker. They are very efficient in a rather narrow frequency range.
Eminence Red Coat The Wizard 12" Guitar Speaker 8 Ohm
LOUDspeaker easily makes more difference than the amp.
Each +3db increase in sensitivity is like double the power.
Each -3db decrease in sensitivity is like cutting power in half.
Typical home stereo speaker 88db or less, subs even worse...
Typical guitar speaker (Peavey's cheapest) like 96db.
Eminence Wizard is 103db!!!
You can think Wizard doubles your efficiency five times (Yes 32x!).
Or home stereo speaker wastes half your power five times over...
Typical speakers are terribly inefficient, far less than 1%. They
lack magnet strength, have huge gaps, and voice coil overhang,
throwing around too much dead weight. A 300W lightbulb might
be higher rated than any guitar speaker, but it won't be as loud.
Loud starts with the most efficient speaker, Watts are no big deal.
But you want enough watts to push the speaker cone into breakup.
A 75W Wizard probably wants at least 10W to breakup properly.
Less efficient speakers will of course need more watts to do so.
You can gain +6dB coupling efficiency by arraying four speakers in
half stack configuration. Louder for the same Watt, yes. But you
then need 4x as many watts to reach cone breakup, and lose the
option to play fewer Watts without sounding lame.
LOUDspeaker easily makes more difference than the amp.
Each +3db increase in sensitivity is like double the power.
Each -3db decrease in sensitivity is like cutting power in half.
Typical home stereo speaker 88db or less, subs even worse...
Typical guitar speaker (Peavey's cheapest) like 96db.
Eminence Wizard is 103db!!!
You can think Wizard doubles your efficiency five times (Yes 32x!).
Or home stereo speaker wastes half your power five times over...
Typical speakers are terribly inefficient, far less than 1%. They
lack magnet strength, have huge gaps, and voice coil overhang,
throwing around too much dead weight. A 300W lightbulb might
be higher rated than any guitar speaker, but it won't be as loud.
Loud starts with the most efficient speaker, Watts are no big deal.
But you want enough watts to push the speaker cone into breakup.
A 75W Wizard probably wants at least 10W to breakup properly.
Less efficient speakers will of course need more watts to do so.
You can gain +6dB coupling efficiency by arraying four speakers in
half stack configuration. Louder for the same Watt, yes. But you
then need 4x as many watts to reach cone breakup, and lose the
option to play fewer Watts without sounding lame.
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None. No amount of watts will make an amplifier loud.
It is not possible for an amplifier to be loud (except when dropped from a great distance onto a firm surface).
All of my amplifiers are silent (except for the noise they introduce into the signal being amplified).
It is not possible for an amplifier to be loud (except when dropped from a great distance onto a firm surface).
All of my amplifiers are silent (except for the noise they introduce into the signal being amplified).
The choice of speakers is definetley the biggest factor to determine loudness.
But why class d may I ask as some of the best sounding guitar amplifiers are either all tube or have tube preamps with the excecption of a few of course.
I was not aware that there are such animals although it does not suprise me.
The cool thing is that Anges Young of ACDC doesn't use any distortion devices at all and only realies on the pure power and distortion that his amps produce.
jer
But why class d may I ask as some of the best sounding guitar amplifiers are either all tube or have tube preamps with the excecption of a few of course.
I was not aware that there are such animals although it does not suprise me.
The cool thing is that Anges Young of ACDC doesn't use any distortion devices at all and only realies on the pure power and distortion that his amps produce.
jer
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There is nothing sweeter than a valve amp at full bore.
The nearest I have come to it us using a soft limiter.
The soft limiter has a couple fo transistors in the feedback loop with the bases fed from a pot. You can find a sweet spot on the pot.
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