a theory that may or may not be true:
“without the stored energy in the output transformer, 10 watts of OTL power will sound less powerful than 10 watts with transformer”
(I’m just a newbie go-between on this theory, from a DIYer who may wish to keep his reputation intact), but it has some logic to it.
OTOH, there may be larger factors working in the opposite direction?
“without the stored energy in the output transformer, 10 watts of OTL power will sound less powerful than 10 watts with transformer”
(I’m just a newbie go-between on this theory, from a DIYer who may wish to keep his reputation intact), but it has some logic to it.
OTOH, there may be larger factors working in the opposite direction?
Is that like how tube watts are bigger than SS watts?
lmao...
FWIW, energy stored in the OPT in joules = 1/2 L * I^2, where L is the inductance and I is the current.
Interestingly, this equation applies instantaneously as well, and describes how plate voltage easily reaches peaks twice the supply voltage as a result of plate current dropping.
Tim
lmao...
FWIW, energy stored in the OPT in joules = 1/2 L * I^2, where L is the inductance and I is the current.
Interestingly, this equation applies instantaneously as well, and describes how plate voltage easily reaches peaks twice the supply voltage as a result of plate current dropping.
Tim
In guitar amps, a 50 watt tube amp will in fact be louder than a 50 watt SS amp. Not because the watts there are louder, but because you turn it up farther and it compresses.
When you turn up a SS amp far enough, it clips. At that point it sounds crappy and yuo stop turning it up. But like most music material, the bulk of the sound is way below the peaks. It is only the peaks that clip.
In the tube amp, as you reach the limits of the amp, the peaks do not clip, they round off. This does not sound ugly like clipping does. You can turn it up further still. As you do so, the peaks continue to round off, but the rest of the body of the sound grows larger. So the overall average sound level throughout the waveform is greater. This is essentially compressing the signal. COmpressed music tends to sound lounder than the same material not compressed.
Eventually the signal in our tube amp grows to the point where all the waveform is into the red and you run out of amp. But this point occurs at much higher levels in the tube amp. the resulting distortion of the compression is far more listenable in the tube amp than the clipping in the SS amp.
When you turn up a SS amp far enough, it clips. At that point it sounds crappy and yuo stop turning it up. But like most music material, the bulk of the sound is way below the peaks. It is only the peaks that clip.
In the tube amp, as you reach the limits of the amp, the peaks do not clip, they round off. This does not sound ugly like clipping does. You can turn it up further still. As you do so, the peaks continue to round off, but the rest of the body of the sound grows larger. So the overall average sound level throughout the waveform is greater. This is essentially compressing the signal. COmpressed music tends to sound lounder than the same material not compressed.
Eventually the signal in our tube amp grows to the point where all the waveform is into the red and you run out of amp. But this point occurs at much higher levels in the tube amp. the resulting distortion of the compression is far more listenable in the tube amp than the clipping in the SS amp.
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