What size tube guitar amp is 62% as loud as a trumpet?

Is this an IQ test?

The formula and this usage of it is from knowledgeable, respected math/guitar people 

 
I don't trust anyplace where they use "knowledgeable, respected" and "math/guitar people" in the same sentence.

drewfx1

The formula and this usage of it is from knowledgeable, respected math/guitar people 

 
I don't trust anyplace where they use "knowledgeable, respected" and "math/guitar people" in the same sentence.

 
How do you feel about this?:
 
2^log10(P2/P1) * 100%

But we are comparing a trumpet to a amplifier... so we need to know the spl output of a amplifier coupled to a speaker at X ohms and X db sensitivity...
 
Please do not take too seriously..

cjlee
But we are comparing a trumpet to a amplifier... so we need to know the spl output of a amplifier coupled to a speaker at X ohms and X db sensitivity...
 
Please do not take too seriously..

:-)
 
I'll submit that in the context of comparing a guitar amp to a trumpet that one would start with suggesting an approximation for the SPL produced by the trumpet player and the trumpet... at some distance, at some frequency or frequency band, with some choice of weighting.
 
:-)

mike_mccue
How do you feel about this?:
 
2^log10(P2/P1) * 100%

All I know is 2880.26 goes to 11.
 

mike_mccue
 
I wonder if anyone is going to get around to seeing the relationship between the output of a "5 watt amp" compared to a "1 watt amp".
 
 
 
 
This seems to be the direction of thinking being pursued by the person who posted the web info that I linked to in the OP.

Well it seems that he is saying five watts is too much for "real bedroom" volume. And so is one watt he seems to believe.

Then he talks about going further down in orders of magnitude on down to milliamp wattage.

I was trying to think of what kind of speaker would you use in such a amp. Thin cone material with small voice coil? Reminded me of a tweeter.

Not really understanding this quest for true bedroom volume.

I have a little Vox AC4TV mini.
 
It's a 4 watt (1 EL84) amp but switchable down to either 1 watt or .1 watt. Single volume and a tone control that doesn't really do anything (so I leave it turned all the way up). It has a little speaker, but I like to plug it into an external cab.
 
At 4 watts it's LOUD and clean and yes I've plugged it into my Marshall 4x12 1960A and it has no problem there.
 
At 1 watt you can get some distortion if you turn it up enough, but not quite at what I'd consider a bedroom volume.
 
At .1 watt you can turn it up enough to play the blues at 2 AM or while watching TV. Through a standard 12" guitar speaker with 80 watts power handling.
 
And all things being equal, a 100 watt head would be +18dB louder than the .1 watts.

Gentlemen, I understand what someone who wants "bedroom" volume is after. Isn't it much easier to put on headphones?

Here's my reasoning: If your going to use a milliwatt amp through a 8" - 12" speaker, you still moving a good amount of air. 95db spl is pretty darn loud!

I have lived in apartments and understand the situation. That's when I got my first amp SIM and some headphones.

Was that a compromise? Yes it was. The pursuit of "bedroom" volume is a fantasy. There is no such thing! 😊

However, if your pursuit is tone and not "bedroom" volume, everything I just said does not apply. And for the pursuit of tone I am interested in these milliwatt amps.

Wondering what type of tubes they use? Are these tubes still being made? Hand wired? I'll have to look into this. My curiosity is up.

Grem
Gentlemen, I understand what someone who wants "bedroom" volume is after. Isn't it much easier to put on headphones?

Here's my reasoning: If your going to use a milliwatt amp through a 8" - 12" speaker, you still moving a good amount of air. 95db spl is pretty darn loud!

I have lived in apartments and understand the situation. That's when I got my first amp SIM and some headphones.

Was that a compromise? Yes it was. The pursuit of "bedroom" volume is a fantasy. There is no such thing! 😊

It's no different than playing your stereo or TV at low volume. Do people switch to different amps or speakers when they want quiet listening? No. They just turn down the volume and it gets quieter. There used to be "loudness" switches on stereos to supposedly compensate for changes in our hearing's equal loudness contours at low listening levels by boosting high and low frequencies, but that was really imperfect (it's very hard to do that job properly) and often misunderstood (and left on all the time) and it seems to have fallen out of popularity.
 
The only difference with guitar amps is if you want actual power tube distortion at low volume, you either need to make things real inefficient (various types of attenuators that mostly turn power into heat) or reduce the output power of the amp (various types of scaling the tube behavior or very low power tubes). Or both.
 
Speaker breakup is just not practical at low volumes.
 
 
But I think the point of this thread is that many people have very little clue how little actual power an amp puts out to achieve a pretty significant volume. So if you want actual power tube distortion at bedroom volumes, you're really talking about < 1 watt or using an attenuator of some type.
 
In general our intuition seems just terribly badly equipped to deal with any logarithmic/exponential behavior in our world.

I'm not really worried about the bedroom, I do fine there.😄

I'm looking more for studio levels that are easier on the years. I'm starting to lose some of my hearing and I'm trying to save what I can.

MakeShift
I'm not really worried about the bedroom, I do find there.😄

I'm looking more for studio levels that are easier on the years. I'm starting to lose some of my hearing and I'm trying to save what I can.

I'm glad your doing OK in the bedroom ….
 
FWIW ….I always have to keep my levels very low …
I live in apt , it's pretty tough on me and I sure don't want anybody to hear me when I play ….
 
MakeShift have you ever thought about an Isolation Cab ?
 
Kenny

Karyn

kennywtelejazz

Karyn

kennywtelejazz
A softly candle lit room , freshly cleaned silk sheets and pillow cases on the bed,  a nice bottle of wine or champagne , some european chocolates , fresh flowers in a vase right over by the scented oils and a good Classical Guitar  

That sounds wonderful.  What amp stack(s) would you use?  

Trace Elliot 

Oooooo, you're such a romantic

Yes my Darling I am 
 
Kenny has learned his lessons the hard way 

I have one of those Marshall micro stacks. The one about 6" high and runs on 9v batteries. It ain't a real stack, but you can get some good sound with them if you get a good mic placement on it.

Point being, right speaker, right power, decent sound. But I can still bother someone in the next room with it.