Hey miles, I have a small question which you'll be able to sort out real quick. I was just looking round your site, cos i'm wanting to buy myself a nice valve amp soon (i've currently got a fender twin M80 Chorus) under the Fender vs. Marshall section it says
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Why do some amplifiers sound "louder" than others? There are many factors, some you might know right off the bat. Power for one. Is a 100 watt amplifier twice as loud as a 50 watt one? Well, the answer here is no, not even close. When you double the power of an amplifier, you will get about 3 db more volume. 1 db is the smallest amount of perceptible loudness change than the human ear can generally hear. So, a 100 watt amplifier is just a "hair" louder than his 50 watt brother, but it will have more clean headroom.
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Now i was never very good at elecrtonics, even although i've got a degree in it. I'm sure i'll be promptly corrected, but is a 3dB power level the same as saying 'twice the power', ie. -3dB is the same as half the power, ergo, half the volume.
which comes from 10log P(Watts)=P(dB),
therefore 10log(2*P) = 3dB
Sureley by these calculations, double the volume is achieved by double the power in watts.
Like i say, i didn't pay too much attention at university, so maybe i'm talking fluff.
Oh.. and what amp should I get for about £400?
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EDIT: i've been thinking about my question, and all your thoery definately stands up, i suppose i just can't believe that Double the power only equals 3 increments of noticable volume difference. I suppose there must be some kind of inverse square thing going on there, with distance from the speaker.
... i'm just babbling now!