Enough power?

[K-MAN]

Now that I've gotten my feet wet with tubes and am in love with the sound of my Dynaco I'm looking for a new project. It seems a SET amp would be what I'm looking for since I hear so much about the amazing sound. The only thing I'm not sure about is the power of these amps. Most of the kits and projects I see are at most 2 or 3 watts. I'm not looking for pounding bass or anything but will I be able to use any good sounding speakers with these or would I be stuck with some mini desktop speakers? The main one I'm looking at BTW is the get set go amp kit that's been talked about allot here.

[sorenj07]

well, if you use a 300B instead of a 2A3, you're already in 7-watt territory. TubeDepot also has this 40-watt plate dissipation 2A3 by JJ that should theoretically be good for 10 watts. I'm pretty sure the getsetgo board can drive either..

[EWBrown]

The JJ 40 watt "2A3" (also available at www.eurotubes.com ) is actually a 300B with a 2.5V / 2.5A filament (instead of the 300B standard 5.0V, 1.2A). The eurotubes price for a MP is almost $60 less that TD, FWIW...

With reasonably efficient ( 93 dB or better) speakers, the GSG will deliver decent SPLs. Most "mini size" speakers are around 85 dB/w/m SPL.
3 watts is about 5 dB above 1 watt.

/ed B in NH

[parabellum]

Also remember that the sensation of sound is logarithmic in nature. 100W is not perceived as 100 times louder then 1W.

[SDS-PAGE]

If my Darling amp can generate undistorted music at a comfortable (or uncomfortable) level with mere 3/4 of an watt, logic tells me that a GSG should pump out ample power at 2-3 watts. However, how loud it gets will be governed by the efficiency of your speakers.

There is a pretty good article on what Parabellum is referring to at:
http://www.dogstar.dantimax.dk/tubestuf/miniblk1.htm

-Min

[mesherm]

http://www.analogrules.com/dbwatts.html

[K-MAN]

So is it fair to say that at full volume with a good SET amp the sound will still be undistorted and good to listen to compared to a transistor amp where the sound seems to get quite bad as it peaks out? I find this with my Dynaco at least that even though it's only about 30-35 watts at max volume it "sounds" just as loud as other much larger and more powerful transistor amps.

[sorenj07]

yes, that should be the case. If that still isn't enough power, try a 900V B+ and some 813's. I should do this myself at some point but STILL haven't finished my damn monoblocks Yellow_Light_Colorz_PDT_16