Why weak wattage?

[la bam]

I get a bit / lot confused sometimes.... 

 

With another load of new gear being released at the moment, I can't help wonder the same thing every year... 

 

There's only really 2 uses for an amp - practicing/home use and playing live / in bands. 

 

So why do nearly all the manufacturers sell ranges that are dead set in the middle? And serve neither use? 

 

Ie the 200w class d type? Or 200w class d combos etc... 

 

That's too loud / needless for home and just not practical for gigging and to be honest not much different in price. 

 

I see loads and loads of stuff I'd like to buy second hand, then see it's the weaker version, drives me mad! 

 

Surely it's the same effort to put in a 500w power module as it is a 200w one? 

 

A bass amp used to be a bass amp... Ie you could gig with it without worry, and a practice amp for home was just that. Now it's a minefield out there... 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

There's small gigs, and there are bigger gigs. If the aim is to keep up with an unmiked acoustic drum kit for small pub gigs and rehearsals, just about any modern amp rated at 200W should be up to the job.

 

A 500W isn't 2.5 times as loud as a 200W amp, it is twice as loud as a 50W amp.

 

* please note: gross oversimplifications may have been applied

Edited 4 hours ago by Jean-Luc Pickguard

[neepheid]

My backup head is 250W and I wouldn't worry about gigging with it.  In fact tonight I might gig with it, as a proof of concept/fire drill.

 

[chris_b]

I use the same amps at home as I do on the loudest gig. 800 watts sounds fine in my front room. They all have a thing called a master volume.

[Dad3353]

1 hour ago, la bam said:

I get a bit / lot confused sometimes.... 

 

Amplifiers don't deliver sound; speakers (drivers, cabs, whatever...) deliver sound. Watts is a unit of power, not volume; decibels is a unit of volume. The more efficient the speaker (driver, cab, whatever...), the more volume (decibels...) it can deliver for a given power (watts...). This would be referred to as its 'efficiency'. Soooooo... A low-powered amp into an efficient cab can produce more volume than a high-powered amp into an inefficient cab. Watts, in themselves, are a very poor unit for expressing volume.
What's the solution..? If volume is required, look for an efficient cab, then match an amp to that cab. Turn the volume down at home. There is no contradiction; a good amp/cab combination can be used on stage and at home with no issues. If arena volumes are required, the PA will do the 'heavy lifting', anyway, and an IEM system will keep the stage volume  at decent levels, whatever the amp/cab. Any quality amp and/or cab will be fine for both purposes (but a less imposing version may be preferred for home practice, to avoid carting stuff around...)

There's a lot of advertising spiel surrounding the selling of music gear in general; don't be taken in by claims of 20/200/500/1000 watts or whatever, and ask your peers for their experience of 'real-life' usage.
Hope this helps. 

[Lozz196]

I suppose it’s about money at the end of the day, if manufacturers only have practice amps at £150 then high powered gigging amps at £700 then there’s a big gap there. Anyone wanting an amp loud enough for stage use but with only being able to raise £400/£500 is then only able to go used, whereas have an in the middle amp price/power wise and said manufacturer may well get the dosh as many prefer to buy new.

[msb]

I like the little class D heads. I’ve picked up a bunch of ‘em in the 200-350 watt range.

[TimR]

Electronics is a lot cheaper and easier to mass produce than it was 'in the old days'  

 

Manufacturers will do market research and watch sales figures and know what sells. 

 

My first Amp in 1987 was 100w. It was just about loud enough to keep up with a drummer in a pub. 

 

But everything got louder as it got cheaper. That's not good for anyone imo.

 

Everything is getting lighter now. It'll get to the point where everything becomes  1000W as it'll cost the same and be the same size as a 100W amp. 

 

[Mediocre Polymath]

11 minutes ago, TimR said:

But everything got louder as it got cheaper. That's not good for anyone imo.

I agree with this. The last few times I've been to a pub with a band playing, they've been rocking 1000-watt-per-side PA speakers with bass bins for an audience of maybe 50 people. It doesn't matter how good you are, I'm not going to enjoy a pub gig where I have to lean over the bar and scream my order to the bartender.

[TimR]

I blame the "keeping up with the drummer" mindset. Even I have fallen into that trap in my post.

 

The drummer should be playing at the appropriate volume. Too many non-musical drummers playing at one volume. But that's another thread. 

[tauzero]

I use a 200W amp both at home and at an open mic night, combined with a @Phil Starr 6" micro cab. I use a bigger amp and cab for pub gigs, with the 200W one as a backup. Can't see any problem with having a 200W amp for a wide range of use. After all, 40 years ago I was gigging with a Laney 150W head, which was all the power you needed.

[Dan Dare]

It's a bit academic nowadays, as watts have become cheaper and more plentiful. As others point out, the difference between 50 and 500 watts is only around twice the volume (depending on speaker efficiency, eq choices, etc). And that's before you get into the minefield that is wattage, how much difference quoted/claimed figures actually make and so on.

 

Class D has meant high powered amps are small and light, so there is no longer a need to have large and smaller amps. I use either of my heads (700w or 1000w claimed) for practice and small gigs with one or two cabs and keep the volume down. If I need to make more noise, I simply add more cabs and turn up the wick. 

Edited 25 minutes ago by Dan Dare

[Phil Starr]

First of all not all bands are rock bands, some may not even have a drummer, people who play quieter genres of music still need an amplifier if they play electric bass.

 

Secondly we don't all use our amps to fill a room with sound. In my current band the bass amp is just a monitor for the band. The audience hear my bass through the PA. My bass amp only needs to fill the stage and if it is too loud it ends up going through the vocal mics and distorts the sound for the audience. If you are so loud that only a 500W amp will do then your band probably sounds quite poor however well you play because of the volume in the vocal mics.

 

Finally you need to take account of the range of speakers we all use. A 100W amp through a 102db/W is going to be louder than a 300W amp through a 96db/W speaker.

 

Like most people who are commenting I carry a 200/130W micro amp as a backup to my 500/300W amp but I tend to use the smaller amp almost all of the time as it is more than loud enough for the gigs I do.