Perception and Watts: Doubling of power
There's a curious rule of thumb, which to my ears seems mostly true:
10x power = 10 dB by the way. We've read this as we were buying amps and trying to decide between 100w/channel and 150w/channel. We are told, repeatedly that 50 W difference isn't really that much.
On more than one occasion I've tested this and found it's pretty much spot on. Here's my question:
How can any of us really tell what half as loud, or twice as loud is?
I mean, think about this for a bit. I cannot tell half as bright, or twice as bright, but it seems I actually CAN tell what half as loud is. How does this even begin to work in the ear/brain mechanism?? 😁
Erik: Once I get past the first 2 "steps" on my dual mono volume pots each step offers an approx. 3 dB increase. 3 clicks is then approx. twice as loud. When I hold Alexa in my hand, while she is screaming @ me, the SPL is approx. 80 dB. When I then throw her across the room the SPL diminishes considerably.
DeKay |
Here's a blurb on meters. I recall a few vintage pieces with fast/slow meter settings, but the Carver switch is marked low/high. The Carver has not been used for @ least 10 years (afraid to power it on). http://www.cordellaudio.com/instrumentation/power_level_meter.shtml DeKay |
Erik: The early NAD PE's used class G. I demo'd a few of those integrated amps and SQ improved, IMO, when the Power Envelope circuitry was defeated. Do the meters on your Luxman register "fast" peaks? I had a Carver MXR-130 hooked up to single driver speakers (Stephens 80FR) and the meters showed them to be pulling quite a bit of power on musical peaks. There are two meter settings (low/high) and it only showed up on one of the settings (forget which). This said, I do not notice clipping/compression when running them with my 3 watt 2A3 amps, but I doubt that I ever listen louder than 80 dB (probably much lower, but with unknown peak levels).
DeKay
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