"...Sorry but BS alert. A watt is a watt unless the specs are juiced differently..."
Yes a watt is a watt. There is also "soft" clipping of the tube amp but that has nothing to do with the amps output if measured the same way. But what is different is that most tube amps have very good power supplies, decent transformers and large capacitors. My 25 watt tube mono blocks can hang with ANY 100wpc consumer grade receiver. Cheap under-speced components just don't get you to the same place regardless of the power specification. My little mono-blocks have 4 coke can sized capacitors, you wont see that in any mass consumer amp. So that's why we say there are watts and there are tube amp watts, even when we know a watt is a watt.
Yes a watt is a watt. There is also "soft" clipping of the tube amp but that has nothing to do with the amps output if measured the same way. But what is different is that most tube amps have very good power supplies, decent transformers and large capacitors. My 25 watt tube mono blocks can hang with ANY 100wpc consumer grade receiver. Cheap under-speced components just don't get you to the same place regardless of the power specification. My little mono-blocks have 4 coke can sized capacitors, you wont see that in any mass consumer amp. So that's why we say there are watts and there are tube amp watts, even when we know a watt is a watt.