tube watts vs transistor watts?

This is good question. Until 2 weeks ago I would have said the same as Tvad and Grinnell. But it may be more than that. I just traded my Bryston B100 rated at 100w 8ohm and 180w 4ohm for an Octave V70se rated at 70w 4ohms (can't find an 8ohm rating). Anyhow the Octave just crushes the Bryston in power and control. Not bashing Bryston for I had mine for 4 years and thought it couldn't be beat without spending a truck load of money. The demo in my home took about a whole 5 seconds to want the Octave (and that was with cold tubes). I think the caveat here is my speakers. They are Dynaudio C1's which are known to like current not necessarily watts. Rated at 85db 4ohms. Logically it makes no sense unless the power is calculated as E X I instead of I sq X R and Octave uses a lower voltage (E).

I hope Almarg chimes in on this one for he always has good technical answer.

So I'm guessing it has more to do with the speakers where tube watts may seem like more compared to solid state. I don't think that applies to all speakers, but some.

Musicnoise
If I half the voltage that would double the current to get the same watts. If a speaker works better with higher current then it would be beneficial. Not all speaker will benefit from high current though. That's what I am trying to say.