can someone explain power amp classes to me? there's class A, class B, and class A/B right? what does this mean and how does it effect overall volume and tone? thanks for the help.
"Heavy decibels are playing on my guitar
We got vibrations comin' up from the floor
We're just listenin' to the rock
That's givin' too much noise....
Rock and roll ain't noise pollution"
~AC/DC
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
so from what i understand from that, a class A amp will generally have a cleaner sound to it, but also can be more easily overdriven because of less wattage?
"Heavy decibels are playing on my guitar
We got vibrations comin' up from the floor
We're just listenin' to the rock
That's givin' too much noise....
Rock and roll ain't noise pollution"
~AC/DC
No idea about that, I actually thought class ab was preferred by heavy gain people. For what it's worth, most class-A amps (like the Vox) are actually class A/B amps. An example of a pure class A amp is the omni-present Epiphone Valve Junior.
Except that whenever any amp's being overdriven it's no longer running in true Class A conditions.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
ricochet,
my valve king has a switch that i can go from a to a/b, i have not had enough time to
totaly play with this amp, just got it a couple days ago ,
is the a/b position batter than the a or vesa visa?
even god loves rock-n-roll
Except that whenever any amp's being overdriven it's no longer running in true Class A conditions.
Depends entirely on the definition of over-driven and how the bias is set. The transfer characteristic of a class A amp can be very non-linear well before clipping of the waveform affects the bias enough to turn off the active device (tube or transisitor) during part of the waveform cycle. The bias might also be adjusted so the clipping is not symmetrical -- that could keep the device 'on' 100% of the time at the onset of saturation and well into the soft clipping of one side of the waveform.
-=tension & release=-
Yep. All quite true.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
