Can tube amps play loudly?

Thanks for the help, guys. Slappy, I appreciate your detailed explanation. Those sorts of volume levels would be completely acceptable to me. In fact, I'm surprised I could get that kind of volume with relatively un-sensitive speakers.

-Chris

Chris- There are plenty of 89-92 dB speakers out there that a decent tube amp can drive you right out of the room with. Slappy seems to have his math right (go figure!) but remember that volume also drops off by 3 dB (I think) with each doubling of distance. So your 102 dB @ 1m w/32w using his example, becomes 6 dB at 4m.

Chris
I drive Aerial 10T's with Rogue M150's .Aerial's are power hungry.Whem my wife is home she keeps telling me to lower the volume .I was just listening to music with my secondary system Mission 753 and Conrad Johnson MV55(45W/side)and it was pretty loud at 11:00 o'clock volume position.
Happy listening.
George

Swampwalker,

Is that a loss of 6dB per watt, or are you saying that at 4 meters, the TOTAL output would only be 6 dB?

-Chris

This may be a terrible stereotyping thing I'm doing here, but I might suggest merely by the content of your query that you may want to investigate your reasons for wanting to go in the directions of tubes more thoroughly than you are in this query. There are some things tube amps do bette than SS amps (create a 3 dimensional soundstage and palpability that SS cannot approach), and there are things SS can do better (dynamics, headroom, micro-detail, reproducing very complex/layered/dynamic music). All of which may be arguable to some extent one way or the other by those far more knowledgeable than me on such subjects. Playing "Loudly" is perhaps a poorly chosen criteria, at least in my interpretation of your question, as to understanding the differences between the two. What kind of music do you like listening to "loudly"? If the answer is head-banging rock and roll, or complex orchestral music, sure tubes can reproduce it loudly, but SS will probably be able to give a more "accurate" pacing and do that kind of music more justice than most tube amps could. The short answer to your question is tubes can play music loud enough to drive most folks out of the room, and when thoughtfully paired with the right speakers do that without audible distortion (distortion that can be measured by instruments is another story). My 8 watt SET system can play loudly enough to fill a huge space with very realistic music that is loud enough to wake the dead. If I paired the same 8 watt amps with less efficient speakers you may wish you were dead if it were cranked that loud as you'd hear only distortion...very loud distortion at that.

Try to find some dealers in your area who are big on tubes and do some listening with the kind of music you like to listen to. If you are not in an area that offers such resources, post as much here and perhaps a generous A'goner may let you hear what tubes can do (and what they cannot).

Personally I choose tubes, but I do not think there is one single answer as to which is "better" in any respect. It is entirely a personal choice.

Marco