Are tube watts equal to solid state watts?

Watt!!!!!!

A watt is a watt is a watt. Only present day audiophiles would ask this question. Making a distinction without a difference is the territory of subjective audiophiles, but hey these days anything goes!

Agree that the subjective appearance of 'more power' from a tube amp is due to the fact of "soft clipping" (the amplifier when pushed to the limit of maximum power distorts in a friendly way) vs the solid state amp's tendency to sound dreadful when pushed to the limits and it begins to 'clip' the signal off.
Solid state amps could be designed to sound like the tube amp if the manufacture wanted to do so. (but the tradeoffs in non-clipping situations causes most if not all to avoid this.)

Regarding the demonstration of the 30 watt vs the 200 watt amps above, perhaps there's an explanation that would explain the apparent lack of difference.

As a youngster, I remember most of the receivers I owned had power meters (you all remember the 70s, right?). I recall watcthing those meters rarely getting above a couple of watts.

It seems that the speakers would have a tremendous impact on the demo. If the speaker were relatively efficient then they should be able to produce high SPLs using either amp because at no point was either amp pushed to its limits.

If my supposition is correct, then it would be hard to perceive a power differential. I.E., regardless of total capability, consuming a couple of watts from either amp isn't operating at the limits.

The other point I'll offer is that the difference between 30 watts and 200 watts isn't that great. If a doubling of power is required for a perceived difference in loudness (I think that's 3 dB, but could be wrong), then the difference from 30 watts to 200 is around 6-9 dB (I could be way out of my depth here, so please correct my thinking if it's wrong).

I think the issue is not that tube watts are any different in terms of power; the issue is distortion. Watt-for-watt, tube amplifiers (in general) make less of the distortions that the human ear objects to. The result is that with a transistor amplifier you rapidly run into a harshness that stops you from turning up the volume any higher, in avoidance of pain and discomfort. This does not happen as much with tubes and the result of *that* is that a smaller tube amplfier can often be driven to put out more 'comfort' watts than a much larger transistor amplifier can.

IOW there is a greater percent of 'usable' power in a tube amplifier... generally speaking that is.