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Comment by costcopizza | Hacker News Reader

Low wattage tube amps exist.

You can also just get an attenuator. Then you can turn up your tube amp and still get the power amp distortion, but you can reduce the volume.

Low wattage is still too loud for home / apartment. You need something in the milliwatt range, and those are (unfortunately) very rare. They’re not too hard to make but there is some extra expense and there are some patents in that territory.

Milliwatts? Rubbish. Kids have been playing rock and roll through AC15s or 22W Deluxe Reverbs (or louder!) in garages and basements for decades. A 5W Champ or similar certainly can get loud but is fine for bedroom or apartment use, at least during daytime hours.

As a teenager I played a Hot Rod Deluxe (40W!) in my parents' basement with no real complaints.

Crank your AC15 and play it in the basement, it will destroy your hearing pretty fast without protection. I used to take a homemade 5W amp outside and hear it echo in the woods. Fun times. Quick math—the Vox AC15 has speakers with around 100 dB SPL@1m,1W sensitivity, so if you’re cranked then it’s +24dB, and if you’re 2m away then that’s -12dB, and that’s 112 dB SPL, somewhere around “car horn” or “chainsaw” on the loudness chart. Medical literature puts it at under 1 minute before permanent hearing damage.

It’s not like a stereo where 15W is weak. A 15W guitar amp is pretty damn loud.

If you don’t crank it then I don’t see the point. Or don’t hear it, anyway. I can’t stand the sound of a clean Vox. It’s gotta have some grit.

I’d really like a citation on the medical literature portion of your comment.

I am under the impression I am well read on this topic, and I don’t recognize that claim.

Why would you need to crank it at all? That amp is gonna sound fantastic at half volume. For grit they make excellent overdrives these days.

It takes all kinds. If you’re running your tube amp below breakup, you might as well just use a solid state amp. It’s only under overdrive conditions that you get compression. Outside overdrive conditions, there is not really any clue that you are using a tube amp. Mostly linear is mostly linear.

It could be that you just like the volume. The speakers in the AC15 are fantastic. Or it could be you don’t think of it as gritty, but I do.

Not true at all. My tube amp can get down to barely louder than strumming unplugged. Certainly no louder than my TV at typical volume. 20 watts.

I have and have restored a few fender blues juniors and they are all quiet enough for residential. Just crank the volume but keep the master at 1-1.5. It’s not ideal, but you do get the desired sound.

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