Alphaform

Now I'm not a fan of metal and don't really know much about metal amps, but what I do hear all the time is that they're not suitable for home because they are extremely loud. Apparently because of such high wattage meaning you have to crank it.

What I'm wondering, it why don't they make much lower wattage metal amps (since volume and wattage aren't affiliated) so there's virtually no clean headroom for more regular use at home and gigging.

I'm not a huge tech head with amps either so

lol thanks.

gregs1020

they do make them.

and you don't have to crank a high wattage amp.

Kevin Saale

You don't have to crank all metal amps to get a good sound, in fact, most of the sound will come from the preamp. That being said, there is something to be said for a high gain amp pushing a 4x12 hard, which is entirely independent of wattage.

Metal amps are high wattage because you don't want power amp saturation in a high gain metal amp, it isn't to make the amp ridiculously loud.

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'nuff said.

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ikey_

well. one thing is, with all that power, you have a very slight taper on the knob before it starts getting loud. that is entirely dependant on the amp though. it could be on 1 and start being to loud for home....or not.

also, many amps tend to "open up" or begin to sound different when you start letting them loose so to speak. many find that they do turn thier amps up louder to get it to sound better. that goes for all amps.

they do make lower wattage / power amps like the baron snot watt and the dark terror etc.

again, these are all potentially too loud for home you as well too. however, i think you will find many times due to less power you have a tad more wiggle room on the notches before quiet and LOUD.

again just the amp. personally, i think its almost impossible for me to use a vox ac series in my bedroom. i think they have 1 setting - LOUD. all from a 15 - 30 watt combo.

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gumbilicious

stop listening to the kids, they don't know what they're talking about.



as mentioned before: they do. but most of the high end, sought after metal amps use big power sections with big tubes and big OT iron so they can amplify all that preamp distortion cleanly and allow for big low end.



so don't worry about 'em. there is tons of misconceptions concerning 'metal amps', wading through all the BS out there is usually not worth it if you're not interested.

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gregs1020

baron snot watt

ouijaspirit

laney ironheart 'nuff said

baumaxx1

Depends on the tone people are after... but they're usually high wattage to have some clean headroom or to let the pre-amp gain do most of the talking when played loud on stage, or some people just crank them to work the power section and speakers hard, and the only way you're going to get close to that sound where the 4x12 speakers are being pushed hard is to use a DSP/modeller or the real thing. If I played an actual 5150 the way I have it set-up on my Eleven rack, I doubt there would be much left of both my ears and the windows in the house.

Dave_Mc

+1

the reason there are so few low wattage metal amps is that, generally speaking, the higher wattage ones sound better, and also sound good turned down. also the fact that a low wattage high gain amp is still gonna be pretty expensive as you need several cascading gain stages, an fx loop, good speakers, etc. etc. which all add to the price. Most people will buy a 100 watter over a 15 watter if the 100 watter is only slightly dearer.

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Cathbard

The reason proper metal amps have really big power amps is because you don't want distortion from the power amp, you get it from the preamp. The whole reason they are so big is to prevent power amp distortion - so no, you don't have to crank them. It's low gain, non master volume amps like old plexis that have to be cranked because they relied on distortion from the power amp as well as the preamp, not modern metal amps.
Whoever told you that you had to crank them because they are big doesn't know what he is talking about. They are big so the power amp stays clean at high volume.

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Dave_Mc

exactly. it wasn't just slightly wrong, or correct in some very specific instances- it's completely, 100%, "got the wrong end of the stick" wrong. EDIT: of course, that's not to say that they don't sound better turned up a bit- but that's very different from "you have to crank them to make them sound good". As you said, if anything, vintage-style non-master amps are way more guilty of that. The reason master volumes came out in the first place was to allow access to overdrive/distortion at lower volumes.

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