Hi everyone ,
I`ve had once a 1977 Custom 50 that I`ve lost over time ,and now I`m looking for a DR 100 watt .
My question is , are poeple gonna get crazy over 50 watts one day as they get over 50 Marshalls for there creamy sweet sound or a Hiwatt
is a different ball game ?
louis wrote:Can a 100 watt get as warm as a 50 watt ?
A DR504 and DR103 from the same era share the same preamp. Only the power section is different. A 100 watter has more headroom. Other than that, the tone - at least to my aging ears - is essentially the same. But, logic and facts rarely overpower hype, so I won't venture a guess as to what will happen in the future .
DR504's have generally sold for more than DR103's for awhile now. Not thousands more, but more.
Actually, the preamp as well as the power supply topology and filtering are identical on same-period DR504 and DR103s. The only major difference is the larger transformers on a 103 (plus two more EL34s). A 103 with two tubes pulled will sound almost identical to a 504 at moderate levels, but when cranked, the 504 will be 'bending the iron' a bit more, and so will sound a bit meaner.
Contrast this with the Marshall 1987 (50) and 1959 (100) amps, same preamp but very different power supplies.
This sounds like a good recording activity for next years Convention!
We can pick out nearly identical DR504 and DR103's and run the gauntlet with them.
GigawattCustom121 wrote:I don't think of the word "warm" to describe my amp, because to me "warm" means dark or mushy. I'd use the words "fat" and "cutting."
To quote the late Ted Weber, the sound can only be described as "Hiwatt-grouchy."
Yes, grouchy, fat, THICK, and cutting... in a sweet velvet sledgehammer-ish kind of way.
You can almost feel the current flowing
You can almost see the circuits blowing
All transformers have target ratings when they are designed, and these ratings include the amount of flux (magnetic lines of force) you can cram into the core. Flux is how energy gets from the primary to the secondary. This is why higher power transformers are bigger and heavier, not just because of the thicker winding wire needed for higher currents, but also due to the bigger cores needed to handle more flux.
As the transformer approaches and exceeds the max flux density, the core saturates (i.e., no more flux can be pushed through it), and the signal passing it through it starts to get distorted as a result. This distortion is similar to clipping in a tube, but sounds a bit different, and is part of what gives a non-master distorted guitar amp its sound.
When you crank a 50 watt amp. OT core saturation is part of the sound. When you crank a 100 watt amp with only two tubes, the tubes are clipping, but the OT core never saturates. This gives the sound a slightly different character. It still sounds good IMO, but it is a bit different.
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