Do amps sound better loud?

[Leonardocoate]

Crank it up baby!!!......until you can't hear the music then back it off just a bit. It all seems very situational to me. Small room=small amp, what type of music, how close to the speaker, what other instruments are involved...etc.....but we will always play as loud as we can for the situation....IMHO

To quote my lovely wife, "TURN THAT S**T DOWN!!!!!"

 

[Heartbreaker_Esq]

It’s not cork-sniffery IMO.

You’re telling us that, to you, the sound and feel of a cranked amp shaking the room and making your pants flap is no more satisfying than an attenuated amp in the bedroom? Really?

I like my ears too much to reach pants-flapping levels. But basically yes. And I didn't say that noticing a difference makes you a cork-sniffer. Just that I am the opposite. Meaning I am likely to notice (or care about) fewer tonal differences than the average bear. So ignore my opinion accordingly.

 

[generic202]

I would add to the discussion that room size also plays a part. If I'm in a tiny room, low volume with the speaker pointing at my face sounds best to me. If I'm in a larger room/hall, I really like the loud volume filling up the space and sound waves bouncing around for that 3D/spatial experience.

 

[voskarp]

Yes!

 

[TigerG]

Yes.
If you ever play through a dimed Twin Reverb, you'll never have to ask this question again.

 

[johnny k]

I never had to put my stage 112 to the test, this thing is loud enough. But i would love to. With ear plugs and a 100 meters cable.

 

[D_Malone]

I like my ears too much to reach pants-flapping levels. But basically yes. And I didn't say that noticing a difference makes you a cork-sniffer. Just that I am the opposite. Meaning I am likely to notice (or care about) fewer tonal differences than the average bear. So ignore my opinion accordingly.

Fair enough.

I wear earplugs FYI.

 

[11 Gauge]

I really love SF/BF Fenders like a VR or SR. IMO, there's a kind of small range where they sound best clean, and also where they sound best overdriven.

A large part of that has to do with the fact that the tonestack in these amps passes on an inordinate amount of bass and treble, and it's also kind of exacerbated at the power amp inputs, where the coupling caps are unusually large. So if the amp is turned up too loud, you get these kinds of 'bad phasey' sounds when whacking the strings hard. Or if the amp is turned up to where it's starting to break up just a smidge, and then hit it with a dirt box, the same thing happens.

I actually reduced the value of the cathode bypass caps on the vibrato channel of my '71 VR so I can turn it up a bit higher and not get those 'bad phasey' sounds. I also reduce the coupling caps at the end of the line down to .047uF, and keep the grid leaks at the SF value of 100K instead of the BF value of 220K, and that helps A LOT. I can actually go higher on the volume with my VR than I can with my totally stock late-60's SR.

With other tube amps that don't have the BF/SF Fender type of tone stack, I typically find that I can go significantly louder and have things still usually sound pretty good.

The other big limiting thing is speakers and cabs - some speakers just start to 'give up' and not sound so good beyond a certain volume, and the 'wrong' cab dimensions can make speakers sound kind of flubby or overly boxy. I've done a lot of experimenting with different speakers, and typically prefer those that you don't have to turn the treble or bass down a lot as you turn the volume up.

 

[telemnemonics]

Many ways to view discuss and answer!

Over the decades I have loved playing loud but also loved for example playing acoustic at excruciatingly low volumes, so low that it required a delicacy of touch that was harder than normal or loud playing.

One reason some prefer loud is the camp that must se a non master clean amp turned up high enough to distort.
These players often also use an attenuator to turn down after turning up.

An interesting factor is the deeper implications of sound vibrating our body, and specifically many bodies together.
The phenomenon has been compared to praying in church, chanting or saying mantras which some say includes "amen" as a mantra, then at the cellular level we are all vibrating at very high frequencies, and it has been observed both by science and by ancient beliefs that our vibrating body can become misaligned or out of tune, which in science relates more to the brain, but for example MIT has studied this area extensively, including the effects of meditation with mantras or other tools which include sound waves from our own production or in the room.
Gospel music also or any church singing is an act of vibrating an entire congregation in harmony, which may produce benefits beyond mere belief.
Same with meditation using gongs and singing bowls or other harmonizing vibrational tones that travel throuh human bodies.

My main love of loud is closing the loop where the sound vibrates the strings which are making the sound.
Even if not screamijg or squealing feedback, elsctric guitar is an incomplete circuit if the speakers are not adding back to the strings vibration.
Not that an incomplete loop is bad or sounds bad, just that the loop can be complete which brings the electric guitar much more potential to sound like a voice, a saxophone or a cello, rather than only the plucked decaying string of an acoustic guitar.

We may use FX like compressors and compressed dirt pedals to simulate a volume induced feedback loop, but that is basically a controlled simulation of the complete loop.

 

[regularslinky]

I just asked my wife and she said "definitely not."

 

[Recce]

I run my tube amps at 4-5. They sound great. Anything over 7 just sounds LOUD.

 

[Jakedog]

For me it depends on the amp. Truly small amps cranked up sound like utter garbage to me. They don’t sound good, they just sound broken, or like they’re about to be. For instance I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more crap guitar sound than any kind of champ wide open. I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone would sound like that on purpose.

Not a fan of a cranked Princeton in most cases, either.

High powered amps with big iron sound great to me opened up some. But again, not all the way to the point where they compress too much and lose all their dynamics.

I like my 15 watter through a pair of good 12” speakers. I can get enough to make it really sing without killing people indoors. Outside it’s not enough. It just doesn’t have the headroom for a large stage or area. I have to turn it up too high and it goes south.

I also like really big amps turned down. A Twin Reverb on 3 is an amazing full spectrum clean sound. Just beautiful.

To contrast, I’m a lifelong Marshall nut and I don’t think I’ve ever heard one sound truly great at low volumes.

Of course the majority of players these days can take my opinion with a grain of salt as I do not play at home, and that seems like most people’s point of reference anymore.

 

[middy]

For me it depends on the amp. Truly small amps cranked up sound like utter garbage to me. They don’t sound good, they just sound broken, or like they’re about to be. For instance I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more crap guitar sound than any kind of champ wide open. I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone would sound like that on purpose.

Not a fan of a cranked Princeton in most cases, either.

High powered amps with big iron sound great to me opened up some. But again, not all the way to the point where they compress too much and lose all their dynamics.

I like my 15 watter through a pair of good 12” speakers. I can get enough to make it really sing without killing people indoors. Outside it’s not enough. It just doesn’t have the headroom for a large stage or area. I have to turn it up too high and it goes south.

I also like really big amps turned down. A Twin Reverb on 3 is an amazing full spectrum clean sound. Just beautiful.

To contrast, I’m a lifelong Marshall nut and I don’t think I’ve ever heard one sound truly great at low volumes.

Of course the majority of players these days can take my opinion with a grain of salt as do not play at home, and that seems like most people’s point of reference these days.

The secret to a tweed champ is to record it clean, just below breakup but nice and fat. The simple tone circuit and 8” speaker can do some magic things between a telecaster and a microphone. Into a nice channel strip with a little Pultec and 1176 into an EMT 140… chef’s kiss*

 

[rze99]

Tube ones do typically, solid state less so

 

[ping-ping-clicka]

loud is good .

 

[LightningPhil]

Yes. Though its late, this question has encored cranking the AC30. My neighbours will love you for the encouragement

 

[scottser]

I think I sound great loud, nobody else does though.

 

[Brent Hutto]

Forget "sounds better", it's all about how it makes us feel to hear the music. For most people, music causes a more intense emotional experience when it's loud enough to both hear and feel in your chest and torso.

In terms of safe sound levels for your hearing, such a volume is way too loud to be exposed to more than briefly. But the most intense music-hearing experiences occur at those not-safe-for-the-ears sound pressure levels.

So-called cork sniffers can also hear more detail in music that's fairly loud so maybe it can be said to "sound better" in that sense also. But the apparent detail can actually diminish at extremely loud levels as the ears begin to desensitize. So the "sound better" volume is probably lower than the "most intense listening experience" level.

Finally there's the seriously loud as hell level (like 120dB+ in the front row of a concert) where you're doing immediate and lasting damage to your hearing. It has been my observation that some people actually enjoy that painful stimulus, I guess it's kind of taking the "intense emotional experience" thing to 11. That's akin to someone enjoying use of a substance that to most people would seem like poison but to those habituated it becomes a good feeling.

 

[MickM]

I like tube amps about half way up with tone set where I like it and dial the rest in with my guitar. Sometimes I'll then dial the amp back depending on the results.

 

[mandoloony]

I specifically evaluate amps on how good they sound at recording volume, which in my case is pretty low. I simply don't care how they sound when turned way up. To my ears, everything sounds better at lower volumes because it's clearer and easier to hear all the frequencies coming out of an amp or a stereo. I hate loud music whether it's coming out of a venue's PA system or my own amp.