solid state power amp breakup (Boss Katana gen 3)

[0XI0]

I was under the impression with tube power that "more watts" was mainly to get "less distortion" at a given volume, cause the "more watts" power amp breaks up less at a given dB.

trying to break in the katana 50g3 speaker with channel and master maxed out... really really weird power setting response from what I'd expect.

without changing any settings other than the power knob... the full power tone has the speaker breaking up and flopping around, the output section cracking and sputtering. but changing to half power, without losing any perceived volume at all, completely cleans it up, gets rid of like 75% of speaker and power amp breakup, leaving just a little (obviously).

this seems exactly the opposite to what I would expect from high power and low power settings, I'd expect half power to be a mess, and full power would significantly clean up, without gaining much if any perceived loudness. wtf??

 

[AFKAEjay]

The katana has 2 poweramps
A virtual one of which you can adjust the power.

An actual one you seem to overdrive at 100% virtual power, but not so much with less virtual power.

 

[0XI0]

gimmicks!??!!!

 

[ragingplatypi]

gimmicks!??!!!

More or less. But if you get philosophical about it, amplification in general is a gimmick.

 

[laxu]

without changing any settings other than the power knob... the full power tone has the speaker breaking up and flopping around, the output section cracking and sputtering. but changing to half power, without losing any perceived volume at all, completely cleans it up, gets rid of like 75% of speaker and power amp breakup, leaving just a little (obviously).

this seems exactly the opposite to what I would expect from high power and low power settings, I'd expect half power to be a mess, and full power would significantly clean up, without gaining much if any perceived loudness. wtf??

That doesn't sound unexpected at all.

I expect it works something like this:

Channel volume sets virtual amp level -> Master output volume -> Power knob limiting the max output level -> Poweramp.

99% of Katana users are unlikely to be cranking the amp all the way or anywhere close and the amp is designed with that in mind. So the poweramp might make the speaker flub out at full power, but at half power it's totally fine. You could try full power but master at say 8-9/10.

At such max volume, I doubt you'd notice a small 3 dB volume change either that you get from half power.

 

[0XI0]

More or less. But if you get philosophical about it, amplification in general is a gimmick.

well half power in tube amp is really lower amplification factor, not a preamp pad circuit or some kind of phase inverter attenuation, i thought katana would actually be scaling the solid state power section amplification factor down irl. maybe it's harder to do with solid state power amps

 

[laxu]

well half power in tube amp is really lower amplification factor, not a preamp pad circuit or some kind of phase inverter attenuation, i thought katana would actually be scaling the solid state power section amplification factor down irl. maybe it's harder to do with solid state power amps

There's just no need to do that with solid-state since they are meant to be linear almost all the way up and ideally you don't want the poweramp to distort in any situation.

So the power level knob can just act more like preset level master volume settings before the poweramp and any tone changes are done by the way the virtual amp model functions with different volume or master settings.

 

[Baba]

wait until that speaker breaks in. That amp is going to go from shit to amazing.

 

[0XI0]

wait until that speaker breaks in. That amp is going to go from shit to amazing.

no for real! just 20 minutes of dimed palm mute 4th and 5ths to really beat tf out of the speaker I don't need any high cuts on brown variation anymore

 

[Baba]

no for real! just 20 minutes of dimed palm mute 4th and 5ths to really beat tf out of the speaker I don't need any high cuts on brown variation anymore

or, you've been listening to an amp for 20 minutes, and the high end of your hearing has adjusted, lol

 

[AFKAEjay]

no for real! just 20 minutes of dimed palm mute 4th and 5ths to really beat tf out of the speaker I don't need any high cuts on brown variation anymore

Placebo + hearing loss