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Old 04-26-2017, 10:10 AM
Earl49 Earl49 is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Idaho
Posts: 10,982
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It would likely be too loud for your comfort (and for your hearing). At comfortable listening levels, even a 15W amp will basically be idling along. You'll only get distortion and other effects if the are built in digitally, because the pre-amp isn't being driven very hard.

The key is speaker efficiency. Picking a common number, most speakers are rated for something like 93 dB at 1 Watt input, measured at 1 meter. The SPL goes up at 3 dB per doubling of input power, as follows:
1 Watt 93 dB
2 Watts 96 dB
4 Watts 99 dB
8 Watts 102 dB
16 Watts 105 dB

Anything much above 95 dB is a potential threat to your hearing long term, although it can be fun to get loud at times. OSHA workplace limits start at 90 dBA for eight hours exposure. Every time you go up by 5 dB, the allowable time is cut in half.

I have a 30W Fender Princeton and it has never been turned up beyond about "2" on the volume knob in the house. And only to about 4 on stage. Hope this helps.
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