Q: Please settle a silly bet for us, once and for all! A friend of mine insists that a 100-watt guitar amplifier is twice as powerful as a 50-watt amp. I say it’s not. Who’s right?
A: In a way, both of you are right! A 100-watt amp is indeed twice as powerful as a 50-watt amp – it has twice as many watts – but, it is not twice as loud, which is what we think you are actually debating! By doubling the wattage, you’d get only about 3dB of additional gain, which is heard as being somewhat louder. To actually double the overall volume of a 50-watt amp, you’d need a 500-watt amp!