Big Amp or Small Amp?

Throughout my time as a musician I have frequently heard and seen very heated and lengthy discussions about whether a higher powered valve amplifier is better/worse than a lower powered valve amplifier. Personally, I think that neither is better and that each have their own pros, cons and best applications. But, for my personal use I would urge on the side of a higher powered amplifier rather than a lower powered one...

• Higher powered amplifiers (50 Watts RMS plus) have more headroom than their lower powered brethren, resulting in them being cleaner at higher volume levels relatively speaking. Amplifier circuit design does influence this greater however... This allows them to act as great clean pedal platforms for guitarists to build their tone on. In terms of raw decibels a lower powered amplifier isn't much quieter than a higher powered one due to volume being a logarithmic scale rather than linear.

However, where the difference are clear is in the level of control, this links back to the higher headroom. At gig volumes a higher powered amp will be more comfortably operating and have more firepower on tap should you need it where as the little amp would be running out steam. Again, horses for courses but personally I'd rather be too loud and be asked to turned down, rather than turn up and not be able to cleanly.

• Higher powered amplifiers also have greater bass response and typically have less power amp compression/sag due to their more robust powersupply architecture; giving them a relatively faster attack and more immediate response than a lower powered amplifier. However, circuit design greatly influences this...

• Features. Higher powered amplifiers tend to be the lauded as the flagship model of a brand and as such feature all the bells and whistles that are normally not seen on smaller amplifiers. Granted one could argue that there is more that could go wrong, but there are more tone shaping tools at your disposal and useful practical features which make the amplifier more versatile.

In conclusion, there really is no right or wrong answer and no true best option, it's down to your ears, pockets and personal opinion about what is the right amplifier for you. But, I hope that my thoughts would be of benefit to your decision making when considering a new amplifier.