200 / 2000 s ratings

[Al T.]

Wow was I thrilled to find this page.As a bass player who
started in the sixties,I was / am a big fan of Sunn bass amps.
I have been looking for the 200S cab design ever since I got
on the net,and here it was.It truly was the loudest punchiest amp of
its time in my recollection.
  I have always had a question about the power ratings of the 200 / 2000
amps.For instance,though rated sixty watts,it seems the 200 could smoke many of the
100 watters of the time,especially with two bottoms.Was this a conservative rating,
or was the JBL / folded horn bottom so efficient that it made that much of a sonic impact
on the sound pressure level ? Also,I recall that in the VG article on Sunn
someone asserted that for the electronic specs of the 2000, it was probably more like
200 watts and not 120. Can anyone shed some light on this ? Thanks

The J-bass still does it for me..........
  Al

[Joe]

:    I have always had a question about the power ratings of the 200 / 2000
: amps.For instance,though rated sixty watts,it seems the 200 could smoke many of the
: 100 watters of the time,especially with two bottoms.Was this a conservative rating,
: or was the JBL / folded horn bottom so efficient that it made that much of a sonic impact
: on the sound pressure level ? Also,I recall that in the VG article on Sunn
: someone asserted that for the electronic specs of the 2000, it was probably more like
: 200 watts and not 120. Can anyone shed some light on this ? Thanks

-------

Power ratings are always a mystery.  Everyone does not use the same standards, especially for musical instrument amps.  The Sunn ratings are probably more honest than most because they stay cleaner longer.  It is possible to get 100 watts out of dual 6550, but the tubes wouldn't last long.

The JBL D140's are rated at 100db sound pressure level at a distance of 1 meter with 1 watt of power input... the D130's are rated at 103db in the same situation.  This is certainly highly efficient.  Other speaker brands might be 96 to 98 db rating, which would require double the power to equal the sound pressure level.  The "folded horn" design would have extended the efficiency of the speaker to the lower range.

One time, long, long ago... I was using a Fender Bassman 10 for bass in a small group.  One place we played just happened to have a 200s as a stage amp, so I got to compare them.  The 200s easily smoked the Fender (which had a 50watt rms rating), producing a solid low end that the Fender wasn't capable of.

[Al T]

Thanks,Joe for the info.The SPL / DB thing is something I don't have
any knowlege of,So this helps.It also tends to confirm the speaker theory.
JBL's were the best I knew of at the time.Yet If you used the same head to A /B a 200s bottom
and a Dual Showman bottom both with D140's the Showman didn't have a chance,
so the JBL /folded horn had to be the ultimate match at that time,IMO.I appreciated
your observation about the bassman 10 as well because I know that if you put the 200S
next to the old 50 watt 2X15 big bottom Bassman it was like a burp compared to thunder !
! and it wasn't just ten extra watts that made all of that  difference.
   Can you or someone else point me to a source where I can get a
better understanding of the SPL / DB thing ? Thanks again for your help.