Pre amp vs. Power amp vs. Speaker distortion

[John Matrix]

Care to post some examples from albums that you feel are accurate representations of these sounds? I've tried looking to youtube but most of the demos I encountered are some blues licks or chuggy metalcore riffs. I'd rather hear what you all consider to be the gold standard of these 3 different sounds from various doom/stoner/sludge albums. This isn't really meant to be a discussion of which you prefer, I think that thread exists somewhere already, but any discussion on this topic is welcome.

[christianatl]

ac/dc is classic power tube feels

[maggot]

Most distortion comes from multiple sources at the same time.

Preamp distortion can have a lot of different sounds, but I'd say James Hetfield would be a good start, and Santana. A lot of 80s metal is preamp distortion. A lot of the boosted 70s sounds, like Black Sabbath also have a lot of preamp distortion.

Speaker distortion is seldom the primary form of distortion. Slashed speaker breakup would be You Really Got Me by the Kinds or Rumble by Link Wray. There's also a really shrieky, sizzly saxophony kind of speaker distortion caused by overdriving low-wattage Alnico speakers. It's all over 60s guitar solos, but I wouldn't be able to identify a specific instance. It was instantly recognizable to me when I put a Jenson P-12Q alnico speaker into an old Ampeg Reverberocket. Nowadays, speaker distortion is a more minor component, in which you crank everything up so loud that everything distorts, including speakers.

Power amp distortion is AC/DC, Neil Young, very early Who.

[Iommic Pope]

High on Fire live is both pre and power.
The sound of tubes about to explode.
Sometimes they do.
Glorious.

[D.o.S.]

That was more true for the first iteration of the band, tbh. I saw them just before they released their newest record and they've gotten a bit quieter (quieter being relative it's not like it was acoustic but my friends and I could shout to each other and sort of understand what we were saying, which is a change from the days of yore).

[Iommic Pope]

Yeah weird.
Maybe it's a lack of backline choices down here but every time I've seen them it sounds punishing.
There was one gig at the Hifi where one of Matt's amps was literally in meltdown. It sounded like noise about halfway through the set and by the end had started cutting in and out.
He was using hired Marshalls though so it was probably more to do with that.
First half of the set sounded fantastic though, so at least we know it's possible to get a decent sound out of a modern Marshall, as long as you're happy with murdering it (KKs and 800/JTM reissues aside, it's usually only 2000s that are available down here, unless Tym supplied your backline.)