4 AMP SHOOTOUT!

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FastRedPonyCar

FastRedPonyCar

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I don't think the first test I did with these amps was as accurate as it could have been. I had stuff in the fx loops and used room mic'ing and for the renegade, the room mic was in a different location so this time, no room mic'ing aside from what you hear from the mic's capturing.

Amps (as they appear in the clip)

- 2 channel 100 watt TITAN
- Nitro (OD1 used at first then a slight pause to hit OD2. Thickens up the low end and lower mids a bit and adds a little extra saturation)
- Renegade w/a quartet of ruby KT88's
- Jet City 100


Nothing in any of the loops, no boosts used, nothing. Just the JP6 into the amp to the cab. The speakers mic'd are a 100 watt scumback XH75-LHDC and a celestion Lead 80. I had a brain fart when I told netmusicians it was a V30. :confused:

Anyways, here it is. Primarily heavy stuff. If you're after a low gain or clean comparison, it's not here.

http://www.netmusicians.org/index.php?s ... value=6538
 
Love the tone on the Titan!! :rock: I didn't get farther than a minute in though...that shit was dragging on, son! :doh:
Separate tracks woulda worked better for me.
 
I'm lazy
redface.gif
 
That was awesome! Thank you for doing that.

imo...TITAN>JCA100>Renegade>Nitro

But the price difference...you could get two JCA's for a nice Titan.


The Renegade really had an open sound. Nice and bright...interesting What was required for the KT88 swap?
 
~Abstract~":1qcpemmn said:
The Renegade really had an open sound. Nice and bright...interesting What was required for the KT88 swap?
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it definitely opened the sound up a bit more, made it cleaner and clearer when that amount of gain is dialed in. Less overall compression when pushed really hard.
 
why does it sound like I'm at the end of a long room away from the amp?
 
They all sound great. Thanks for uploading. :rock:

My personal favourite is definitely the Titan. Dare I say it but it actually has a Diezel vibe to it. You know, that knarly sensitivity? Bitchin'.

I got lost half-way through, though. After the first amp I didn't know what was playing when. :doh:
 
AngryGoldfish":1bscrn86 said:
They all sound great. Thanks for uploading. :rock:

My personal favourite is definitely the Titan. Dare I say it but it actually has a Diezel vibe to it. You know, that knarly sensitivity? Bitchin'.

I got lost half-way through, though. After the first amp I didn't know what was playing when. :doh:
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it most definately has a very very tight, clean but still very saturated sound. Despite being built on the foundation of a SLO, it really has nothing much in common with one aside from the controls. but yeah the super clean but still very saturated sound is a similiarity it shares with the diezels.

and you also raise a good point with having the amps rather difficult to distinguish. Back in my original thread talking about this at HCAF, I noted that my first demo of all 4 amps showed me how little the amp itself actually matters to the overall sound. the cab itself IMO has the most noticable impact on the sound. NOT the speakers but the actual cabinet itself.. I've got a couple different cabs that I've put the same speakers into and the sound is night and day different. my V30's sound like ass in my carvin legacy 4X12 but sound really good in the splawn 412. Even my old ratty carvin V12 speakers I got with my cheap old valvemaster combo sound sick in the splawn cab.

yeah the amp will make a difference on the sound but the right cab for the sound you're after will be what can make or break a rig.

one huge caveat to the whole "amp not making a big difference" caveat is that if you play out live on stage, it makes a HUGE difference. A mic has a hard time capturing that huge wall of sound and big whallop that the nitro and titan hit you with physically when you've got them cranking from a 412. the mic doesn't really capture that so from a purely recorded point of view if used in the studio, they don't make AS much of a difference. It helps though that they're all very well built and well voiced amps. I'm sure if I had a cheap junk amp thrown into this comparison, it woudl stick out like a sore thumb.
 
FastRedPonyCar":208bzd7w said:
it most definately has a very very tight, clean but still very saturated sound. Despite being built on the foundation of a SLO, it really has nothing much in common with one aside from the controls. but yeah the super clean but still very saturated sound is a similiarity it shares with the diezels.
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It didn't sound anything like a Soldano.

An SLO, imo, fits into that 80's sound. I know the one I tried did. My Hot Rod Avenger is based towards modern metal because of it's Depth Knob, but that's not really the "pure Soldano".

That's a good way of describing it: clean but still very saturated.

and you also raise a good point with having the amps rather difficult to distinguish. Back in my original thread talking about this at HCAF, I noted that my first demo of all 4 amps showed me how little the amp itself actually matters to the overall sound. the cab itself IMO has the most noticable impact on the sound. NOT the speakers but the actual cabinet itself.. I've got a couple different cabs that I've put the same speakers into and the sound is night and day different. my V30's sound like ass in my carvin legacy 4X12 but sound really good in the splawn 412. Even my old ratty carvin V12 speakers I got with my cheap old valvemaster combo sound sick in the splawn cab.
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Cabinets absolutely make a difference. I just ordered a Matamp 2x12 for my Avenger and I hoped it will be alright. It's obviously going to be built differently than the 4x12 Soldano I initially played the amp through in the UK. And it has different speakers, too. So I'm a little concerned, but it's not the end of the world. I'm imagine it'll be fine.

yeah the amp will make a difference on the sound but the right cab for the sound you're after will be what can make or break a rig.

one huge caveat to the whole "amp not making a big difference" caveat is that if you play out live on stage, it makes a HUGE difference. A mic has a hard time capturing that huge wall of sound and big whallop that the nitro and titan hit you with physically when you've got them cranking from a 412. the mic doesn't really capture that so from a purely recorded point of view if used in the studio, they don't make AS much of a difference. It helps though that they're all very well built and well voiced amps. I'm sure if I had a cheap junk amp thrown into this comparison, it woudl stick out like a sore thumb.
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Exactly. When you push an amp, the power valves define how it will sound, crucially. They compress, naturally, and turn into what the amp was initially designed for. And they all sound extremely different.
 
AngryGoldfish":2tstxop3 said:
Exactly. When you push an amp, the power valves define how it will sound, crucially. They compress, naturally, and turn into what the amp was initially designed for. And they all sound extremely different.
Click to expand...

This is why I had a full quartet of KT88's in the mail headed to my house for the renegade the week I bought it. That extra clarity and cleanliness when the amp is cranked on stage is really beneficial. From what doug at jet city said, the transformers for the JCA100 were spec'd to properly handle KT88/6550's so that may be next.
 
FastRedPonyCar":1augurbg said:
This is why I had a full quartet of KT88's in the mail headed to my house for the renegade the week I bought it. That extra clarity and cleanliness when the amp is cranked on stage is really beneficial. From what doug at jet city said, the transformers for the JCA100 were spec'd to properly handle KT88/6550's so that may be next.
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I lurve the sound of KT88 amps (Fryette, namely) but it makes them even harder to evoke power-amp distortion at low volumes, especially with a 100 watt head. I don't know how you find it? :confused:

Is a 6550 a version of a KT88?
 
I would have liked to win the $10,000 prize for guessing them correctly but needed pauses between and shorter clips---and you gave it away by listing them.


What do you mean there's no prize ?
 
I liked the Renegade best....or maybe Titan - I'll call it a tie between those 2 ;)
 
AngryGoldfish":ekqx4yz1 said:
FastRedPonyCar":ekqx4yz1 said:
This is why I had a full quartet of KT88's in the mail headed to my house for the renegade the week I bought it. That extra clarity and cleanliness when the amp is cranked on stage is really beneficial. From what doug at jet city said, the transformers for the JCA100 were spec'd to properly handle KT88/6550's so that may be next.
Click to expand...
I lurve the sound of KT88 amps (Fryette, namely) but it makes them even harder to evoke power-amp distortion at low volumes, especially with a 100 watt head. I don't know how you find it? :confused:

Is a 6550 a version of a KT88?
Click to expand...

KT88 and 6550's are very similar. All of them will sound a lttle different from each other no matter what tube type but they all share the same common denominator of offering an overall cleaner sound with a little extra headroom.

Most modern amps, you don't actually want power tube distortion. It all comes from the preamp. The power section will compress the tone the more you turn it up but generally speaking (from the way I understand it) most modern day amps aren't like the old non master volume marshalls and voxes where you crank the snot out of them for the purpose of getting more saturation from the power tubes.
 
Cool, I always like side by side comparisons.. I agree it woulda been easier if they were all on separate files but ill take what we get!

I liked the big chunky bite of the Titan best in these clips, but they all sounded pretty good! :thumbsup:
 
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