Monomyth Unholy Grail

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I have an Alnico Cream. I don't use it, but it's a nice speaker overall imo. Actually pretty smooth and more dark leaning than bright to me. Nothing like what I hear in Reza's vids. My guess it's just something about Reza's mic'ing/recording execution giving him that harsher sound

close micing will capture a sound you don't hear in the room. It is why it is so powerful. I have had a better in the room sound and a better recorded sound. It rarely sounds great for both.

 

[DanTravis62]

I get that part and have enough close mic'ing experience to at least say that I'm sure if I did an apples to apples close mic comparison the Alnico Cream at least would still sound smoother and darker relative to most of my other current speakers. Whatever Reza is doing to get his close mic sound with them I have no idea and don't wanna know lol

That's definitely the big question - most of the alnico creams I've heard IRL have been quite pleasant sounding, and I'm not sure exactly what he does for post processing to give it that bland "reza" flavor

 

[itsgoodnow]

That's definitely the big question - most of the alnico creams I've heard IRL have been quite pleasant sounding, and I'm not sure exactly what he does for post processing to give it that bland "reza" flavor

Could also be unflattering mic placement in general. Trying to take a picture of a specific piece of air can really give a very weird reflection of reality. Like taking a zoomed in picture of a singular rock and trying use it to show someone what it’s like being at the Grand Canyon.

 

[fusedbrain]

I knew Reza had gone off the reservation when he started pounding the table on the Alnico Creams.
I dropped a small fortune to put a quad in a Wizard 4x12 when they first came out.
Those speakers suck donkey balls.
Bland, lifeless, absolutely no character whatsoever....
The perfect speaker for the tan pants crowd.

 

[DanTravis62]

Could also be unflattering mic placement in general. Trying to take a picture of a specific piece of air can really give a very weird reflection of reality. Like taking a zoomed in picture of a singular rock and trying use it to show someone what it’s like being at the Grand Canyon.

Good call.

Now that you mention it that makes a lot of sense

 

[braintheory]

That's definitely the big question - most of the alnico creams I've heard IRL have been quite pleasant sounding, and I'm not sure exactly what he does for post processing to give it that bland "reza" flavor

Yeah they’re more smooth, pleasant speakers, pretty easy on the ears IME, but prefer more grit in my sound. I remember his sound being more or less the same before he made this “brilliant” discovery of Alnico Creams. Iirc he was using V30’s before with the same kind of overall sound he gets now

Iirc he doesn’t dial in his amps super bright either. I’d think it has to be something about his recording execution by process of elimination. Some mysteries are better left unsolved though or I’ll leave it to you guys to figure out and keep it a secret

 

[Monomyth]

Did you guys ring? I honestly didn't say too much about the new amp simply because I didn't have to, its not a huge deviation from the work I do but there are some big tonal differences for the 100w offering. Is it a skeleton key? no. The new amp has a different gain structure (maybe 30% more) and placement of gain stages than the sk, there's probably 20 differences in the preamp and many in the power section being a 100w, it still carries many ideas from the former especially with the switching so previous owners of the sk will dial it in easily. Notably it's much more pronounced in the mid range, the new amp has less clipping and much more tube saturation. I prototyped the power transformer 3 times with Heyboer to find the right feel and its spot on. As far as Reza goes ive always liked his YouTube work, when he put me on years ago it was major push for me leaving my 9 to 5 and doing amps full time, sending him the amp first was all about respect, the run was already sold out before he got it. Plenty to come, cheers boys...

 

[MetalHeadMike]

I knew Reza had gone off the reservation when he started pounding the table on the Alnico Creams.
I dropped a small fortune to put a quad in a Wizard 4x12 when they first came out.
Those speakers suck donkey balls.
Bland, lifeless, absolutely no character whatsoever....
The perfect speaker for the tan pants crowd.

Holy shit dude...you're alive...awesome!

 

[RedB4Black]

Did you guys ring? I honestly didn't say too much about the new amp simply because I didn't have to, its not a huge deviation from the work I do but there are some big tonal differences for the 100w offering. Is it a skeleton key? no. The new amp has a different gain structure (maybe 30% more) and placement of gain stages than the sk, there's probably 20 differences in the preamp and many in the power section being a 100w, it still carries many ideas from the former especially with the switching so previous owners of the sk will dial it in easily. Notably it's much more pronounced in the mid range, the new amp has less clipping and much more tube saturation. I prototyped the power transformer 3 times with Heyboer to find the right feel and its spot on. As far as Reza goes ive always liked his YouTube work, when he put me on years ago it was major push for me leaving my 9 to 5 and doing amps full time, sending him the amp first was all about respect, the run was already sold out before he got it. Plenty to come, cheers boys...

Well damn. If I’d have known it was so different from the SK, I might’ve ordered one when I had the chance, I just thought it’d be too similar to my SK. Maybe I’ll get in on a future run

 

[Holy-diver]

Does shea make a 100w skeleton key? I am more partial to higher wattage heads almost always
But yeah this sounds like a reza typical tone. I am interested in the amp though seems cool

 

[midnightlaundry]

I’m sure it sounds like a power sander with 180 grit on a metal counter top, why amp builders send new amps for him to be the first to demo is one of my great mysteries in

I think he uses a Stompbox Distortion in front of everything..
I listened to a SigX Demo he did and the Red and Yellow channels had a crazy amount and yet equal levels of gain that the amp does not have..

 

[311boogieman]

Did you guys ring? I honestly didn't say too much about the new amp simply because I didn't have to, its not a huge deviation from the work I do but there are some big tonal differences for the 100w offering. Is it a skeleton key? no. The new amp has a different gain structure (maybe 30% more) and placement of gain stages than the sk, there's probably 20 differences in the preamp and many in the power section being a 100w, it still carries many ideas from the former especially with the switching so previous owners of the sk will dial it in easily. Notably it's much more pronounced in the mid range, the new amp has less clipping and much more tube saturation. I prototyped the power transformer 3 times with Heyboer to find the right feel and its spot on. As far as Reza goes ive always liked his YouTube work, when he put me on years ago it was major push for me leaving my 9 to 5 and doing amps full time, sending him the amp first was all about respect, the run was already sold out before he got it. Plenty to come, cheers boys...

Who is the next YT demo persona?

I liked what I heard in the OP demo. Especially with the gain down and the Reza filter on

 

[jbcrazy]

Did you guys ring? I honestly didn't say too much about the new amp simply because I didn't have to, its not a huge deviation from the work I do but there are some big tonal differences for the 100w offering. Is it a skeleton key? no. The new amp has a different gain structure (maybe 30% more) and placement of gain stages than the sk, there's probably 20 differences in the preamp and many in the power section being a 100w, it still carries many ideas from the former especially with the switching so previous owners of the sk will dial it in easily. Notably it's much more pronounced in the mid range, the new amp has less clipping and much more tube saturation. I prototyped the power transformer 3 times with Heyboer to find the right feel and its spot on. As far as Reza goes ive always liked his YouTube work, when he put me on years ago it was major push for me leaving my 9 to 5 and doing amps full time, sending him the amp first was all about respect, the run was already sold out before he got it. Plenty to come, cheers boys...

Brother I love the skeleton key. When you make a purple run of these count me in.

 

[OldGtrGuy]

Sounds sick, Reza is pretty awesome in my book and a good dude. I agree with the comments about the videos but I have learned the differences between his videos and my room so if an amp already sounds great here it's definitely going to be killer.

Even if this is a copy of the Skelton key......it is now 100w...worth it

 

[killertone]

Who is the next YT demo persona?

I liked what I heard in the OP demo. Especially with the gain down and the Reza filter on

That'd be me.

 

[Brandonrz]

That'd be me.

Excited to hear it! I snoozed and lost on the preorder

 

[RedB4Black]

That'd be me.

When do you get it? I should bring my Skeleton Key (latest version from 10/2024) up and you can do a video comparing the two.

 

[SFW]

I'm sure that it is a great sounding amp. However, from that demo... you could tell me that I was listening to a Fractal, or a Quad Cortex modeler and I would believe you. You could also tell me that it was Crate Blue Voodoo and I would believe you. That did not sound good to me.

 

[killertone]

When do you get it? I should bring my Skeleton Key (latest version from 10/2024) up and you can do a video comparing the two.

I got it a couple days ago

 

[Dino 939]

Could also be unflattering mic placement in general. Trying to take a picture of a specific piece of air can really give a very weird reflection of reality. Like taking a zoomed in picture of a singular rock and trying use it to show someone what it’s like being at the Grand Canyon.

Now THAT was the post of the fucking century man.
Word up on the level