Thinking about going digital again...AX8

GuitarGuyLP

GuitarGuyLP

Active member
So my wife is pregnant, and I'll be loosing the music room to a nursery. I am thinking about selling my Archon, and getting an AX8, and a small headphone amp since I won't be able to crank the Archon with a baby in the house. The form factor of the AX8 is very appealing, and has the same amp modeling as the AxeFx II. I had an AxeFx Standard for a while with some studio monitors, and thought it was pretty good. Anyone here replace their amps with a modeler, and headphones? How did it work out? I'm thinking I might add a solid state power amp, and a 1x12, or just some speakers.

I found a guitar cable that has a headphone cable built in as well which solves one of my major complaints about playing through headphones in the past I was always getting tangled in the guitar, and headphone cable.
 
I haven't been in a band in years and doing home recordings now. I have an Axe-FX II and great just playing at home and using headphones, monitors, etc. The only thing I wouldn't like about the AX8 is that is doesn't have the "Dephase" option like my Axe-Fx II has. It is handy when I'm playing thru an FRFR cab to get a more realistic guitar cab sound. Not a huge difference though and I don't always use it. Depends on the amp settings. Other than that, I think it would be a great solution!
 
Yeah, the AX8 is killer for recorded tones IMO. I always have to keep a tube amp just because (your baby will grow soon) but I did have the AX8 for a while and it was really, really awesome for home use.

Congrats btw :thumbsup:
 
Thanks!!

I might be moving too, or else I would keep the tube amp. I also have the thought that if I end up happy with the AX8 then I can always ad a power amp, and cab, or a PA.

I will have to read about the "diphase" option. That's the first I heard about it.
 
GuitarGuyLP":iqsb61az said:
So my wife is pregnant, and I'll be loosing the music room to a nursery. I am thinking about selling my Archon, and getting an AX8, and a small headphone amp since I won't be able to crank the Archon with a baby in the house. The form factor of the AX8 is very appealing, and has the same amp modeling as the AxeFx II. I had an AxeFx Standard for a while with some studio monitors, and thought it was pretty good. Anyone here replace their amps with a modeler, and headphones? How did it work out? I'm thinking I might add a solid state power amp, and a 1x12, or just some speakers.

I found a guitar cable that has a headphone cable built in as well which solves one of my major complaints about playing through headphones in the past I was always getting tangled in the guitar, and headphone cable.
Click to expand...
PM me if serious. I have a bud selling a clean one for a GREAT price but he doesn't "forum"...
 
GuitarGuyLP":32j09obf said:
So my wife is pregnant, and I'll be loosing the music room to a nursery. I am thinking about selling my Archon, and getting an AX8, and a small headphone amp since I won't be able to crank the Archon with a baby in the house. The form factor of the AX8 is very appealing, and has the same amp modeling as the AxeFx II. I had an AxeFx Standard for a while with some studio monitors, and thought it was pretty good. Anyone here replace their amps with a modeler, and headphones? How did it work out? I'm thinking I might add a solid state power amp, and a 1x12, or just some speakers.

I found a guitar cable that has a headphone cable built in as well which solves one of my major complaints about playing through headphones in the past I was always getting tangled in the guitar, and headphone cable.
Click to expand...

Ha! I know that pain, my daughter was just born two months ago and in the lead up to her birth I lost my "studio" space too. I now have a desk with my computer and monitors on it and i wheel in a cab and amp as needed. Whenever I play, even a JCM800 on 1 is crazy loud and my wife tells me she hears it during nursing. To be honest though, Why not get a good attenuator like the Torpedo Reload so that you can lower the volume OR use it as a load and run into speaker / cab impulses? You will still have a real amp doing the deed and the digital may fall short to your ear and you might regret having spent all that cash to go that route. You won't have much time to play anyway..always something to do or clean up and when your wife needs a break, that is right when you will be sitting down to play!
 
Congrats on the two month old!!! I might look into an attenuator, or installing power scaling into my Archon, but I find that guitar speakers themselves sound way different when cranked. I am thinking about getting the AX8 while I still have my Archon, and seeing how they compare before selling. That said with the exception of a Peters amp, and Mako preamp I used to own I have been able to replace any amp I have ever sold at a later date. I am selling off a lot of furniture, and other stuff too since there is a 90% chance I am moving back to Calgary.
 
I can't comment on the modeler route but been thru using tube amps with headphones route.

The cheapest option using your archon with headphones that I can think of would be to get a two notes captor $249 and use that with an impulse response (cab sim) loader in pedal format with a headphone out like the Mooer radar $148. Torpedo live would be in the middle and the torpedo studio on the higher end of the spectrum but all would do the trick for loading your amp and jamming with headphones.

I'm a late night player bedroom/apartment player so I feel your pain brother. I usually run my heads thru a suhr reactive load into a logidy IR loader pedal into my audio interface and plug my headphones in to the interface. It works pretty good and home recordings come out pretty decent.
 
love my AX8. Works great live too. I can run it into monitors or a powered cab or into a recording interface w\headphones. Super versatile.
 
Congrats!!!

I'm going through a similar scenario (only no new baby on the way). I have the axe 2 and like being able to play and record quietly. Ive been exploring doing the same with my modded marshall so i bought the two notes Captor and then the Torpedo Live. I dont like having to go through my daw and the torpedo live is time consuming for a moron like me so it's now in the classifieds. Now I'm going to try going through the captor into the cab sim in my axe fx.
 
AX8 is killer. I hate playing guitar through headphones though. Hopefully you can at least play through some powered studio monitors at low enough volume.
 
errrrrl":18u0a6ua said:
I can't comment on the modeler route but been thru using tube amps with headphones route.

The cheapest option using your archon with headphones that I can think of would be to get a two notes captor $249 and use that with an impulse response (cab sim) loader in pedal format with a headphone out like the Mooer radar $148. Torpedo live would be in the middle and the torpedo studio on the higher end of the spectrum but all would do the trick for loading your amp and jamming with headphones.

I'm a late night player bedroom/apartment player so I feel your pain brother. I usually run my heads thru a suhr reactive load into a logidy IR loader pedal into my audio interface and plug my headphones in to the interface. It works pretty good and home recordings come out pretty decent.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a decent option, but I am moving too, so if I go with the AX8, and sell my amp it will make moving a lot easier. I figure I will buy either some monitors, or a 1x12 cab, and small power amp, or a cheap combo amp once I am set up. I was also looking at plugging the AX8 into my home theater system since I have some really good gear.

I watched a few demos of the AX8 last night, it is pretty impressive!! One tip I picked up is to record a dry guitar signal, and re-amp it with the axe fx for creating patches so that you can play with things while hearing the change right away. That was always a difficulty I had with tweaking the Axe Fx when I had one.
 
I have two young kids, but kept my amps. With that said, I've been doing a lot of recording lately and just going direct using sims. I like it so much that I'm thinking of selling off an amp or two and buying an Axe or similar. For me personally, I just don't gel with headphones. I have powered monitors and even at a low volume, at least it's not headphones. My .02, is that if you're used to an amp, at least get some powered monitors to go with the AX8.
 
The AX8 is a great and versatile option. Hey have been using it for most of my live gigs and rehearsals recently. I do have a Torpedo Live for using my amp heads as well.
Headphones are challenging for regular playing, IMO.
I use studio monitors as well as an Atomic CLR to hear my tones from the AX8.
Best of luck!!
An congrats on your little one too
 
Thanks for all the advice, and Congrats!!!!. I think I will be picking up an AX8, and some monitors which will probably work pretty good because I have a little mixer so I can plug my ipad in for midi tracks, or backing tracks. I think that should work out pretty well!!! I might try some open headphones like Grado or something similar in case I need to be extra quiet. I have heard that those headphones sound a lot more open than other styles, but they don't offer any isolation, and everyone can hear what you are listening to, but if it doesn't sound as boxed in as other headphones it might be a good option.
 
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