Guide to comparing your modeler to your favorite tube amp

[Whizzinby]

Great post.

I think this highlights another key point, which is this gear chase is ultimately just a massive tail chase for obsessive compulsive types. (Guilty as charged)

The more gear I churn the more I realize none of this really matters. The accuracy of these models/caps falls within such a small margin of variance that it’s functionally irrelevant. We probably don’t need a graph to tell us that 800 model sounds like an 800, and who’s to say your source is the ideal comparison point to begin with. Does the 5150 sound/feel like a 5150? Great.

I think I’d even go one further as I don’t think there is as much variance between different amps as we make out. Yeah a Recto sounds different than a 5150 than a SLO, but even that it mitigated by your guitar, your hands, your cab all pulling it back to some underlying level of familiarity.

None of this shit matters as much as we tell ourselves.

 

[laxu]

If you actually read into this, you'd find that phones are quite inaccurate, and so are the cheaper dB meters you can get on eBay and Amazon and the like. There can be variances up to 10dB in some cases, which is quite a lot. It's extremely easy for that slight difference in volume to not be detectable by your phone.

With phones, high sound pressure levels can distort the input, which will completely throw off the measurement. Plus the apps are thrown off by lots of low frequency content:

Sound Level Meter Apps – How Accurate Are They?

There was been a growing awareness of sound level meter apps in recent years. But how accurate our sound level meter apps?

www.cirrusresearch.co.uk

Plus, dB isn't the way to compare the final output volume of a playback system. You would want to measure sound pressure level. The REED Instruments R8050 is a decent one.

I tested against my fairly cheap decibel meter and my iPhone XS on SPLnFFT app was 2 dB off. After compensation it worked fine at least for low to moderate levels.

IMO the phone approach is good enough if you don't want to buy a decibel meter. It's better to have some reference even if it's not spot on accurate.

 

[James Freeman]

 

[Bruce]

Makes sense. Seems like a fools errand to me though. Not sure why so many are focused on making one thing sound exactly like something else. Get gear. Dial in a sound. Play guitar.

Before the POD, we just had great and not so great sounding digital preamps. After the POD, it became how close we can get to the real amp models and the great pres just kind of sadly died away. The Rocktron Chameleon was a great pre with FX. Wish I still had it.

 

[la szum]

Great post.

I think this highlights another key point, which is this gear chase is ultimately just a massive tail chase for obsessive compulsive types. (Guilty as charged)

The more gear I churn the more I realize none of this really matters. The accuracy of these models/caps falls within such a small margin of variance that it’s functionally irrelevant. We probably don’t need a graph to tell us that 800 model sounds like an 800, and who’s to say your source is the ideal comparison point to begin with. Does the 5150 sound/feel like a 5150? Great.

I think I’d even go one further as I don’t think there is as much variance between different amps as we make out. Yeah a Recto sounds different than a 5150 than a SLO, but even that it mitigated by your guitar, your hands, your cab all pulling it back to some underlying level of familiarity.

None of this s**t matters as much as we tell ourselves.

Amen! I also wonder how much of it is a distraction from the Real Work.

 

[Orvillain]

And yet another hundreds of dollars piece of gear I need.

Can I really afford to hang out in places like this?

I have one of these? Is it not accurate enough?

Don't know quite honestly. Do you know if it is A-weighted or not???

There have been tests done comparing quality meters with iPads, and the iPads were often 10dB or more out of whack!

 

[laxu]

Before the POD, we just had great and not so great sounding digital preamps. After the POD, it became how close we can get to the real amp models and the great pres just kind of sadly died away. The Rocktron Chameleon was a great pre with FX. Wish I still had it.

We had better stuff than the POD before that. Both the Yamaha DG and H&K Zentera were for a long time better than anything Line6 made and the next step up was the first gen Vox Valvetronix IMO. Line6 was just way better at marketing and obviously the POD had a big form factor advantage too.

 

[GreatGreen]

Nah man I compared my three-4x12 W/D/W tube rig against a modeler that I listened to by plugging it into my TV from Walmart’s built-in speakers.

The tube amp sounded better. This PROVES all modelers are crap!

You modeling dudes can make all the excuses you want about “comparing apples to apples” and “making sure the end of the chain is the same to ensure the proper variables are controlled for” but it’s time to face the facts. My tube rig is better than inferior digital sounding (gross!) digital modelers and more importantly, keeping this opinion means there’s no reason for me to have to try and learn anything new because learning stuff, or even just stepping out of my comfort zone, is hard.

- signed, the geniuses at TGP