I realize this post has been going on for quite some time now, but I figured I would add my 2-cents in. I have been testing out, side-by-side, a traditional 2x12 (25w Greenbacks) guitar cab, a Xitone 1x12 FRFR and a Matrix NL212. They are all being powered by a Matrix GT1000FX amplifier. I am using both the AxeFx and my iPad, running BIAS and JamUP through these cabs.
After using the Xitone for awhile now, I can't quite dial in any tone that truly makes me happy. I have tried the original high res IR's, along with the new UltraRES IR's and no matter what I use (mics, cabs, etc.), I find that it requires so much EQing to knock off the piercing highs and to have any smoothness in tone, that it just leads to frustration. But maybe I'm just not an FRFR guy and have been so used to the "amp-in-the-room" and traditional style that I'll never be satisfied with FRFR no matter what.
The NL212, is being borrowed by a friend of mine that had used 2 of them live, before eventually choosing to move to IEM's and using them rather than a cab set on stage. He mentioned that even with the NL212 cranking, he could never hear them when performing live. Now the NL212 is not an FRFR setup, but a more neutral-sounding speaker set of G12 Century Vintage. I have run the AFX and Positive Grid software through this cab with cab blocks off and on. I find that IR's don't work well for this cab and end up sounding too boomy and muddy, IMO. If I run without a cab block, I find that it's better, but again has too much high end frequencies for my liking. Even with a lot of bass added, it just doesn't seem to have that good tone for me. I compared the weight to my current guitar cab and it is only saving me about 6 lbs., weighing in at 32 lbs. total.
And on to the traditional guitar cab... I must say that no matter what I put through this cab, it sounds pretty darn good without any advanced tweaking at all. No EQ's, no advanced parameters, high/low cutting, etc. Just a few twists of the amp knobs and viola! There is a good tone. I bypass the cab blocks in both the AFX and the PG apps and get a tone that isn't ear-splitting high, but also not too bassy, but a good mix of the two that requires only a bit of tweaking with presence to cure, generally. I spoke with a friend recently, discussing just this topic, and he mentioned that they recently hooked an AFX up to a 1960A Marshall cab and were in heaven with the tone... and this guy is an FRFR guy all the way. I'm not sure what the exact reason is behind it, but I just find the tone from the guitar cab to be more "real" and to allow much less tweaking to acquire a great, usable sound.
In the end, I have taken the time to really look at all the cabs side-by-side and run the same signal, using the same guitar, same power amp, same room... and everything being apples-to-apples, I just find that anything other than the traditional cab requires much more work in tweaking and frustration searching for "the tone", whereas the guitar cab is quite simple and is a much more plug-and-play setup that just works, IMO. I think that for the time being, I have no choice, but to continue micing cabs until I can find an FR solution that works without the massive time commitment in experimenting to find the tone that sounds the best.
