Power amp with real cab garbage sound

[Andy Eagle]

All celestion speakers have been made in China since 2002. The only UK ones are old. All models.

 

[Chris Hurley]

All celestion speakers have been made in China since 2002. The only UK ones are old. All models.

I thought the heritage were UK and Mesa demanded their v30s made in the UK...

 

[4406cuda]

All celestion speakers have been made in China since 2002. The only UK ones are old. All models.

The Celestion Alnico Creams are Made In UK

I have a pair in Bogner Cube 1x12s and they sound amazing.

 

[Rekster]

All celestion speakers have been made in China since 2002. The only UK ones are old. All models.

That's not true. Mesa Boogie uses UK made V30s in their rectifier cabs. In fact you can buy the speakers on their own even from here:

https://store.mesaboogie.com/products/speaker-12-celestion-vintage-30-uk-made.html

 

[FractalAudio]

FWIW you do want a few hours of loud play time on them.

I got a brand new Marshall 1960AV earlier in the year and thought "what have I done..." when I first got it because it sounded rather awful. Thin and brittle.

But I left a Yamaha-recommended speaker-break in track running for a day or two and it helped big time. Sounded like space aliens invaded the basement. A few more hours of rather loud playing over the next few weeks, and it sounds very nice. No fizz and instead has that thick syrupy sound I associate with V30s.

When we were shooting IRs we bought a brand-new 5150 III cab. We shot some IRs and then auditioned them and everyone went "yuck!!!".

At the end of the day we set the cab back up again and put a synth block in the grid set to sweep up and down at low frequencies. Ran that into the cab overnight. Came back the next day, shot the IRs again and the difference was night-and-day.

 

[Rekster]

When we were shooting IRs we bought a brand-new 5150 III cab. We shot some IRs and then auditioned them and everyone went "yuck!!!".

At the end of the day we set the cab back up again and put a synth block in the grid set to sweep up and down at low frequencies. Ran that into the cab overnight. Came back the next day, shot the IRs again and the difference was night-and-day.

Interesting. I wonder if that's why I wasn't blown away using a real cab when I tried it a year or two ago... It was a brand new Mesa 2x12 rectifier cab. Using it now sounds amazing, night and day difference. I always assumed it was because of Cygnus improvements but perhaps I also needed to give the speakers more time to break in.

 

[FractalAudio]

Interesting. I wonder if that's why I wasn't blown away using a real cab when I tried it a year or two ago... It was a brand new Mesa 2x12 rectifier cab. Using it now sounds amazing, night and day difference. I always assumed it was because of Cygnus improvements but perhaps I also needed to give the speakers more time to break in.

I always considered speaker break-in to be urban myth stuff but after experiencing it first-hand I can definitely say that there's something to it.

 

[cardinal]

When I saw Yamaha recommending a break-in track, I figured it must be real because I sure hope Yamaha knows a few things about speakers. And I definitely noticed a difference.

The track was a bunch of frequency sweeps and white and pink noise I think. Sounded awful and my family was really pissed about it running so loud.

 

[JRod4928]

I always considered speaker break-in to be urban myth stuff but after experiencing it first-hand I can definitely say that there's something to it.

Is there a preferred 'loudness' to break in speakers with pink noise (or whatever is used)?

 

[GreatGreen]

Interesting. I wonder if that's why I wasn't blown away using a real cab when I tried it a year or two ago... It was a brand new Mesa 2x12 rectifier cab. Using it now sounds amazing, night and day difference. I always assumed it was because of Cygnus improvements but perhaps I also needed to give the speakers more time to break in.

Mesa 2x12 recto cabs are notorious for this, I think it's due to the brighter 16 ohm V30's Mesa uses for that cab, where their 4x12 cabs use 8 ohm V30's. I bought a Mesa 2x12 horizontal cab a few years back and it was so bright and had so little low end that I thought it was broken. A few years later and it sounds a lot more balanced now.

When we were shooting IRs we bought a brand-new 5150 III cab. We shot some IRs and then auditioned them and everyone went "yuck!!!".

At the end of the day we set the cab back up again and put a synth block in the grid set to sweep up and down at low frequencies. Ran that into the cab overnight. Came back the next day, shot the IRs again and the difference was night-and-day.

Just curious, how loud were those sweeps in the room?
Were they loud enough that it was tough to be in the room with them, for example?

 

[unscarred]

I know this has probably been discussed hundreds of times on this forum but I haven’t been around very long. Does anyone know how to get a decent sounds with a real power amp and cab. I’m running a matrix gt1000 through a 2x12 with v30s. I have always heard that cab sims should be off but without can sims it sounds like complete garbage. It’s very fizzy sounding ( I play rock/metal). However with cab sims on I have dialed in some great tones. I feel like maybe there is something wrong since everyone else says they get awesome tones with cab sims off. Any advice I’d appreciate!

Are u somehow connected to your audio interface and monitors? I’ve done this a couple of times where i was creating patches using my monitors and then tried to recreate the sound i like with my poweramp and cab. I sometimes forget that i’m still connected to my monitors even though i set the volume to minimum on my audio interface. The fizzy sound without the cab still bleeds through the monitors.

Just tried the new firmware using my vertical Mesa 2x12 and pulled up the JV410 orange lead and it sounds killer! My cab resonates at 86.5-87 so i make sure i set the low freq resonance to that number.

 

[∞Fractals]

The original vendor from whom I bought my rig from also supplied the matrix amplifier and a pair of Friedman cabs load w/ V30s, broken in by just buy playing music ~24 hours at decent/loud volumes.

I’m sure low-frequency sweeps would exercise the voice-coils quite nicely.

I also run a cabinet block into a pair of FRFR outputs for mains.

 

[BroKV]

When we were shooting IRs we bought a brand-new 5150 III cab. We shot some IRs and then auditioned them and everyone went "yuck!!!".

At the end of the day we set the cab back up again and put a synth block in the grid set to sweep up and down at low frequencies. Ran that into the cab overnight. Came back the next day, shot the IRs again and the difference was night-and-day.

I haven’t looked into doing this yet, is it pretty simple setup?

 

[unscarred]

I haven’t looked into doing this yet, is it pretty simple setup?

 

[BroKV]

I get that for find the freq of the cab. I’m curious to set it up to sweep freq overnight. I have a new Mesa cab coming today and wanted to use this to break it in.

 

[unscarred]

I get that for find the freq of the cab. I’m curious to set it up to sweep freq overnight. I have a new Mesa cab coming today and wanted to use this to break it in.

U can use a modifier to sweep up and down

 

[cardinal]

FWIW I can throw this up here. Axe FX III/Power Amp and a tube amp through the same cab. Just iPhone clips.

Fractal Axe FX III Brit 800/Super OD or '79 Marshall 2204/Boss SD-1. Both into the same 1960AV and the iPhone doing the recording did not move.

Fractal into the cab sounds good to me

A:


B:

 

[FractalAudio]

FWIW I can throw this up here. Axe FX III/Power Amp and a tube amp through the same cab. Just iPhone clips.

Fractal Axe FX III Brit 800/Super OD or '79 Marshall 2204/Boss SD-1. Both into the same 1960AV and the iPhone doing the recording did not move.

Fractal into the cab sounds good to me

A:


B:

Watching the responses on Rig Talk was predictable:

"B is definitely the tube amp."
"You can clearly hear that B is the real amp."
"B sounds better to me."

OP: "B is the Axe-Fx."

"Clearly A is the real amp."

 

[cardinal]

Watching the responses on Rig Talk was predictable:

"B is definitely the tube amp."
"You can clearly hear that B is the real amp."
"B sounds better to me."

OP: "B is the Axe-Fx."

"Clearly A is the real amp."

The Brit 800 sim is just a thing of beauty. 2204 has always been my fav amp and it's a bit mind warping to listen back to clips of the Fractal.

The clips don't show it, but one particular problem with the 2204 is that I think it sounds pretty great at low volumes (despite what the internet says) and of course is awesome at crushing volumes. But it's a bit of a struggle for some reason at reasonable-drummer-volume for some reason (very bright; I guess the power section isn't offering any compression yet but it's loud enough to be obnoxious? Not really sure).

But the Fractal works easily at any volume, no sweat. And sounds really good while doing it.

 

[Budda]

The Brit 800 sim is just a thing of beauty. 2204 has always been my fav amp and it's a bit mind warping to listen back to clips of the Fractal.

The clips don't show it, but one particular problem with the 2204 is that I think it sounds pretty great at low volumes (despite what the internet says) and of course is awesome at crushing volumes. But it's a bit of a struggle for some reason at reasonable-drummer-volume for some reason (very bright; I guess the power section isn't offering any compression yet but it's loud enough to be obnoxious? Not really sure).

But the Fractal works easily at any volume, no sweat. And sounds really good while doing it.

Presence at 0 and treble low should do it. JCM800's are bright.