Headphones are an entirely different way of listening. You can NOT get the same effect from them that you get from regular speakers.
Sound through headphones can be dull:
So, stop chasing the sound using headphones? Kinda, maybe, but the better way to think of it is you need to educate yourself on the difference between their sound and the sound of the real amp so you can compensate in your head.
This "compensation in your head" thing is really important. We have to learn how different things can affect the sound, and then how to imagine the effect of turning a knob, or using a different microphone or moving it, or using a different cabinet, different cable, different gauge or type of string… it's a long list of things that affect the sound and they all combine to make the final output. We just have to learn how they all fit together.
No, not likely at all; Some people hold back and don't upgrade, but a huge number of us have already used the firmware without that issue. I suspect it's that your expectations might not be grounded in experience.
"plug-and-play"? So, you never turned a knob on the amp? Or, you turned them and experimented, and found the sound you wanted,
without using headphones? Or did you use headphones, found the sound you liked, then took the headphones off and compared the sound and figured out what you needed to do to adjust? Amps are more intuitive because we're not so afraid to twiddle knobs, but you're going to have to twiddle knobs to learn and find the sound you want, so don't let the modeler intimidate you.
Spin the knobs, change things, see what happens. You can
NOT blow up the modeler by turning knobs. You might make nasty sounds and your SO might tell you to turn it TF down (mine will), but you can reset the preset and start over. Imagine the "fun" you'd have trying to change things similarly using a real amp with some cutters and a soldering iron. ;-)
Experience is important when using amps and modelers, and you only get that through using them over many years, studying what happens when we make a small change. The new-fangled amps that do it with a push button are actually doing a disservice to new players because they don't learn the cause and effect of twiddling knobs and working with their gear for years, and when they step up to pro-quality gear there's some floundering and thrashing as they come up the learning curve.
There are a number of modeled amps that can do what you want in the factory presets, but, again, the new-fangled amps fool people into thinking it's a simple push-button change, whereas those of us who've used single-channel tube amps for years immediately think of
turning down the guitar to reduce gain. And, if you haven't used the analog versions of the amps you won't know they can do that because cheap modeling doesn't act like the real amps; Again, it's experience working for us, but, you can read and come up that learning curve quickly. Fractal's
Wiki is chock-full of learning goodness, especially the modeled amp and cab list and the preset list. It's a lot of reading, but well worth doing many times because your knowledge will grow based upon what you've already read.
Don't feel bad about it not immediately getting that "plug and play" response, we've ALL been there. Dig through the Wiki and the manuals, try, try, try, then ask well asked questions and explain what you've done, and we'll try to educate and help fix the issue. K?
. It’s what I like with this product, they are so many possibilities I am never bored with it .
