Wasn't excactly demanding anything but asking a question and used the word better, but should probably used the word superior like FractalAudio did. But superior is also subjective, so how to talk about it?
Superior is definitely subjective and actually if you read Cliff's original post he did state "IMO" and the superiority was referring to the DI box they used.
This however...
I'll say it again: Mic+DI USING THE AXE-FX results in superior IRs.
This is a question I have to deal with way too much nowadays coming from people who don't know the background story (or the science) so let me deal with this now.
I was the one who stepped up the IR game to where removing the power amp color has now become a standard. It was me. Remember this thread?
http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-user-cabs-irs/86371-clark-kents-teh-dollar-sound-irs.html Yes that would be me over a year ago talking about a secret IR shoot method as a joke as the Clark Kent alias always did but the "secret" indeed was that I was shooting IRs with a tube amp and removing the power amp color and the results I got were amazing. Looking back at that feels crazy since I was just messing around in my studio not knowing where Fractal Audio would take me.
So when people ask me why I'm not using mic+di the answer is because my method is the reason there is mic+di in the first place and the difference is
inaudible and IMHO the main reason an IR is good is
microphone placement. I would take a good microphone placement with "mic only" any day over "mic+di/my method" and a mediocre microphone placement. I definitely agree that Cab Pack 14 is better than Cab Pack 5.
Cab Pack 14 is the best Cab Pack FAS has produced until this day but I believe the most significant applause deserving reason is the microphone placements.
They are really good! And for $29.99 the value you get is insane!!! Buy it now if you haven't already.
About the inaudibility between mic+di and my method however: Here's a clip where one of the clips is "mic+di" and one of them is "my method" and just to make it more exciting I threw in a "mic only" clip to give everything a bit more perspective. The
microphone placement is exactly the same for all clips. So what do you think plays a bigger role? Microphone placement or IR shoot method? And if one of these methods is infact superior can you point out which it is?