Future Amps

[Invisible Man]

Yes, please.

I am open to everything and committed to nothing.

[coupleonapkins]

I dunno where the solid state hate even exists on this forum (other than a handful of people who still can afford real tube sizzle), but I'm on the side of ibarakishi, though less simple: a compact solid state head (quilter/crate/etc.) pumping whatever cab available.

However, the full frequency thing will always be a tease to me (at least, space-wise), though I always admired Albini's Shellac rig for the low and high tones, cab-wise:



Somewhere between him & Mike Gordon's rig(s) are probably a great setup-to-be, though I have been buying $30 peavey combos at a sad clip (post $22 pedal hangover crisis-style). Also, I'm not allowed to buy any more amps-as-furniture, and I've always liked hearing out-of-phase amps, anyway. I know big speakers need the room to breathe, but ideally, parting out Albini's speaker array into individual, easy arrange cabs would be ideal for me FFR-wise, which at this point will have to double for synth, too.

[goroth]

This ISP thing is relevant to my interests.

[Invisible Man]

This is helping. A few others have suggested elsewhere that I just get a simple power amp and cabs. I’m asking too much of a simple concept, I understand, but mostly I’m wondering if anyone else is bored out of their minds by amps.

Time to put all the energy back into obsessing over pedals, I guess.

[qersty]

The really boring answer would be Class D-T stuff, I mean it is the most high tech amplification and most of them have DSP in it. I run a crown power amp for bass, it has alot of features for bi amping and stuff (that I dont use) and it feels like a very modern amp in the pure amplification sense.

Honestly though I do not like my amps to do shit other than make my instrument sound like an electric guitar, I do not see the pleasure in having everything built into your amp. I am very conservative in my taste in amps and find even reverb excessive, some distortion maybe but only if it doesn't fuck up the headroom.

The real question would be where the future cabs are? Like most guitar cabs are just like boxes that are made to fit the speakers without much concern put into acoustics. Like...

[qersty]

I dunno where the solid state hate even exists on this forum (other than a handful of people who still can afford real tube sizzle), but I'm on the side of ibarakishi, though less simple: a compact solid state head (quilter/crate/etc.) pumping whatever cab available.

However, the full frequency thing will always be a tease to me (at least, space-wise), though I always admired Albini's Shellac rig for the low and high tones, cab-wise:



Somewhere between him & Mike Gordon's rig(s) are probably a great setup-to-be, though I have been buying $30 peavey combos at a sad clip (post $22 pedal hangover crisis-style). Also, I'm not allowed to buy any more amps-as-furniture, and I've always liked hearing out-of-phase amps, anyway. I know big speakers need the room to breathe, but ideally, parting out Albini's speaker array into individual, easy arrange cabs would be ideal for me FFR-wise, which at this point will have to double for synth, too.

I think the best part is that he runs DI. Who needs amps? Just plug your dirt into FOH, no speaker-sim bs

[coldbrightsunlight]

Quilters?

They're only forward thinking in that the technology to make really tiny loud amps has only come around relatively recently.

Which is great and I love mine. But in terms of amp design they're pretty old school - good sounding clean solid state, no digital wizardry.



I think the actual future amps are in not using amps at all as others have been saying.

I've almost entirely stopped micing up amps for recording because cab sims are so good. And you can do this live super easily.

[Gone Fission]

I’ve mentioned in passing before that I’m mildly surprised that there seems to be zero embrace of FRFR systems around here. You would figure between all the modular, keys, samplers, drum machines and stuff that ILFers make significant use of that people might just go with speaker sims and powered PA cabs or studio monitors, depending on whether they gig. I mean, certainly not the Doom Room, but here in general population.

[ibarakishi]

my gear has landed in the nest. have started to play around with it and will give my impressions on it this week. more info coming soon for the invisibleman with invisibleplans

[D.o.S.]

Last time i played through a stack It was garbage tier. I do most of my recording direct. Nothing has done more to convince me that a great amp is irreplaceable

[ibarakishi]

okay so here is the report:

disclaimer: I am typing this out after having tested these products for what will be going on a week now. I am comparing the items in the statement below with my Ibanez TSA30 that i have been using for well over 6 years now, which is a semi-fenderish sounding tube amp. If it matters, i play what people have described as post rock, drone, noise, and other types of music. I actively record and contribute to others recordings, along with perform live. I mention this because not just playing in my bedroom is a concern to me, and i am conscious of a lot of different factors when purchasing an amp or setting up a rig. Don't know if anyone cares about what im posting below, but im hoping it helps someone who has looked at products similar to what i chose to purchase and will give them some limited insight into what the end result ended up being for me. Also, if any of my opinions change about these products, i will update this thread in the future.


ISP STEALTH 180 POWER AMP + Effectrode Blackbird Tube Preamp Pedal:

My goal initially was to try and make an amp rig that was both portable and easy to maintain, and also compact (read: able to fit in a backpack or on a pedal board) since my tube amp always runs into issues with the weather here in Thailand. After talking to friends and researching, i decided to go a route less traveled and take a gamble.

The ISP power amp has next to nothing online about it other than shred videos and phone demos. But it did everything i wanted for a power amp, like i already stated early in this thread a few posts back. Worked on up to 240V power supply, relatively light weight, wasn't class D like nearly every other amp on the market, etc. I found one on sale so i went ahead and got it, along with an Effectrode Blackbird tube preamp pedal. I went with the Blackbird because i wanted something with tubes that was very tweakable and if possible had two channels. It also was supposed to be able to get fender/dumble amp sounds out of it, which was what i was after and hoped that my past pedal board would translate easily through it.

At first when i opened them up and began to hook them up, i was shocked how big the ISP power chord was. Its power brick converter thing is about as big as the poweramp itself, and just as heavy. This isn't a huge deal for me, but could be for others i guess. All in all, the two together aren't that heavy and are easy to manage. The second thing was that once i started playing into the blackbird, i was initially underwhelmed and thought to myself that i would have to really have to readjust a lot of my pedals to get them to even sound remotely like they had before going into my tube amp. But after really comparing things and going through A/B testing between the settings and channels, i got to the point quickly where i wasn't even thinking about my tube amp anymore and was just focusing on 'wow this sounds really good, does this sound even better this way maybe?'. In the end i was able to get two different sounds from each channel of the Blackbird that i love and didn't have to adjust really anything in my existing pedal setup afterwards. The second channel of the tube preamp pedal has a bit more low end and is rounded out overall which is fun to play around with, and there is a switch on the pedal too that allows you adjust how the signal hits the tubes to be saturated (if i remember right from the manual) that is extremely useful.

By the end of going back and rechecking each day if i was being objective or not with the last days rounds of tests, i came to the conclusion that im pretty much done buying amps at this point. So long as it holds up after a long period of time here in the future and it serves well recording too, then all my boxes are checked. And if all is well after that, i will most likely be buying another ISP poweramp and another tube preamp pedal to match the ones i already have to serve as backup amps and also spare amps for people to use that visit me or play live with me. I don't miss anything about my tube amp enough to want to invest any more more into it changing tubes, paying for biasing, etc. And most of the sounds im getting out of this combo of preamp pedal and poweramp are just as interesting, if not more so in some ways. Also the ISP power amp has a way lower noise floor than my amp usually does too, which is a plus for recording in general. It obviously doesn't get or sound as compressed and squishy from what you would get from pushing a tube power section, but im not driving an SVT ever anyways, nor do i own or want to maintenance something that that would actually matter with anyways at this point in my life.

So there is that. My impressions at this point are that this is my rig for the forthcoming years to come and the only thing i will most likely change about it will be trying out another preamp or two just to see how they compare to each other. But i don't really even desire or have an itch in the least to do it any time soon. Im 100% happy i took the dive and tried out something i read next to nothing about and am glad it panned out in the end. Its probably the most not sexy setup in the world, and probably the least street cred worthy also. But im honestly relieved this seems to be like the end to a long road of past amps i have tried in my life. It relieves a lot of stress and anxiety about a lot of different factors, and im excited to finally be at a point where that is the case now. Amp now behaves like a semi-fenderish amp with great response, dynamics, and saturation, along with being able to take gain and distortion like my tube amp was able to do prior without fizzing out or sounding thin. Tons of low end, no shrill or cheap/tinny highs, and more than enough power to do live gigs.

For anyone that cares, dirt im using currently into it includes the driving notion, step, tetanus booster, etc. for reference. Im also using a strat with lace alumitone and hot gold pickups in it.

Don't know if this helps anyone, but i wish someone had done this before i had bought these so i had done it sooner honestly.

Im off to live content in the future now with my future amps.

[rfurtkamp]

You're describing basically decent SS amps from the time they got usable, sir.

Glad it works for you!

[Invisible Man]

Many thanks, ibarakishi. Glad that's working, though it seems pretty weird that the brick is so huge. I get the thinking and limitations, but it would be awesome if someone built a true pedalboard-friendly power amp - one that could be powered by a regular PSU. Otherwise, it sounds great.

For now, I sold my kvlt fridge and bought pedals. I have a desktop setup running pedals into a mixer and then listening with my little M Audio monitors. I don't play loud, really, and always record direct, so perhaps the future amp of my dreams is in fact 'no amp at all.'

Curious about the HX stomp and its modeling, but, also suspect that I'm really only missing cab sim / IR in the current setup, as dirt pedals make for a more interesting preamp section, anyway.

[ibarakishi]

Many thanks, ibarakishi. Glad that's working, though it seems pretty weird that the brick is so huge. I get the thinking and limitations, but it would be awesome if someone built a true pedalboard-friendly power amp - one that could be powered by a regular PSU. Otherwise, it sounds great.

For now, I sold my kvlt fridge and bought pedals. I have a desktop setup running pedals into a mixer and then listening with my little M Audio monitors. I don't play loud, really, and always record direct, so perhaps the future amp of my dreams is in fact 'no amp at all.'

Curious about the HX stomp and its modeling, but, also suspect that I'm really only missing cab sim / IR in the current setup, as dirt pedals make for a more interesting preamp section, anyway.

the size of the powersupply brick is a lot like the ones for some laptops, if that puts it into perspective. im guessing they built it the way they did so that if for whatever reason something fries your power, you don't/won't need to change anything really but the chord and brick that its attached to.

what dirt are you currently using for your preamp section?

[Gone Fission]

I understand that if you’re using an off-the-shelf external power supply, regulatory approvals can go a lot quicker and easier.