[The Dark Wolf]

I'll agree with everything Darren says.

I'm not super nuts about alot of tube power amp breakup with modelers, but the tube sound can be a nice addition to a decent sound. But clean headroom seems to be a must, like he says.


A cool hybrid idea I've been playing with is to use a tube preamp between the modeler and the solid-state power amp. You kinda get the best of both worlds.

[Spinedriver]

Anyone have any experience with the Rocktron Velocity Power Amps ? I

The only downside is that they only currently make the Velocity 100 wich is 40 watts per side @ 8 ohms. That can't be very loud...

[thedownside]

Originally Posted by Spinedriver

Anyone have any experience with the Rocktron Velocity Power Amps ? I

The only downside is that they only currently make the Velocity 100 wich is 40 watts per side @ 8 ohms. That can't be very loud...

haha, especially playing beside me with 750watts on tap

[bulb]

here is the thing, if you get a good tube poweramp for your setup, its not going to tubeify your sound much cuz they really are meant to be pretty clean and transparent, but when you crank your amp, it will open up like a tube amp and you will get similar response, dynamics, and feel to a tube amp. But the character of your tone is really going to depend more on the quality of your pre.
I used to use my podxt thru the powersection and speakers of my vht combo and it sounded great except for the fact that the podxt sounded fizzy thru there and the harmonic content was just not nearly as refined as the vht's, but the preamp is responsible for those two things so the poweramp didnt fix it or anything.

[Spinedriver]

Bonus points for bulb !!

This is the kinda info I was hinting at. I'm not sure how to put into words the specific characteristic that tube amps have that I'm after, but I suspected what you have confirmed for me. If I understand you,an amp head's OWN pre-amp has a larger factor in the overall sound than the power section does. Perviously, I've owned a Mesa Boogie V-Twin and according to their litterature, it's an exact copy of a Dual Recto's pre amp section. Plugged into a ss. amp or mixer, it didn't sound like a Dual Rec to me..

Using the XTL as a pre-amp, I was wondering if using a tube power amp would get me closer to sounding like it's real world counterparts, but from the sounds of things it might not work exactly like I thought it would. I have no doubt it'll sound better than though a solid state power amp, but not necessarily in the way I'm thinking it'll sound.

The main reason for concern is that there really isn't any place around here that sells tube power amps (so I can try one out) and buying one online without knowing how it's going to sound isn't worth the risk.

thanks for the opinions guys... feel free to add if you have any more ideas on amplifying your modelers (except for the Atomic Amps, no interest in one of those).