# Peavey 6534+ vs. Peavey Triple XXX vs. Peavey 6505+



## tburns517 (Feb 20, 2011)

The title says it all. A friend of mine is having trouble deciding between these three heads. All I'm really looking for are pros and cons about each, and which one is the best buy. Here is a link to the type of music we play Forms | Facebook

He is going to be running it through an Avatar 4x12 with V30s I believe. He is mostly curious about the 6534+, and how it cuts background noise at high levels. Is there even a noticeable difference?

Thanks in advance for the feedback.


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## FLGearnut (Feb 20, 2011)

i cant really speak for anybody else but ill add my brief experience with the 6534+ head....

I bought one through AMS and had it for about two weeks or so. was running it through a mesa stiletto 4x12 w/ v30's. ran a tubescreamer through the front end as well....

the amp wasnt bad. the clean channel wasnt as sterile as i remember them being on some of the older 5150 amps. the high gain had plenty of saturation on tap, but the thing that killed it for me was the amp had this inherent "buzziness" about the tone that i could NOT dial out with the EQ no matter what i did. in the end i just wasnt totally in love w/ it, and i sent it back for a refund. I have a splawn nitro that sounds alot better IMO. It doesnt have as much saturation as the 6505 amps but its still got alot of gain on tap and sounds much more organic to my ears. Plus if you run a tubescreamer in the front its very tight sounding.


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## Double A (Feb 20, 2011)

tburns517 said:


> The title says it all. A friend of mine is having trouble deciding between these three heads. All I'm really looking for are pros and cons about each, and which one is the best buy. Here is a link to the type of music we play Forms | Facebook
> 
> He is going to be running it through an Avatar 4x12 with V30s I believe. He is mostly curious about the 6534+, and how it cuts background noise at high levels. Is there even a noticeable difference?
> 
> Thanks in advance for the feedback.


If he is playing any of these amps at high volume he probably should be running a noise suppressor anyways, especially if he is going to throw a TS/OD in front.

I personally prefer the 6505+ to the triple XXX. Although I never owned a XXX I have heard them live and even though I didn't dial it in personally I didn't really think there was a comparison.

Keep in mind that I am incredibly biased towards 5150 II/6505+ amps though.


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## DVRP (Feb 20, 2011)

Ive heard all accept the 34+. IMO the 5150/6505 is the best for distortion. My friend owns a XXX and I think it sucks hard. Ive yet to see a usable tone come out of his.


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## xmetalhead69 (Feb 20, 2011)

I have a XXX that had its tubes swapped for el34s. and I must say it is quite awesome. Dont have a ton of experience with the others though


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## KingAenarion (Feb 20, 2011)

are you talking about an OLD XXX or a new one?

The Old one was a budget amp... then came the JSX which was basically the XXX reworked... then the new XXX is the JSX with 6L6s I believe...


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## Double A (Feb 20, 2011)

I would like to point out I am talking about the original XXX. As KingAerarion the new XXX is the JSX relaunch which I am not sure are out yet.


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## xmetalhead69 (Feb 20, 2011)

KingAenarion said:


> are you talking about an OLD XXX or a new one?
> 
> The Old one was a budget amp... then came the JSX which was basically the XXX reworked... then the new XXX is the JSX with 6L6s I believe...



old one


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## Toshiro (Feb 20, 2011)

I've had a 6505+(sorta on loan-played middleman), and currently own a 3120(renamed XXX). The 6505+ is a bit more aggressive, but that's about it. Both can sound awesome for metal rhythm tones, as long as you keep in mind the 3120/XXX has an active EQ(don't go overboard with any of the knobs). Also, the key to the XXX is to put the damping in loose, really opens the amp up, and has nothing to do with how the gain responds.

Personally, I don't feel any of these amps need a boost, and I used to be an avid OD user. Of course, I don't do that djent stuff. 

I haven't even seen a 6534+ yet, but I'd love to try one. 

With the 3120, I love how I can have a very metal rhythm tone on channel 2, and a saturated shred tone with tonnes of mids on channel 3.


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## dalundo (Feb 21, 2011)

I'd go with the 6505, but I'm pretty heavily biased as a 5150 player 
In all honesty though, if you're playing through an avatar with V30s, I think you should say screw em all and go for the JSX. I've heard those things put out some djenty engl-sounding tones before, and I personally think that sounds badass in a band like yours.
The 6505 could do definitely it too, with a bit of effort.. but from my experience with 6505s and 5150s, anything with V30's in it just gives them a cutting tone with no real depth or feel to it, if that makes any sense


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## areyna21 (Feb 21, 2011)

I've owned all but the 6534+ and honestly i like them all without any od pedals in front. The xxx is a little fizzy but i've heard it with kt77 tubes and it improves it a lot. Any of these are good and reliable amps its really just your tone preference. If You go with an old xxx you can almost always find them used for under 500 bucks on gc used. Now a 6505/6505+ is 700 used at least. I say watch as many video reviews and play them if possible to help your decision. I've owned the jsx too and it was my least favorite of them all. If i were getting another peavey amp i would go with a 6505+ because i love the more tight bottom mid range tone you can get out of it. But if i were on a tight budget i've seen xxx's go for as low as 375 dollars.


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## meisterjager (Feb 21, 2011)

KingAenarion said:


> are you talking about an OLD XXX or a new one?
> 
> The Old one was a budget amp... then came the JSX which was basically the XXX reworked... then the new XXX is the JSX with 6L6s I believe...



A budget amp? How do you figure that? It cost more than 5150's/6505's when it was in production 

The XXX and the 6505's are fairly different.. (I can't check your FB link, but..) If you want tonnes of articulation and clarity, I'd pick the XXX - not to say that the 6505 isn't articulate, but the type of gain the XXX has lends itself a bit better, IMO.

Again, for your kinda djent sound the XXX would work better (definitely sounded good hearing the Monuments and Chimp Spanner guys jamming thrugh mine), but AGAIN, the 6505 would probably be workable. 

If you want your standard kind of -core sound, the 6505+ is what you'll be better off with. I don't really know where the 6534+ sits in the line up, but after owning a 6505 for a few years, and being quite familiar with EL34 powered amps, I can imagine what it might sound like.

If you try the XXX and a 6505 next to each other, you'll see how their gain structure is just very different. I'm definitely a fan of both pretty equally.. I like the tone of the 6505 slightly more, but it's kind of a one-trick. XXX has at least 2 different yet decent high gain sounds, and with that EQ you can do a LOT with it. Only thing I'd change about the XXX is I'd like to see a presence knob.

tl;dr - Try them both out and go with the one you instinctively like. Read about how to best set the EQs on each one.


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## KingAenarion (Feb 21, 2011)

meisterjager said:


> A budget amp? How do you figure that? It cost more than 5150's/6505's when it was in production
> 
> The XXX and the 6505's are fairly different.. (I can't check your FB link, but..) If you want tonnes of articulation and clarity, I'd pick the XXX - not to say that the 6505 isn't articulate, but the type of gain the XXX has lends itself a bit better, IMO.
> 
> ...



Not here in Australia it wasn't...  (at least when I saw them)

Also Budget for a 3 channel High gain supposedly highly versatile amp... 6505/5150 is a one trick pony... you're only paying for 1 trick


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## meisterjager (Feb 21, 2011)

There's not much supposedly about it, it is really versatile. The dampening settings, three very usable channels and the active EQ are to thank for that. But then if you don't like what it does, I guess you could argue it's not versatile.

The 3120's (new XXX, basically) retail for around £1350 in the UK. The 6505 is £1k, 6505+ £1150 and 6534+ is around £1200. ~5 years ago, everything was a few hundred cheaper, but about the same ratio, IIRC. So not that much cash in it. 

.. and I'm selling my Triple X for £450 with no takers


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## Toshiro (Feb 21, 2011)

Here in the US, new prices are:

3120 = $999
6505 = $999
6505+ = $1199
6534+ = $1159

I don't know why the 2 "+" models aren't priced the same...


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## meisterjager (Feb 21, 2011)

Well that shows you how fucked pricing is over here  All the UK prices I posted are from gak.co.uk

That's fucking ridiculous...


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## Scar Symmetry (Feb 21, 2011)

The XXX is a wicked amp, stands shoulder to shoulder with the 6505+.

It's basically a JSX that looks and sounds meaner IMO.


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## Inazone (Feb 21, 2011)

I think the benefit of the XXX/3120 is in its versatility. My brother (rhythm guitarist in my band) has a Triple XXX, and as Toshiro mentioned about the 3120, I think that the ability to switch between very different rhythm and lead tones is HUGE. The 5150/6505 sounds a bit "bigger" but I personally decided against buying one because I could never get the solo tone I wanted. So, for that, I'd go the XXX/3120 route. On the other hand, the 6534+ may cure that shortcoming, but I haven't had the opportunity to try one yet.


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