Reamp Box Not Performing As Well As It Should...

[radardoug]

Yes, so its bullshit.

 

[Lumberjack]

Yes, so its bullshit.

What's bullshit exactly? FWIW, NAM models are extremely accurate. Can you guess which is the amp and which is the capture?

 

[radardoug]

Hey, its your money! But by my understanding of it, you have to have the amp to make the sim of it. So you then have the real thing, why do you need a sim?

 

[Khron]

So you then have the real thing, why do you need a sim?

Perhaps simply the convenience of not having to lug the real (heavy and arguably fragile) thing with you on a gig? And adding to the stage noise...

 

[Newmarket]

Hey, its your money! But by my understanding of it, you have to have the amp to make the sim of it. So you then have the real thing, why do you need a sim?

A couple of obvious usage scenarios come to mind:
a) A SIM supplier would use this to produce / QC Sims produced.
b) You have several amps but can't take them where you are going to play for practical reasons. So you are going to go the SIM route and want to check the SIM with this.

But I'm not certain I fully understand the OP's problem. It seems the response with the DI in question is inconsistent. Not necessarily sonically poor ? If so this should show up in repeat measurements with eg REW. Are the differences audible when playing guitar through the amp or listening to the test tone ?
I don't see a mechanism for variability unless build is flakey. It does sound like a level / impedance issue ???

 

[Newmarket]

Oops - I meant QC not WC Corrected.

 

[Lumberjack]

Hey, its your money! But by my understanding of it, you have to have the amp to make the sim of it. So you then have the real thing, why do you need a sim?

It's about convenience, flexibility, electricity bills, amp tech costs etc.

Imagine having a Fender, Marshall Plexi, Marshall JCM 800, Mesa Dual Rectifier and VOX AC 30 rig all in one little pedal. The FOH guys will have a great time, since you can regulate the output levels rather easily without sacrificing the amp's gain levels,, and you can switch tones in a matter of microseconds.

Instead of having 5 full stacks of amps, you have a pedal instead. If that pedal would sound like crap, then I get your critique, but it's not the case with NAM.

So, as you can see, it's far from bullshit, even when you have the real thing at home. I don't want to crank the Plexi up the wazoo each gig and fry my expensive power tubes in the process.

 

[Lumberjack]

A couple of obvious usage scenarios come to mind:
a) A SIM supplier would use this to produce / QC Sims produced.
b) You have several amps but can't take them where you are going to play for practical reasons. So you are going to go the SIM route and want to check the SIM with this.

But I'm not certain I fully understand the OP's problem. It seems the response with the DI in question is inconsistent. Not necessarily sonically poor ? If so this should show up in repeat measurements with eg REW. Are the differences audible when playing guitar through the amp or listening to the test tone ?
I don't see a mechanism for variability unless build is flakey. It does sound like a level / impedance issue ???

I did another little DI test, with larger DI tracks and multiple guitars and basses recorded, the differnces become even more apparent, but let's keep it simple for now with rather short DI clips of a single guitar and fairly repetitive playing. Here are the clips, level matchd and sample aligned, so that you can make the Null Test yourself (you just have to flip the phase on the EMG 81 DI and play it simultaneously with each of the other wav files and then measure the integrated dBFS at the end):

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ovnf...ey=oku2aparktvdcjc66qmwju8ua&st=xwg77dta&dl=0

The results are:

PALMER MED VOL - -55.5 dBFS

LEHLE P SPLIT III - -59.5 dBFS

JENSEN STANDARD - -55.8 dBFS

JENSEN FULL VOL - -54.8 dBFS

Since my audio interface has a max input gain level of +12.4 dBU and a max line out level of +20 dBU, I have to shave off some dB via the volume knob on the reamp box. The Lehle doesn't have a volume so it's unusable in my case, but it does produce the best null test results.

The Jensen costs twice as much as the Palmer, yet delivers almost the same results in this null test. The Lehle is better by 4 dB and it is extremely linear.

Just based on the frequency respones, the Jensen should equal the Lehle and not the Palmer which has a noticeable high-end roll-off after 2 kHz.

Here are the frequency responses measured with REW:


For example, if you take the Lehle and compare it to the Jensen at 100% range of the volume pot and 60% range of the impedance pot it looks pretty damn similar to the Lehle, nearly identical. Yet, the null test of the Jensen with those settings is 6dB worse somehow.

Further down, you can see the Jensen at 70% volume and 0% impedance and how it stacks up against the Palmer. There's no high-end roll-off with the Jensen, yet it fares the same in the null test.

Where does the difference come from? Why is the Jensen not delivering results more in line, or even slightly better than, Lehle?

 

[ccaudle]

The Palmer's getting -44.5 dB in the Null Test (after I phase flip the DI track and play both the palmer and DI track simultaneously) and the Jensen's getting -38.4 dB, so quite a bit worse.

Did you listen to the differences?

Can you connect all the equipment, but without playing any files display the RTA measurement in REW? The only measurement shown so far is frequency response, and nothing stands out as concern there (and also would not vary from moment to moment), so FR does not seem worth considering any longer.

it has nothing to do with a high noise floor

You know the saying, "show, don't tell." That was the number one suggestion from the error message, so seems worth ruling out objectively.

 

[Paul W]

Hey, its your money! But by my understanding of it, you have to have the amp to make the sim of it. So you then have the real thing, why do you need a sim?

Not sure about the OP, but I can borrow more vintage and high-end amps than I would pay to buy, or have the space for.

Plus people share amp & cab models on the internet. You don't have to make your own if you're happy with those.