What thinks ye of this

funky_buddah

Ive been looking for a way to amplify the sounds of my Line 6 POD XT, and found this on thomann...

www.thomann.de/thoiw6_crate_harley_benton_pb150_g212_set_prodinfo

Crate Powerblocks are designed for things such as the POD, and give 150 watts of power, I really really amnt sure about the Harley Benton cab, but it could do the job well enough for the money.

Opinions?

Kenny_D

Link doesnt work but could this be something like what you're looking for?

http://www.thomann.de/thoiw6_atomic_reactor_112_pod_gitarrencombo_prodinfo.html

-=al=-

i love that thing, it looks so neat and cool

Eoin Madsen

The Crate amp seems to have a preamp built into it, which doesn't make it seem much like it was made for things like the POD at all. The POD is a preamp. Ideally you should be plugging straight into a poweramp, or powered speaker.

I'm not really sold on the Atomic stuff tbh. The POD is doing its best to try and sound like it's got valves in it already. In theory, it should sound best (closest to how was intended anyway) if you plug it into a full range speaker through a fairly linear power amp, ie solid state. As it is, the poweramp doesn't contribute nearly as much to the sound as the preamp, so I can help but feel that the Atomic reactor is somewhat self-defeating.

Either go with linearity and rely on the POD to create the sound, or throw out the POD and buy an actual valve amp... would be my take on it. I haven't heard the Atomic Reactor, or played with a POD.

Paladin

The crate powerblock as I recall is a small 150W guitar amp that costs small money.
It has a rating of something like 10%THD on the poweramp side at 100W, which is a massive amount of distortion. They claim it sounds good, but I reckon its just horse pi$$. Its an utter waste of a POD. You would be better just getting a cheap behringer poweramp.

I dont believe a POD requires a fullrange speaker to sound good though. Id tend to go with guitar speakers for guitars in general, as the natural filter of a good guitar speaker improves the sound.

david

For a transparent sound, i'd go for,

http://www.thomann.de/thoiw6_artikel-180640.html
into
http://www.thomann.de/thoiw6_behringer_bg412h_cabinet_prodinfo.html

Wire that cab for 2x4ohms and use the pod in stereo. No matter what you do, a full range PA/monitor amp will colour your sound a lot less than that crate powerblock.

funky_buddah

freakonaleashx wrote:

For a transparent sound, i'd go for,

http://www.thomann.de/thoiw6_artikel-180640.html
into
http://www.thomann.de/thoiw6_behringer_bg412h_cabinet_prodinfo.html

Wire that cab for 2x4ohms and use the pod in stereo. No matter what you do, a full range PA/monitor amp will colour your sound a lot less than that crate powerblock.

Hmmm...you seem to know your $hit, and thats also damn affordable.

Beecher

I have a samson servo and a pod xt. I also have a tube poweramp. Pod xt + tube poweramp = . Just keep an eye on Ebay and you will eventually find a good deal.

funky_buddah

Beecher wrote:

I have a samson servo and a pod xt. I also have a tube poweramp. Pod xt + tube poweramp = . Just keep an eye on Ebay and you will eventually find a good deal.

Samson Servo a cab? (excuse my n00bosity) Any sound samples of your setup by any chance?

david

No a Samson Servo is a type of power amp for PA/studio monitor applications. They're renowned for being affordable with a very transparent tone and extremely low THD (total harmonic distortion, the lower the better, IIRC the servo's have approx <.01% THD)

Beecher

This is the Samson Servo I have, as Freak said they are cheap and have a very transparent sound and I love using it with my mixing monitors. However I feel a pod really benefits from having the tube breakup of a tube poweramp, esp when you can turn the output of the pod down real low and boost the poweramp volume up to get the tubes real hot but still keep a nice volume level. Ill get a sound clip of it in a few mins.

Eoin Madsen

Beecher wrote:

However I feel a pod really benefits from having the tube breakup of a tube poweramp, esp when you can turn the output of the pod down real low and boost the poweramp volume up to get the tubes real hot but still keep a nice volume level. Ill get a sound clip of it in a few mins.

Eh, that wouldn't contribute to any poweramp distortion tbh. Poweramp volume is an input attenuation. You can't distort a poweramp at low volume - not without adding a component to absorb power going from the amp to the speaker. If you're getting nice distortion by doing the above, it's not coming from the powerstage!

Beecher

Eoin Madsen wrote:

Eh, that wouldn't contribute to any poweramp distortion tbh. Poweramp volume is an input attenuation. You can't distort a poweramp at low volume - not without adding a component to absorb power going from the amp to the speaker. If you're getting nice distortion by doing the above, it's not coming from the powerstage!

Hmm I always thought (although I dont really understand the technical side of amps at all) that increasing the output/volume level of the poweramp increases the voltage going to the tubes thus distorting the signal in it. I do hear a distinct difference in sound when I run my Pod with the output level at 5 and the poweramp at 1 against when I run my Pod at .5 and my poweramp at 6. Maybe theres something else at work there for all I know tbh. Anyways sound clip, excuse the choice of song but I got another request of someone who wanted to hear how my Ibanez sounds and wanted me to do an Avenged Sevenfold song so im killing two birds with one stone here. Clip.

Eoin Madsen

No, the volume control just bleeds input signal to earth via a variable resistor (potentiometer). When the volume is all the way down the resistance to ground is zero so no signal passes into the amp. The output volume on the POD is exactly the same thing.

Increasing the voltage of the valves would increase the clean headroom and actually reduce the level of distortion.

The sound difference is because the two controls (preamp output, volume input) are effectively changing the impedence balance between the two stages. Which affects volume and frequency response.

Beecher

Okay I think im following the volume control explanation, im just now totally lost on how poweramp distortion is generated. Also what would be the difference between running a very low signal into a poweramp and running a normal signal into a poweramp and using an attenuator (like a THD hotplate) to control the volume?

Eoin Madsen

Basically, the powerstage takes a given input and amplifies it by a fixed factor. The higher the input, the higher the output. Until you reach the maximum output. Tending towards that are various stages of distortion and essentially the effect of compression.

So you distort the powerstage by giving it too high an input. If you give it a low input, it won't distort. An attenuator reduces the signal coming out of the powerstage - so you can lower the volume of a distorted poweramp. There is some noticable change in frequency response when using an attenuator though.

Paladin

Maybe you like the white noise thats amplified by having the volume knob of the poweramp up full?

funky_buddah

Beecher wrote:

Hmm I always thought (although I dont really understand the technical side of amps at all) that increasing the output/volume level of the poweramp increases the voltage going to the tubes thus distorting the signal in it. I do hear a distinct difference in sound when I run my Pod with the output level at 5 and the poweramp at 1 against when I run my Pod at .5 and my poweramp at 6. Maybe theres something else at work there for all I know tbh. Anyways sound clip, excuse the choice of song but I got another request of someone who wanted to hear how my Ibanez sounds and wanted me to do an Avenged Sevenfold song so im killing two birds with one stone here. Clip.

Sounds pretty damn sexy man, what ya pluggin into Cabwise?

franzoni

i have the pod xt pro but i stopped gigging it ages ago... i've gone back to using pedals,i use it mostly now for home recording and practicing at home late at night,i thought the sound was a bit 'plastic' for gigging, nothing like a couple of valve amps behind you for live gigs with a few pedals and a good guitar....but the sound of the pod for recording is ok unless your in some top quality studio with lots of expensive mics...and it saves the hassle of trying to mic the amp with the neighbours banging on the wall and the feds at the front door.......:D

funky_buddah

Beecher wrote:

Hmm I always thought (although I dont really understand the technical side of amps at all) that increasing the output/volume level of the poweramp increases the voltage going to the tubes thus distorting the signal in it. I do hear a distinct difference in sound when I run my Pod with the output level at 5 and the poweramp at 1 against when I run my Pod at .5 and my poweramp at 6. Maybe theres something else at work there for all I know tbh. Anyways sound clip, excuse the choice of song but I got another request of someone who wanted to hear how my Ibanez sounds and wanted me to do an Avenged Sevenfold song so im killing two birds with one stone here. Clip.

Wait, is that the tube poweramp or the Servo?