JP-2C vs. Friedman Smallbox test

[donnyboiler]

My friend brought his fantastic Smallbox round. We did a test in the room by dialling up each amp through an identical cab for the sounds I use to gig with - the aim being to find out which would suit me better.

I recorded the results through my Torpedo Live so here is a studio-quality comparison of the two amps at medium-high gain, clean breakup and mid gain respectively. I'll keep the order of the amps quiet for now as I've decided to turn this into a poll. See what you think...

https://soundcloud.com/end-of-the-centu ... iedmantest

[Markedman]

Both are quite dark in tone IMO. I like it bright and crispy!

[donnyboiler]

Urgh, that’s Soundcloud. I have to remember to mix stuff brighter as you lose so much high end to their algorithm.

[kingb]

vote cast. def very close in many ways. I wonder how much of that is the Torpedo... (as well as my "eh" monitor speakers). Interesting how "marshally" the JP can be.

[mace]

My friend brought his fantastic Smallbox round. We did a test in the room by dialling up each amp through an identical cab for the sounds I use to gig with - the aim being to find out which would suit me better.

I recorded the results through my Torpedo Live so here is a studio-quality comparison of the two amps at medium-high gain, clean breakup and mid gain respectively. I'll keep the order of the amps quiet for now as I've decided to turn this into a poll. See what you think...

https://soundcloud.com/end-of-the-centu ... iedmantest

I voted and seem to be in the minority! haha Anyway, the one amp just sounded like it had a lot of excessive top end breakup, like mp3 compression artifacts in the upper part of the spectrum (maybe it was just that). But, it was especially noticable on the clean samples. The crunch samples (first and last) sounded similar except for the upper spectrum fizzle-fuzzle (at least to my ears).

Very curious which amp was which. Blind tests like this are very interesting.

[donnyboiler]

Cheers. It’s so frustrating, I have the files here in perfect quality. Even the mp3 version I have on my phone sounds good. It’s like Soundcloud are uploading at a really low bitrate, there’s swirl and artifacts all over the high end.

[bandit2013]

Yeah, that is the case with soundcloud. Tone does not match original like you said.

[mace]

Cheers. It’s so frustrating, I have the files here in perfect quality. Even the mp3 version I have on my phone sounds good. It’s like Soundcloud are uploading at a really low bitrate, there’s swirl and artifacts all over the high end.

Maybe YouTube is better and uses less compression with an HD movie? I don’t know for sure.

[jack s.]

Cheers. It’s so frustrating, I have the files here in perfect quality. Even the mp3 version I have on my phone sounds good. It’s like Soundcloud are uploading at a really low bitrate, there’s swirl and artifacts all over the high end.

Maybe YouTube is better and uses less compression with an HD movie? I don’t know for sure.

I've had good luck with the You Tube HD conversion for what it's worth. I've never had major issues with sound cloud though.

[nevermind]

Split decision. Amp 1 for first tone, 2 for the second two tones.

[kingb]

so what's the answer here....?

[donnyboiler]

I thought I'd get a few more than 7 votes TBH (one was actually me...) so I'm not sure this really tells us anything at all, but amp 1 was the Boogie. For what it's worth I vastly prefer the Boogie on all three sounds, and even more so in the room.

[mace]

I thought I'd get a few more than 7 votes TBH (one was actually me...) so I'm not sure this really tells us anything at all, but amp 1 was the Boogie. For what it's worth I vastly prefer the Boogie on all three sounds, and even more so in the room.

Haha. I guess that makes you and me. Although, I’d have to listen again to remember why I voted the way I did. Getting old.

[Bornhard]

so which amp is when in the timeline?

BTW which amp can we hear in this clip? The last Steve Vai riff was really cool
https://soundcloud.com/end-of-the-centu ... 5-then-v30

[donnyboiler]

so which amp is when in the timeline?

BTW which amp can we hear in this clip? The last Steve Vai riff was really cool
https://soundcloud.com/end-of-the-centu ... 5-then-v30

Thanks, that was my Marshall JVM410HJS.

Amp 1 is always the Boogie, and amp 2 is always the Friedman in this one.