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L3t Vs. Dt25 - How They Compare Imho


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Just spent the morning with these 2, side by side, comparing the sound and feel of each one...

 

I had the DT25 prior to the L3T, cause I wanted to get the best guitar tone possible from my dream rig, and to be in control (for the most part) of tone and volume wherever I would play, and not the sound guy.

 

The DT25 is great...I mean, really great! Sounds awesome and has a great feel. Plus, it's really simple and easy to get the tone your looking for, and on the fly if needed...I'm really happy with it!

 

I got the L3T to replace a Bose L1 compact I had. I needed something more powerful than the Bose so I could have a sound system for my keyboard, voice, and acoustic sounds from my JTV. 

 

So, this morning I had them playing side by side. The HD500 was going to the DT25 thru the L6 link and to the L3T thru the 1/4 jack output. I got a loop going on the POD and started cross fading the volumes, and at first I though...WTF!?!? The L3T sounds hooooooooorrible!!! It seemed like a totally different preset/guitar/amp model going on, and I mean TOTALLY! I tried the input on the back, the input on the mixer, and chaging the mode on the L3T. It got really better when in "electric guitar" mode, but still, way off the DT25 sound. I also tried going from the POD to the L3T via L6 link, but still I wasn't happy with it...

 

After quite some time fiddling with I/O, amps, EQ's, etc, I realized that if the 2 were connected at the same time, sound on the L3T would be awful, but not if I disconnected the L6 link on the DT25. The POD was changing automatically the output to power amp and so the sound on the L3T got terrible. 

 

I then tried again the L3T, with no other connection, and the correct output set on the POD...VOILÃ!!!! Instant great tone!!! After that, with only really minor tweaking, the L3T was sounding awesome in PA mode, better still in electric guitar...I mean, it got sooooooooo soooooooooo close to the DT25 to the point of getting me wondering about actually needing the amp!

 

Sure, you can still just tell them apart, specially in terms of feel, attack, etc, or if only because the speakers are totally different, but having the tone so closely matched, and being able to also play acoustics (which I need), plus keyboard and voice in 1 single package, really makes the DT25 redundant, at least for me!

 

I'm really thinking about returning/selling the amp now. My only doubt has to do with one of the main reasons I got the amp, which was to get an even tone/volume wherever I played, since the amp would be micced, but I don't know how well/faithfully will a sound guy be able to mic the L3T, if at all...I had one telling me he wouldn't at all, he would just get it straight out of the pod, but that would defeat the tone/volume control I want, and hand that over to him.

 

Sorry about the long post, but I had to share my amazement for the L3T sound compared to the DT25

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I think you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot here regarding the feed to the soundman. With either L3t or DT25, if you are asking him to stick a mic in front of your amp, you'll have even less control. You'll have control of stage volume and sound but out front the EQ of your guitar could be way different and he still has control of your FOH levels.

 

I just go direct to the board (M20d) and then feed myself my guitar tone back in the monitor so I haven't messed with the other connection possibilities. But I think you should be able to run your guitar and keyboards into the L3t and then a direct out to the board. Even run another line back to the direct in to monitor your vocals through the L3t as well. This way the tonal characteristics of the mic and the placement of the mic won't affect the tone of your guitar or keyboard.

 

I think HD500 sounds amazing through L3t and L2t, do does my GR55. I don't notice any attack, or dynamic difference between this and a tube based guitar rig... I would say experiment with how to get the sound to the board. Even if you kept the DT25 I would use the direct out on the back as opposed to a mic. Since your using modelling anyway it will always be a more faithful representation of your tone out front. But maybe it is redundant.. Maybe you can get a second L3t and run a stereo stage rig or some other configuration. It would certainly give you a ton of options. One for back line one for monitor. Use as a small portable PA for other projects...

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I was running my HD Pro through stereo monitors and now have to L3Ms. I'm still in the sounding terrible stage... there doesn't seem to be much sophistication in the mids and overall the sound is cluttered. I know I need to make some changes since running in Studio/Direct mode is obviously the wrong way to go. What mode are you folks running in, and if you're running Combo Front or Stack, where are you setting your Focus control? Also, are you just using a Preamp in your presets (if so, which one?) or how exactly are you modeling your amps? Boy, I sure would be appreciative of any help you could give. I want this rig to sing!

 

Thanks,

Kev

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I'm running an HD Pro in Studio/Direct mode to an L3s and a couple of L3t. The HD Pro presets all use amp and mic/cab simulation. The speakers are all in PA/Reference mode. The sound is fantastic, whether I use L6 LINK or the HD Pro audio outputs. I find L6 LINK simplest to use because it minimizes cabling and handles the stereo routing.

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Well I'm not using an HD500 anymore, only the GR-55 but the principle is the same, amp/cab/mic modelling and speakers in reference/PA mode.  Sound is amazing.  My other guitar player is using HD500, same thing.  If you want to disable the speaker modelling you can put the speaker in electric guitar mode.  Messed with this with the HD500, also sounded amazing.

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I think the best way to get the best fidelity sound out of your pod into an L3, is having the output in studio/direct. Mine was sounding terrible cause the L6 link was switching it to combo pwr or something like that. 

 

My best results, the more closely matched to the DT25 were in studio/direct and PA mode, though "strangely" it needed a bit more treble and/or less bass in the L3T EQ to perfectly match the sound to the DT25, and I thought it would have to go the other way around.

 

As for my patches. I ended up using the PRE models on the POD, cause that's what they recommend when using a DT amp, and like I said, I could get the same tone outta the L3T, and that seems to work best for me!

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Oh ya, that happened when we were experimenting with my guitar players HD500, it would sound off, so we would double check and put everything in the proper modes and then it would sound great.  As soon as we changed patches the HD500 would change all the settings again and it would sound weird again.  Of course that was when we were hooked up via Line 6 Link.  If I'm not mistaken there is a firmware update for the HD500 that gives you a little more control over how it interacts with the stagesource speakers.  But my buddy's HD500 wasn't updated when we were messing around.  Still the sound was so impressive that he went right out and bought an L2t.  We figured we would just run into the board and use it as a monitor and he could take his time and work out the details of the other ways of using it on his own.

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I didn't know about this firmware update for the HD500 for using the L3 speakers. I'm going to go home and see if this fixes my problems I had when trying to go L6 link. I'll let you guys know if it solved my issues. Those issues being: not being able to use the HD500 master volume, not being able to switch between Electric Guitar and Acoustic Guitar Speaker Modes. 

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  • 1 month later...

Did anyone find a fix for the stagesource monitor forcing the HD500 from direct mode to combo when connecting the l6 link?   Of course I just posted asking this questions when I saw this thread....   I've got the latest hd500 firmwate 1.91.

 

Once I connect the hd500 to the monitor via the link, it switches to combo.  I then for the hd500 system menu and change it back to direct and it seems to stay there even if I change patches ( someone here reported that it switches back when you change patches but that is not my experience).

 

cheers

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not long after I posted above, I did some testing and realized one of my L3Ms (I have two) was bad. That speaker was distorted although muted a bit compared to a blown speaker, so it didn't really surface as an issue until I just ran acoustic guitar through it by itself. Anyway, I still need to do some experimenting with the rig as I just recently got a replacement L3M. I'm running from the HD Pro to a StageScape M20D and then out to an L3S and the two L3Ms...

 

Kevin

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