lespaulka001 Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 Hey! I have a rocktron velocity 2x60w solid state power amp. I bought it around 15 years ago and did not used it for around 10 years. Now I tried out with a Pod hd 500 and a standard 1960 marshall clone cab. It sounds not soo good, really muddy, without any lows and highs... I switched the rocktron to a soldano copy poweramp, the same amp simulation in hd500, cables and cab remained. With this setup the sound is much much better... It has great definition, really good highs and lows. So I'm really confused now. Could a tube power amp be that much better than a solid state one, or something happened with the rocktron in the years? Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joel_brown Posted March 27, 2019 Share Posted March 27, 2019 There's a lot a lot more factors involved than just transistors versus tubes. However, I've always preferred tube power amps to solid state. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisinon2 Posted March 27, 2019 Share Posted March 27, 2019 16 hours ago, lespaulka001 said: Hey! I have a rocktron velocity 2x60w solid state power amp. I bought it around 15 years ago and did not used it for around 10 years. Now I tried out with a Pod hd 500 and a standard 1960 marshall clone cab. It sounds not soo good, really muddy, without any lows and highs... I switched the rocktron to a soldano copy poweramp, the same amp simulation in hd500, cables and cab remained. With this setup the sound is much much better... It has great definition, really good highs and lows. So I'm really confused now. Could a tube power amp be that much better than a solid state one, or something happened with the rocktron in the years? Any ideas? Stick your car under a tarp in the garage for a decade, then tell me how great it runs. ;) Seriously though, without having somebody who knows what they're doing poke around and diagnose the Rocktron, you'll never know. I had an old ADA Microtube 200 poweramp (which despite the name was a solid state amp...the only tubes in sight were a pair of 12AX7's thrown in at the front end for alleged "warmth") that sat unused for a while... it was DOA when I tried to fire it up. Nothing lasts forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfsmith0 Posted March 28, 2019 Share Posted March 28, 2019 Wait, are you running an HD500 w/amp modeling into another guitar amp? Yes, that will sound bad. You need to turn off the HD500 amp modeling. Check out page 2-8 of the Advanced Guide. You want to select the output mode to be Stack Front since you have a separate eternal cab. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lespaulka001 Posted March 28, 2019 Author Share Posted March 28, 2019 4 hours ago, pfsmith0 said: Wait, are you running an HD500 w/amp modeling into another guitar amp? Yes, that will sound bad. You need to turn off the HD500 amp modeling. Check out page 2-8 of the Advanced Guide. You want to select the output mode to be Stack Front since you have a separate eternal cab. No, I'M using only the power amp section and yes, with preamp simulation on HD 500. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lespaulka001 Posted March 28, 2019 Author Share Posted March 28, 2019 19 hours ago, joel_brown said: There's a lot a lot more factors involved than just transistors versus tubes. However, I've always preferred tube power amps to solid state. We will do some experiments today... maybe impedance mathcing with cab is a reason... Could you help with any hints which could affects this behaviour? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codamedia Posted March 28, 2019 Share Posted March 28, 2019 9 hours ago, lespaulka001 said: maybe impedance mathcing with cab is a reason... Could you help with any hints which could affects this behaviour? Solid State amps "generally" are not effected by impedance other than potential volume differences. Higher speaker should result in lower power. The hint as to why this is happening has already been mentioned... The power amp has been sitting for 10 years. Every electrolytic capacitor in that amp has dried up then jolted back into service. Under normal use it likely would have been fine at 15 years old.... but not being turned on for 10 years is almost certain death (or at least harm) to those caps. On 3/26/2019 at 4:06 PM, lespaulka001 said: Hey! I have a rocktron velocity 2x60w solid state power amp.... ..... 1960 marshall clone cab.... Are you running in mono or stereo. If you are in stereo... try a mono setup using one side of the amp, then try the other side just to see if both are behaving the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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