My new rig, substantially downsized.

[newey]

So, several months ago Mrs. Newey and I sold the house and downsized to an apartment, which we are loving. As empty nesters, we were payimng to heat/cool/maintain a whole lot of square footage that we weren't using. But as part of the downsizing process, the guitar stable was cut back pretty substantially, and several amps went as well. (The trusty old Peavey I stashed at the cabin, where I visit it and give it the love it deserves about monthly.) And, I still have the Quilter pedal amp and 10" cab in the apartment, but I can't crank it much- We now have upstairs neighbors, one of the downsides of apartment living.

A new rig was needed. So, I hit up Musician's Friend for a headphone amp and a pair of headphones. I bought a Vox Amplug "AC30" and a pair of Tascam cans. Unbeknownst to me, I had a bunch of reward points from purchases I made years ago at MF, so I only paid about half of the ticket price.

Anyway, got this today, my new apartment-friendly rig:



Does it sound remotely like an AC30? Mind you, I haven't played through a Vox AC in probably 35 years, but, no, I don't think it sounds like an AC30. And I still have a learning curve with this thing, the documentation that comes with it is horrible, it basically tells you to go online and download an owner's manual. Which I will do, but in the meantime, I'm toggling through effects settings without knowing what they are or how, exactly, to change them. And, being tiny, the controls are tiny and take a light touch.

But my first impression is that it is pretty good at what it does. Some of the effects were underwhelming. The tremolo is good, though, that part sounded quite "Vox-ey". And the chorus effect sounded pretty good, too. I don't know if there's a true reverb in there or not, maybe I just haven't found it yet (as the instructions have zero information!). There is what sounds like a pretty boomy coliseum echo effect that I played with for a while. I wasn't able to find a gain setting that sounded very good, but again, there is more to explore yet. The clean setting sounded very sterile, like it was through a PA amp, it didn't have any of that tube "chime" to it. But again, more to come, probably.

Overall, I'd have to say I'm pretty satisfied. There is apparently a rhythm function also, which I didn't play around with because I couldn't figure out how to access it.

I'll report more soon, but so far I'd call it a decent little headphone amp for not a big price tag. One thing I was wondering was how the plug was going to fit different jack styles- but it rotates to do so, I can angle it several different ways in the Strat jack canoe.

[JohnH]

That looks neat! I got one of the Classic Rock ones for my son, from the first series before they had FX. It sounded pretty good through good phones.

I'm hoping after the downsizing, you still have the electric pumpkin?

[mikecg]

Hello newey,

Welcome to the headphone club - I live in a 200+ year old mid-terraced house with thin walls, so I am very familiar with this problem!

One thing to watch out for with these mini-headphone amps, and also with radio links, is the spec. on the input impedance, and that is a tough one, because you may have a lot of trouble finding it. My searches, for this info have revealed, that for the very few cases that have published specs, the input impedance is likely to be on the low side, like 100k or less. This, together with an undersized series input decoupling capacitor, introduces a CR high pass filter, producing unwanted attenuation at low frequency. However, since most mid price headphones, and earbuds, can also 'give up' at low frequencies, maybe you won't notice!
By the way, I recently bought a pair of Samson SR950 closed back 'phones for around £25 including VAT and shipping, and I can report that so far, I am happy with their sonic performance - much better bass and treble than my old Roland RH-5's. The only slight criticism I have is the noticeable pressure exerted by the self-adjusting headband, but this may ease off with use, and at ~ 1/30 the price of the Beyer T5, what's not to like?

[newey]

Apr 10, 2024 5:51:50 GMT -5 JohnH said:

I'm hoping after the downsizing, you still have the electric pumpkin?

The infamous pumpkin isn't going anywhere!

mikecg

By the way, I recently bought a pair of Samson SR950 closed back 'phones for around £25 including VAT and shipping, and I can report that so far, I am happy with their sonic performance - much better bass and treble than my old Roland RH-5's

The Tascams I bought with the headphone amp (not sure of the model) were about the same money, about $30 USD. Can't really compare them to better headphones as I wasn't familiar with the sound of the amp, would have to use the stereo with a well-known piece of music like Dark Side or something to really compare. I have an old pair of Sennheisers that I have used with the stereo for years that I could compare these to, the Sennheisers certainly cost me a lot more money "back in the day" as they say. But these seem just fine. I wanted to get a pair of closed phones for the headphone amp and these were the cheap option.

[sumgai]

Even though Bluetooth is not directly involved here, I need to mention that Soundcore makes a line of headphones (and ear buds) that rival units costing two and three times as much.

I have a Soundcore Life Q30, and it's been going strong for 2-1/2 years. Prior to that, I had a set of Life Q20 cans, and they sounded almost as good, but they weren't built to last... I only got about 17 or 18 months out of 'em before they literally fell apart. Still worked, but no longer fit my noggin. The Q30s? Still as good as new.

Now, nearly all of Soundcore's line have a mini-jack for wired audio, and that sounds good as well, but that is so limiting. Wireless is the way to go, particularly when embracing one's guitar. I really don't think anyone is going to try to persuade me that when one gets into the heat of the moment, they can still sit still as a statute so as not to yank out the cord, or worse, pull the 'phones off of his/her head. Can't be done, unless you're listening to, and attempting to play along with, Gregorian. (Nice segue here, if you haven't heard of them, try this:



They "do their thing" on just about every kind of genre, you might be pleasantly surprised.)

I'm beginning to sound like they're paying me for this "endorsement", but no, that's not the case.  I just happen to like the phones I've got, and so far, I'm a happy camper.  So, no going into prices, features (other than Bluetooth), where to buy, etc.  Just know that there are good reasons they're selling like hotcakes.

HTH




sumgai

p.s. Congrats, newey , on finally getting out from under the yoke!   Now all you need is a travel trailer and a yearning to re-visit the West Coast, and we can finally meet with guitars in our hands!

p.p.s Oh wait, am I really gonna leave you with an unresolved question, namely how to implement Bluetooth where the unit under discussion does not have it built-in? No. And going against what I said a moment ago, here's a link that'll fix you right up:

Bluetooth transmitters on Amazon


Happy Rockin' Out!

[mikecg]

Apr 10, 2024 5:51:50 GMT -5 JohnH said:

I'm hoping after the downsizing, you still have the electric pumpkin?

Excuse me, but - electric pumpkin?

[JohnH]

Apr 10, 2024 15:26:46 GMT -5 mikecg said:

Apr 10, 2024 5:51:50 GMT -5 JohnH said:

I'm hoping after the downsizing, you still have the electric pumpkin?

Excuse me, but - electric pumpkin?

Sure! Let's just leave that concept floating a while in our imagination, until newey posts us a picture!

[newey]

Apr 10, 2024 15:37:30 GMT -5 JohnH said:

until newey posts us a picture!

Worth a whole bunch of words, as they say . . .



When I originally did this back in about 2009 or so, I had it wired with the "Peter Green Mod", where in the center position on the 3-way switch, the pickups are out of phase. It was interesting for a while, but several years ago I rewired it back to a standard 2-HB wiring.

[mikecg]

Aha!

A stripped down, pumpkin flavoured LP - I'm sure that Lester would have approved!

And just in case anyone needs a heads-up on this visionary gentleman - here's an interesting potted history, that I recently stumbled across:

reverb.com/news/les-paul-interview

[germ]

Hello Newey, I am new here but love it. I just wanted to comment my mom was living with us so I went to using headphones and really like it. Not the Same as feeling what you are playing but you can have it loud enough.😎 I like to record almost everything I play because I don’t play songs just what feels good at the time and sometimes I get a really cool lick but forget what I was doing the next day. Hence why I record when I am plugged in. I do delete when I am done unless it’s new then I save for play back later on. But what I noticed with headphones the sounds are awesome!!! But when I play back what I recorded the riffs don’t sound as awesome as I thought. I still like headphones. But I like my amp or going through my audio box through the computer then out of my audio box to my crown amp. I love it all. Have a great day everyone 

[kitwn]

I set off down the amp-free, wireless headphone path a couple of years ago, here's what I ended up with...

Focusrite Scarlet input interface feeding Bias FX-2 amp modelling software on my lap-top. The lowest cost option of FX-2 which is fine for me.

A cheapo wireless guitar link from Amazon made by Lekato. Construction is a bit flimsy but it works fine into the Focusrite. The specified delay is under 12mS.

My existing headphones are a pair of Sony Bluetooth over-ear phones with noise cancelling and a 3.5mm jack input. They were not wildly expensive and I like the sound but the delay from my lap-top over Bluetooth is way too long for live playing so I bought another, equally cheap Lekato wireless link, this time designed for stereo headphones. The receiver sits in my shirt pocket and feeds the Sonys using a short cable. The trick is to fit yourself with the headphones BEFORE slinging the guitar strap over your head.

I was a bit worried that the two Lekato products would interfere with each other but have had no problems. The total delay with the two wireless links and the amp modelling is no problem.

By adding a free DAW that allows VST plug-ins (Waveform 12 from Traction) to the lap-top and the plug-in version of the free drum machine MT Power Drum Kit I can jam along to a backing beat of my choosing or a track playing on YouTube and record the resulting cacophony, complete with overdubbed bass when I've learned how to play it. The same rig works well for playing along with lesson videos on YT or Musora.

The end result works very well for my needs and has not involved spending silly amounts of money, especially as I had the headphones and the lap-top already. I bought the 2 channel Focusrite unit to allow for possible recording of guitar and vocals together.

Kit