Tube Amps vs Amp Sims
Musicians aim for high-quality sound production. However, with current technology, there are many ways to do that. One example is real and simulation amps. Both provide good quality sounds, but each option has pros and cons.
Amp simulators produce tones similar to those of a real amp with additional sound options, convenience, and a more budget-friendly price range. This makes them ideal for recording. However, live amps are preferable for live concerts, as they are more expensive and less convenient, but provide more quality sound.
While this provides some basic information about real and simulation amps, there are also many other factors to consider. Read on to see whether a tube amp or an amp simulator would suit your style and fulfill your needs.
Everything You Should Know About Tube Amps
Even the best amp simulators don’t produce a sound as high-quality as a tube amp can provide its users. This is why tube amps are considered high-quality but come at a high price regarding time and actual cost.
Recordings vs Live Concerts
To record with a tube amp, there are a lot of things that you need to do to prepare a room or space to record in. This process involves a long and tedious process of adjusting small things to reach a point where the room’s acoustics can properly capture the guitar’s true sound.
Tube amps enhance the sound of a guitar extremely well. Many people notice the difference between the sound played through a tube amp and an amp simulator. Because of how clear the sound a tube amp produces is, they are ideal for live concerts and shows.
The amp needs to be plugged in before you play the guitar! You won’t need to change many settings to make your guitar sound wonderful. This saves performers and stage crews a lot of time. These amps are superior to amp simulators in terms of sound production.
Quality of Sound
Guitar amps have long been considered one of the best tools for strong and professional guitar performance. It wasn’t until the most recent versions of amp simulators were released that there was much competition for real amps on the market.
Tube amps use tubes to produce a strong and clear sound, which even the best amp sims struggle to simulate or replicate. Tube amps also produce the best sound at higher volumes, which is important when playing for a crowd. Professionals and amateurs alike will agree that tube amps produce a pure and next-level sound, making them the ideal choice for sound quality in a guitar amp.
Volume
Remember that tube amps can be very loud and are less than ideal when used in shared living spaces or quiet neighborhoods. They will likely harm your relationship with your roommates and neighbors if not used tactfully. This being said, it is another indication of why real amps are ideal for live performances, as they project the sound of guitars to a large crowd and maintain a high quality of sound.
Best Selling Tube Amps
- As the title indicates, this guitar amplifier features a 5-watt tube power amplifier and a Celestion brand speaker.
- It uses a ECC83/12AX7 preamplification tube and a 6V6GT power tube for the amplifier section, plus a Celestion Super 8 GBA-15 speaker.
- The amplifier handles frequencies between 80Hz and 10kHz, with hum and noise -75dB below the rated power and 0.5% total harmonic distortion.
- It includes a Low input and a High input, with the former attenuating the signal by approximately 50% and the latter being easier to overdrive.
- While tone is always debatable, the increased dynamic range and even-order harmonic distortion of tubes produces the better sound.
- POWERFUL AND STYLISH: The Dayton Audio HTA200 is as beautiful as it is powerful. This mighty audio amplifier packs a punch, delivering 100 watts RMS per channel of clean power so that even your neighbors can enjoy it. The Tube Preamplifier creates subtle character and warmth that produce a delightful homage to the classic valve amplifiers of the past.
- VERSATILE CONNECTIVITY: With multiple inputs including RCA, 3.5mm aux, Bluetooth, USB DAC, and Phono Preamp, the HTA200 offers seamless modern connectivity to your favorite audio sources, whether it’s your Record Player, smartphone, or music player.
- THE WARMTH OF TUBES AND THE CLARITY OF A/B TOPOLOGY: By harnessing the best qualities of both, Dayton Audio’s HTA200 hybrid tube amplifier utilizes the classic design of a class A/B amp topology while employing vacuum tubes in the preamp circuit for warmth and clarity.
- WILL LOOK GREAT NEXT TO YOUR VINTAGE RECORD PLAYER: Classic front panel VU meters on the HTA200 perfectly compliment the vintage, sleek, black brushed aluminum chassis. And the glow of the exposed tubes add to the modernized vintage aesthetic of the HTA200
- YOU’RE IN CONTROL: The motorized volume knob is a convenient feature that can be easily controlled with the included remote. Perfect for large listening environments, the HTA200 is the ultimate choice for audiophiles who want impress their friends.
- MUZISHARE X7 Upgraded version. Upgraded the internal coupling capacitor, is the designer to debug the custom-made silver film capacitor, relative to the classic version of the extension, control, density is better.
- MUZISHARE X7 is an integrated Amplifier. This is also a Power Amplifier (there is a group pre-amp input), a Headphone amplifier and this is a amplifier for Phono player too, direct link your phono player to this amplifier to output to speakers.
- Pure Handmade,point to point hand welding using two high-quality wide-frequency high-quality Japanese EI output transformer using a high-power Z11 core toroidal power transformer dedicated designed for the machine ， voltage amplification and promote are used tube 5AR4 for rectifier power supply.
- Use 12AX7 and 12AU7 vacuum tube for voltage amplification and phase inversion,use KT88 vacuum tube to do AB1 push-pull power amplification; Mute delay function when turn on the amp(about 30 seconds) ；the choice of Japanese ALPS motor potentiometer
- Provide Triode and Ultralinear selection function: Triode work mode. soft. pure and sleek. suitable for enjoying vocals. strings Music and other types of music; Ultralinear work. the sound of open. unrestrained. the momentum is good. for large scenes. large dynamic type of music. Peripheral power tube current adjustment knob and current display meter. With pure power amplifier features. can be linked the pre-amp signal input. with the phono function. can be connected to the Phono player
- Features of BluTube WD Rockville BluTube WD Audiophile grade tube amplifier with Bluetooth Color 2-Tone silver with wood accent 25 watts x 2 RMS @ 8 ohm 35 watts x 2 RMS @ 4 ohm (1) set of Tiffany RCA inputs to connect to any audio device like a TV Laptop or MP3 player etc
- Optical input HDMI input, Coaxial input Sub output Tube amps do not hard-clip even at high volumes and are extremely efficient Due to this the amp sounds more like double the rated power!
- Built in Bluetooth with 33 foot range Built-in Preamplifier Headphone output VU meter Adjustable bass and treble (2 band equalizer) USB input for music files from USB thumb drive
- Rear Speaker Terminals Banana plug / binding post outputs for 2 speakers Frequency Response ( 3dB) 22Hz-20kHz Input Impedance 47kO Input Sensitivity 300mV Output Impendence 4-8ohm Total Harmonic Distortion(THD) ≤0 02%
- Signal-to-Noise Ratio(S/N) ≥86dB Bluetooth 2 1+EDR USB Supports WAV/MP3/WMA/APE/FLAC. Unit weight 6 6 lbs Unit dimension 10 6″ x 10 2″ x 5 1″
Are Amp Simulators Good Substitutes For Tube Amplifiers?
It may seem like real and tube amps are so good that there may be no point in purchasing an amp simulator. That is where you are wrong. While it is true that the sound quality of an amp sim is not as clear and precise as that of a real or tube amp. There are many things amp simulators have to offer, many of which are benefits not found when you use a tube amp.
Sound Quality
Amp simulators were not very high-quality products when they were first released. It was painfully apparent that the amp in use was a simulator simply by the quality alone. However, the sound produced by the newest amp sim models on the market shows that the quality is nearly comparable to that of a true or real tube amplifier.
In some cases, many people won’t even be able to recognize the difference between a recording made with a real amplifier and one recorded with an amp simulator. However, skilled guitarists and professionals who are extremely familiar with the sound of each amplifier can still distinguish between the two rather well. At lower volumes, especially when other instruments are being played in a recording, it will be much more difficult to tell when an amp sim is being used than a tube amp.
Product Gain for Price
Amp simulators come at various prices ranging from as little as $50 to several thousand dollars. This is convenient for buyers, as it allows those with a large or small budget to afford an amplifier that can do the job for them, even if these amps perform at a different level than tube amps.
A quality amp will generally cost around $100-$1000. One large upside to purchasing an amp sim is that amp simulators produce an incredibly large variety of sounds in addition and have the same effects as an average simulator. This means you are paying this price for a simulator and receiving dozens of other sound options!
Transportation and Compactness
Another upside to having an amp simulator is that they take up considerably less space and are much easier to move and transport than tube amps. It is much more reasonable to bring a laptop and an audio interface from place to place for performances and practice than to haul around a tube amp. This means anyone who plays many shows, has limited rehearsal space or moves their equipment around regularly would likely appreciate an amp simulator more than a tube amp.
Best Selling Amp Simulators
- JOYO American Sound guitar effect pedal reproduces the sound of Fd 57 Deluxe amp, performs great sound from clean to driven and everywhere in between which can simulate lots of amplifiers.
- Level and Drive controls add incredible range, with it’s full 3 band EQ and voice knob you can easily dial in any tone you can think of. Adjust for shaping EQ and overdrive response, it can simulate many kinds of Amps.
- The sound you hear on the 60’s surf classics, as well as the country and rockabilly hits from the 50’s is the classic fenders clean sound. whole aluminium-alloy housing classic stoving varnish finish, stable and strong.
- JOYO has over a decade of brand reputation, and its most popular budget pedals, amplifiers, wireless systems, controllers, metronomes, tuners have won the love of guitarists all over the world and inspired people’s musical dreams.
- Before playing, please make sure the guitar is fully connected with the pedal. in order to make JOYO pedals work properly and avoiding unexpected noise, we recommend you to purchase an extra JOYO original power adapter and audio cable, or choose the other reliable brands and make sure it meets the working current requirement of single pedal.
- This Pedal Does not Accept a Battery, It Requires a Standard 9V Power Supply Which is Not Included.
- The pedalboard-sized SIM BOX simulator seeks to re-create every stage in a traditional amplifier setup — tube breakup, tone stack, and cabinet simulation — by using an all-analog, totally silent signal path.This gives players the freedom to the leave the amp and cab at home for remote gigs.Its fully analog preamp, power amp sim, and cabinet emulation dispense a gratifyingly immediate response.
- Three amp voicings, each with their own unique gain structure and midrange characteristics, give you cleans and means from both sides of the pond, spanning chunky black-panel American rhythms to roaring British leads. An analog power amp sim and stereo-out analog cab sim put full control of your sound and feel right at your fingertips.
- As expected, the simulator makes a supreme pedal platform —its balanced input stage and stereo FX return bring your boutique overdrives, stereo delays, and reverbs to life.Factor in a dedicated headphone out and aux in for live monitoring, an FX pass-through for handing off stereo effects to a pair of stageamps, low-noise stereo balanced XLR outs for sending signal to FOH, and a Spread switch that lets you achieve wide faux-stereo effects from mono guitar signals.
- Gigging Sweetwater guitarists require guitar amps that are great for accepting pedals, monitoring from the stage, and miking up for FOH reinforcement.
- JOYO CAB BOX is a cabinet modeling pedal, with IR loading supported. It has 4 tube power amp simulations, 20 cabinet models and 11 classic microphone models.
- It has more interface, much bigger screen with more buttons compared with rival’s similar products, it’s quite user-friendly, regarding the IR, apart from 20 preset loading locations, it also supports storing 10 third party IRs.
- Ability connect to the PC through the USB, and use the matching software to edit tones and update firmware, load or delete third party IRs, supports both Windows/Mac OS. 128 tone store positions, supporting MIDI controlled devices changing tone real time. It can connect to amp’s FX LOOP or other devices for stereo output.
- JOYO has over a decade of brand reputation, and its most popular budget pedals, amplifiers, wireless systems, controllers, metronomes, tuners have won the love of guitarists all over the world and inspired people’s musical dreams.
- Before playing, please make sure the guitar is fully connected with the pedal. in order to make JOYO pedals work properly and avoiding unexpected noise, we recommend you to purchase an extra JOYO original power adapter, or choose the other reliable brands and make sure it meets the working current requirement of single pedal.
- Dedicated drive, high and low EQ, level, mic, model and amp controls for awesome sound shaping
- This BEHRINGER product has been designed to compete head to head with leading products on the market
- Provides a truckload of great amps in a single stomp box—simply choose your favorite sounds with a flick of a switch
- Status led for effect on/off and battery check
- Delivers vintage amplifier and custom speaker cabinets that can be mixed and matched in left and right channels
- Easily dial in completely separate amps, cabs, EQ, gain and room reverb and save your favorite tones with 1 of 3 on-board presets (128 via MIDI)
- Holds six high-quality cabinet impulse responses (IRs); Use the ABC Cab toggle switch to select your cab preference
- Simulate the size of the room that your amp and cabinet are in. At zero, it would resemble tracking your amp in an isolated environment with no reverb. At max would emulate a natural-sounding, large studio environment.
- Boost feature allows you to quickly jump to a preset level of volume and/or gain
