The official don't buy this amp if you play at home list...

[Chad]

I AM a believer in speaker break in. I didn't like my DSL100 at first because it was very harsh. Now I love it as it warmed up.

Another possibility: your ears warmed up to the sound that the speaker was producing all along.

[ulijdavid]

This thread is like listening to two old ladies talking to each other.......Neither of them disagreeing with each other but neither listening to each other either.

[PowerTube]

Well, I was able to put one thing to rest this evening. As I was waiting at GC to pick up the Marshall 1960A cab I bought online, it just so happens that they had just taken in a JVM205H, the 50-watt JVM head. I'm talking within the last hour! I couldn't believe it. The one I really have in my sights is the JVM410H, but I figured that this one could give me the general idea. So I asked to use it to check out the cab before taking it home. They agreed.

The verdict? I'm TOTALLY getting a JVM410H! Period. Paragraph. End of discussion.

Within about a minute, I dialed in a fantastic tone on this thing. Warm, clear, and totally saturated, and I never turned the volume above a low conversational level. I'm hooked and I can't believe I didn't get one of these instead of the Vetta rig back in 2007.

[PowerTube]

I have a lot of the amps he's mentioned like two 800's and a Plexi and to be honest he's right. They're made to be cranked up in my opinion. To me it's a giant waste to even plug any of them in at home especially the Plexi (Insanely fucking loud.)

You might have missed this earlier in the thread, but.....

I would agree if my sound depended on cranking an amp up to high volume. But it doesn't.

[leftykingv2]

I have a lot of the amps he's mentioned like two 800's and a Plexi and to be honest he's right. They're made to be cranked up in my opinion. To me it's a giant waste to even plug any of them in at home especially the Plexi (Insanely fucking loud.)

[Catharpin]

When I want to get a cranked tube amp tone I turn the amp up and step out of the live room into the control room of my studio and have at it.
Fortunately my studio is in a separate building from my home and I can't see/hear any of my neighbors since I own enough acres/woods to keep them at a distance.
Technically speaking I never play "at home", just 100 yards away
One time I cranked up 2 100W amps just outside my studio in my workshop and wailed away. My wife said she could hear it up in the house with all the doors/windows shut, but only if she was listening for it.
With a 100W 4x12 setup in the studio I can hear the bass from just outside my house.
I do find that I can coax a pretty decent tone out of my 5150 combo without going past 2. Probably wouldn't be very good for apartment dwellers or late night bedroom with sleeping people in the house but could certainly be used @ home, but I digress.

[PowerTube]

Other great Marshall tones come from the Silver Jubilee and the JCM900 SL-X. The SL-X is probably the most underrated Marshall ever produced. Its an outstanding amp and can handle a ton of abuse.

I had a friend years ago who owned a JCM 800 2210, same model as the one I would own later. He had once owned a Silver Jubilee and he said it was the best sounding one, describing it as "pure cream." I asked him why he sold it and kept the 2210 and he said, "Because the Silver Jubilee was only a single channel." Considering the horrible clean channel on a 2210, I think of it as a single (useable)-channel also.

[PowerTube]

And that's probably why you aren't a fan of Mesa Boogie. You simply can't set the EQ on a Boogie with your eyes. Its not intuitive.. its not normal. That's what I dislike about it. Marshall.. is so much easier. Just setting everything at 12'oclock is good enough to get a REALLY nice sound.
Like I said.. I originally thought the JVM was overrated but after I heard a few of them.. I was wrong. That's a great sounding Marshall amp. Its like the Mesa Boogie Mark V of Marshalls.

I never like the sound with everything straight up. I generally go something like Bass 1:00 Middle 10:00 Treble 12-1:00.

To me, most Boogies have a scooped sort of sound that doesn't work for me. But in all fairness I haven't plugged into a lot of them.

[DonP]

I AM a believer in speaker break in. I didn't like my DSL100 at first because it was very harsh. Now I love it as it warmed up.

[jgcable]

Other great Marshall tones come from the Silver Jubilee and the JCM900 SL-X. The SL-X is probably the most underrated Marshall ever produced. Its an outstanding amp and can handle a ton of abuse.

[jgcable]

For the record.. the Soldano was also not intuitive. I don't know what the Quickrod amps were set at that I heard or played through but I do know that both guys that own them have no problem spending lots of time dialing an amp in. I don't mind it either. I just don't like how "reactive" the Rectifier EQ is. The Peavey Triple X I have is like that too. Its not like a Marshall. Turn one knob too much and the sound goes out the window. Boogies have an "active" EQ which means the more you have the bass up for instance... it limits how much treble you have. On a Rectifier the most active control is the midrange. Next is bass. The treble and presence controls aren't very reactive when you are using the bass or midrange on more than the 11 O'clock setting. Its kind of weird.

[jgcable]

I'm not a big believer in speaker break-in. I can accept that speakers might indeed loosen up a bit or whatnot over time, but as far as it changing the basic tonality, I seriously doubt it.

Just for the record, I totally believe that I can get the Splawn sound about 99% on a decent Marshall. It would be a combination of upping the mids and smoothing it out, basically, just getting a really ballsy midrange sound, then cutting the gain down to about "Jimmy Page" territory. I can see why everyone says that the Splawns really cut through the mix in a live situation.

But this also reminds me...... I read all over the place that the EQ on the Splawn should be set with your ears and not your eyes. That's all fine and good, but it also turns me off that the EQ voicings are so "unique" to everything else I've ever played. Being different is perfectly fine, but I just didn't like the sound no matter what I did.

And that's probably why you aren't a fan of Mesa Boogie. You simply can't set the EQ on a Boogie with your eyes. Its not intuitive.. its not normal. That's what I dislike about it. Marshall.. is so much easier. Just setting everything at 12'oclock is good enough to get a REALLY nice sound.
Like I said.. I originally thought the JVM was overrated but after I heard a few of them.. I was wrong. That's a great sounding Marshall amp. Its like the Mesa Boogie Mark V of Marshalls.

[PowerTube]

I played through one of them for 2 songs live. It was liquid, it was forgiving.

That was the experience I was hoping for, but mine was neither liquid nor forgiving.

[PowerTube]

I'm not a big believer in speaker break-in. I can accept that speakers might indeed loosen up a bit or whatnot over time, but as far as it changing the basic tonality, I seriously doubt it.

Just for the record, I totally believe that I can get the Splawn sound about 99% on a decent Marshall. It would be a combination of upping the mids and smoothing it out, basically, just getting a really ballsy midrange sound, then cutting the gain down to about "Jimmy Page" territory. I can see why everyone says that the Splawns really cut through the mix in a live situation.

But this also reminds me...... I read all over the place that the EQ on the Splawn should be set with your ears and not your eyes. That's all fine and good, but it also turns me off that the EQ voicings are so "unique" to everything else I've ever played. Being different is perfectly fine, but I just didn't like the sound no matter what I did.

[Larz]

I certainly couldn't speak on it, but I have read articles about the theory or concept of it. I remember reading about it on the Celestion website too when I bought a Celestion blue speaker once.