Speaker Simulator Comparison Test

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Summary & Next Steps

What did you expect when entering this page? A winner? I do not select the best speaker simulator of all. I do not do you the favor of telling you, which of the tested devices is crap and which one is superior. You need to find out yourself, which one is the best for your own special taste and for your setup...

What I have learned...

In the beginning I was pretty sure, which speaker simulator would be my favourite one. There is a big hype around some vendors that make you believe they must be the best...

On the other hand some devices have a rather bad reputation - for no good reason as I found out. For instance almost everybody says that the recording output signal of the Engl Preamp 530 sounds bad and can't be recommended for serious usage. This was also my opinion. Before this test...

When comparing it to the other speaker simulators I can just say that it has its own sound as all of the tested devices do. I would however not say that it sounds worse than all the others. For certain tastes and sounds it is as well a valid option as all others! So here are my apologies to the Engl designer team: it looks like you once more have based your design on what you think fits best and sounds like an Engl device! :-)

Effective Improvements...

An EQ in the mixer console can improve (or at least modify) the sound of a specific speaker simulator significanly. Just load a sample recording into your favourite wave editor and play with the EQ. There is a huge potential for different sounds. Palmer describes in the manual that different cabinet types (2x12" closed back, 2x12" open back, 1x12") could be achieved by using an EQ.

My opinion: yes, you can use an EQ for effectively modifying the sound of a speaker simulator. But when I actually buy a speaker simulator, I do it for not having to adjust an EQ very much. The sound should meet my desired sound for let's say 90%. That's the general idea behind speaker simulators: plug & play! ;-)

About Similarities...

My impression was that some of the speaker simulators sound similar. I grouped those similar sounding devices and added some notes:

• Standard Sound
  • Hughes & Kettner Red Box Classic (mode: 4x12")

    Natural lively sound

  • Palmer PDI-09 (mode: normal)

    Sounds a bit indirect compared to the Red Box Classic

  • Behringer GI100 Ultra-G

    Sounds wider and has more bottom end punch

• Mellow Sound
  • Hughes & Kettner Red Box Pro

    Very rich sound with massive bottom end punch

  • Tube Amp Doctor F.A.N.T.A.

    Very similar to the Red Box Pro but missing the high frequencies. Verify the frequency response graphs of the Red Box Pro and the F.A.N.T.A.!

  • Palmer PDI-09 (mode: mellow)

    I do not see any application for this sound without tremendous modification with an EQ. It has just bass frequencies and low mids but nothing else...

• Bright Sound

  For my taste these sounds are a bit too thin, but in certain cases they might fit well:

  • Hughes & Kettner Red Box Classic (mode: combo)

    Sounds a bit thinner the 4x12" mode of this device

  • Palmer PDI-09 (mode: bright)

    Even thinner than the Red Box Classic in combo mode. Kind of inverse to the mellow mode of the this device: a bit too much in the high frequencies and almost nothing anywhere else. Get a good EQ, if you plan to use this mode...

  • ENGL Preamp 530 (recording output)

    Does not really fit in this category, because it is not really thin like the other two sounds. It is more comparable to the Behringer GI100 Ultra-G but this one is brighter.

To be continued...

I have some ideas that I would like to work on in the future. Let me give you some overview what you could possibly find here after coming back in a few weeks or month:

• Rocktron Replifex Recordings

  I own a Rocktron Replifex effects processor. It has an effect called "Speaker Simulator". What a surprise! ;-) The good news: this effect sounds really good! It would be nice to have some sample recordings of it that you can compare it to the other speaker simulators. I will try to find some time for making recordings with at least a subset of its parameter settings.

• Real Recordings

  I would like to make some "old-school" recordings using my Shure SM58 microphone. For this purpose I will remove the mesh grille to get closer to the characteristics of the SM57, which only has a different mesh grille compared to the SM58. I will use my Engl E212V speaker cabinet with two Celestion Vintage 30 speakers inside.

• More Speaker Simulators

  Find out on the next page, how you can help making sample recordings of more speaker simulators available to others...

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