Current sound quality of available digital modellers.

  • You see posts all the time, along the lines of "I'm waiting for X effect", "is the sound quality gonna improve".

    Reading a few posts got me thinking! Is there an upper limit to the sound quality, and have we reached it? Apple no longer improve the retina display on the iPad, as any improvement will be undiscernable to the human eye! Will, or have we, reached, or are we near to, a similar thing with the current line of modellers? Discuss?

  • As far as I’m concerned it has.


    Now you’ll always have people who say they can hear the difference between batteries used in a wireless, or between a good 10 foot cable and a “super gold bestest ever” 10 foot cable, and I’m sure they’re going to be the ones chasing more.

  • But what if the imitation is so good as to be indiscernible to the human ear? Why improve if you're not hearing the benefits? Ceiling reached?

    I don’t think the ceiling has been reached yet. As good as the KPA is and as much as I like playing through it, I still think there is room for improvement in the profiles themselves. They don’t yet sound or feel exactly like tube amps to me.


    Some folks may not care. I do. I want an exact copy. I think we’ll get there someday but we’re not there yet, imho.

  • I don’t think the ceiling has been reached yet. As good as the KPA is and as much as I like playing through it, I still think there is room for improvement in the profiles themselves. They don’t yet sound or feel exactly like tube amps to me.


    Some folks may not care. I do. I want an exact copy. I think we’ll get there someday but we’re not there yet, imho.

    Are you basing this on tests you've conducted, comparing your tube amps to the profiles via same monitoring, ect ect?

    The bonanza

  • But what if the imitation is so good as to be indiscernible to the human ear? Why improve if you're not hearing the benefits? Ceiling reached?

    All manner of reasons.


    Marketing is at the top of the list. If it’s an emulation, someone will always claim it’s lacking somehow.


    Why? Because there’s money in it.

    “Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche