I just picked up an Iridium, mainly for us on stage so I have a little separate control over levels and tone shaping in what I send to the PA. But in the meantime I thought I'd check out the headphone function since many people have remarked how great it sounds. I have had various headphone rigs in the past (most recently a NUX Solid Studio), and found all of them: a) sound pretty convincing with six string electric; b) sound awful with pedal steel.
My immediate impression of the Iridium is that is is no better than any I have tried before. Switching between the Iridium on, with amp and cab simulation, with the Iridium off ( basically just my steel rig: passive volume pedal ->matchbox->Zoom MS50G), there is a slight improvement with the Iridium on. But nothing even remotely resembling the sound of a real amp. Well, maybe a really, really, really bad real amp.
Clearly I am doing something wrong here. I tried just about every possible combination of amp and speaker on the Iridium, none of them anything like actually playing through an amp. Is there something I should be adding between my rig and the Iridium?
Again, the tele sounds decent (although not especially like a Deluxe Reverb or Vox Ac30.) But I can't get the steel to sound remotely like playing through a tube amp.
Please school me on what I'm doing wrong.
Strymon Iridium through Headphones: What am I Doing Wrong?
Moderator: Shoshanah Marohn
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Dan Beller-McKenna
- Posts: 2979
- Joined: 3 Apr 2005 1:01 am
- Location: Durham, New Hampshire, USA
- Contact:
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Dan Beller-McKenna
- Posts: 2979
- Joined: 3 Apr 2005 1:01 am
- Location: Durham, New Hampshire, USA
- Contact:
Two Updates
Update 1:
I decided that it would be unfair to judge the Iridium just on the headphone function, so I gave it a try through a powered speaker (Mackie Thump 12a). First I played my rig (see previous post) straight into the speaker (well, through a DI box as the Iridium has 1/4" out and the Mackie only has XLR in). The main take away of this step was how decent it sounded straight into the Mackie. The Iridium sounded "better," and decidedly better than it had through headphones, but still nothing like a Deluxe Reverb or Vox AC30. The sound of my rig into the Iridium and into the Mackie was, "Yeah, I could play on stage with that tone." And the sound of my rig straight into the Mackie was, "Yeah, I could play on stage with that tone." Which leads me to update 2...
Update 2:
I returned the Iridium.
I decided that it would be unfair to judge the Iridium just on the headphone function, so I gave it a try through a powered speaker (Mackie Thump 12a). First I played my rig (see previous post) straight into the speaker (well, through a DI box as the Iridium has 1/4" out and the Mackie only has XLR in). The main take away of this step was how decent it sounded straight into the Mackie. The Iridium sounded "better," and decidedly better than it had through headphones, but still nothing like a Deluxe Reverb or Vox AC30. The sound of my rig into the Iridium and into the Mackie was, "Yeah, I could play on stage with that tone." And the sound of my rig straight into the Mackie was, "Yeah, I could play on stage with that tone." Which leads me to update 2...
Update 2:
I returned the Iridium.