Cab simulators with headphones

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semsem Frets: 2
Hello! I'm very new to playing with amplifiers, so please be easy on me lol. I live with my family but I will be going to Uni next year and I'll be staying in accommodations, so I really need to be able to play through headphones (especially as I often play with high gain rhythm tones, and I really don't want to be That Guy). I recently got a Boss Katana, but I've found all the tones I've settled on sound completely different when played through headphones, compared to through the speaker - as in, they sound awful. I thought maybe it was down to it being direct from the amp to my headphones, so maybe a cab simulator with a headphone jack (Like the Two Tones Torpedo CAB M) would help me.

So my main question is - Am I at all right? Is a cab simulator what I need? As I said, I know very little past actually playing the guitar, so I could be very mistaken.

Leading on from that, if I'm wrong, do you have any suggestions to help improve the tone when playing through headphones?

If I'm right, do you have any gear suggestions? The Two Tones Torpedo CAB M looks amazing but it's a bit pricey, are there good value for money alternatives?

Thanks in advance!
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Comments

  • sgosdensgosden Frets: 1993
    How are you connecting the headphones to the amp at the moment ?
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  • WolfetoneWolfetone Frets: 1479
    A HX Stomp will fit the bill perfectly. It will also be useful when playing through your clean Katana later on and won't be rendered redundant when you go back home.
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  • MrBumpMrBump Frets: 1244
    Buy a 100 watt valve Marshall.

    Go to Uni.

    Be that guy.  Own it.

    Welcome to the forum.
    Mark de Manbey

    Trading feedback:  http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/72424/
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  • semsem Frets: 2
    sgosden said:
    How are you connecting the headphones to the amp at the moment ?
    I'm just plugged straight into the back of the amp atm
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  • semsem Frets: 2
    Wolfetone said:
    A HX Stomp will fit the bill perfectly. It will also be useful when playing through your clean Katana later on and won't be rendered redundant when you go back home.
    Looks great but pricey, but thanks anyway! The Two Tones pedal is £250 for reference. Am I on the right tracks with the original idea?
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  • semsem Frets: 2
    MrBump said:
    Buy a 100 watt valve Marshall.

    Go to Uni.

    Be that guy.  Own it.

    Welcome to the forum.
    Just ordered 10
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  • Fifty9Fifty9 Frets: 491
    edited April 2020
    I've just bought this: https://www.thomann.de/gb/hotone_ampero.htm which is a jack of all trades. I will be surprised if its genuinely as good as the online reviews claim but as there's a smaller version due out later this month so this one dropped by £100 the other day so I figured why not. A full amp modeler rather than just IRs but headphone out.

    A strymon Iridium iridium is the other option im interested in which is closer to what you're after w.r.t. just using something for cab IRs but a good ~75 more than you're looking to spend.
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  • thegummythegummy Frets: 4389
    If the katana isn't doing any cab sim on the headphone output then that will be the reason it sounds so bad and any IR based cab sim pedal will fix it.

    Don't know how cheaply those can be had but I'd imagine a lot cheaper than a Helix if it's only doing the cab.

    A good point that was made though, even if the helix is quite expensive, it will remain useful in all scenarios (e.g. Will function as several high quality pedals when playing through a amp) whereas the cab sim will mostly be useful only when you're playing the amp through headphones.

    Having said that, if that's exactly what you plan to do for a while then maybe the cheapest IR pedal will be a cheaper way to get you what you need.

    Listening through headphones is great IMO, you can really hear the intricate details of the sound and won't let yourself be hodge bodge like you might if you only hear through loud amps where the subtleties are lost.
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  • sgosdensgosden Frets: 1993
    sem said:
    sgosden said:
    How are you connecting the headphones to the amp at the moment ?
    I'm just plugged straight into the back of the amp atm
    Out of the phones output ? 

    I would imagine that has speaker emulation on it. 

    What headphones are you using? 

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  • sgosden said:



    What headphones are you using? 

    this 
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  • thegummythegummy Frets: 4389
    sgosden said:
    sem said:
    sgosden said:
    How are you connecting the headphones to the amp at the moment ?
    I'm just plugged straight into the back of the amp atm
    Out of the phones output ? 

    I would imagine that has speaker emulation on it. 

    What headphones are you using? 

    Before this thread I would have guessed the katana did have cab sim on the headphone out but if the sound is that much worse through headphones, a lack of cab sim would definitely cause that.

    There used to be some slight bug on the Amplifire that made the cab sim not turn back on with the obvious button and it really did sound terrible without it.
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  • semsem Frets: 2
    sgosden said:
    sem said:
    sgosden said:
    How are you connecting the headphones to the amp at the moment ?
    I'm just plugged straight into the back of the amp atm
    Out of the phones output ? 

    I would imagine that has speaker emulation on it. 

    What headphones are you using? 

    Yep! And yes maybe the headphones are the issue. I'm using Beyerdynamic DT 240 Pros
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  • semsem Frets: 2
    thegummy said:
    If the katana isn't doing any cab sim on the headphone output then that will be the reason it sounds so bad and any IR based cab sim pedal will fix it.

    Don't know how cheaply those can be had but I'd imagine a lot cheaper than a Helix if it's only doing the cab.

    A good point that was made though, even if the helix is quite expensive, it will remain useful in all scenarios (e.g. Will function as several high quality pedals when playing through a amp) whereas the cab sim will mostly be useful only when you're playing the amp through headphones.

    Having said that, if that's exactly what you plan to do for a while then maybe the cheapest IR pedal will be a cheaper way to get you what you need.

    Listening through headphones is great IMO, you can really hear the intricate details of the sound and won't let yourself be hodge bodge like you might if you only hear through loud amps where the subtleties are lost.
    Yeah I should probably consider the future, but I will probably always need to play though headphones. Thanks for clearing things up though!
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  • ArjailerArjailer Frets: 103
    sgosden said:



    What headphones are you using? 

    this 
    I've certainly had issues where my Sennheiser HD 380's (which generally sound fine) sound terrible with some modellers (Pod HD 300, Blackstar ID) - way too trebly and harsh.

    Cheaper headphones sounded much better with those modellers.
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  • grungebobgrungebob Frets: 3300
    I would have thought the obvious answer would be to stick the katana on the 0.5w setting and adjust the master to tv level, no need for headphones. Trust me others at uni will be playing their tv and music loud. 

    When I went to uni I took a Park GR10 solid state thing and it was fine. Just be sensible and sensitive to how loud and when you play and you’ll be fine. 
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  • thegummythegummy Frets: 4389
    Which Katana model is it you have?
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  • semsem Frets: 2
    thegummy said:
    Which Katana model is it you have?
    I have a 100 MKII, 1x12
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  • thegummythegummy Frets: 4389
    sem said:
    thegummy said:
    Which Katana model is it you have?
    I have a 100 MKII, 1x12
    I looked it up - it definitely has cab simulation on the headphone output already so that isn't the problem.

    I wonder if maybe it's to do with what I said about the headphones giving a much clearer idea of what it actually sounds like - maybe the tone you have set sounds good through a 12 inch guitar speaker because a lot of the nastiness in the tone just can't be reproduced by the limited range speaker but are being reproduced by the hifi headphones.

    Maybe you're just really used to the "amp in the room" sound which is very different to a recorded guitar sound. If that's the case I'm not sure there exists a solution to fix that, as far as I'm aware amp/cab sims are based on recorded guitar sounds rather than raw amp sounds.
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  • semsem Frets: 2
    thegummy said:
    sem said:
    thegummy said:
    Which Katana model is it you have?
    I have a 100 MKII, 1x12
    I looked it up - it definitely has cab simulation on the headphone output already so that isn't the problem.

    I wonder if maybe it's to do with what I said about the headphones giving a much clearer idea of what it actually sounds like - maybe the tone you have set sounds good through a 12 inch guitar speaker because a lot of the nastiness in the tone just can't be reproduced by the limited range speaker but are being reproduced by the hifi headphones.

    Maybe you're just really used to the "amp in the room" sound which is very different to a recorded guitar sound. If that's the case I'm not sure there exists a solution to fix that, as far as I'm aware amp/cab sims are based on recorded guitar sounds rather than raw amp sounds.
    Yeah that's quite possible, as i said I don't really know what I'm doing haha. It just seemed any amount of gain I added, on any channel, seemed to be poor quality. Thanks for all your help!
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  • semsem Frets: 2
    edited April 2020
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