Traynor YCV40WR...Review

All Those Yesterdays wrote:

From hearing my buddys amp, I'd never even dream to compare the over drive of the traynor to a Marshal Plexi, or any Marshall for that matter.

HailHailVitalogy wrote:

ill tell you though, i really notice the difference between tube and solid state

im getting tones out of my guitar i didnt know i could get

Pacomc79 wrote:

amazing how much more expressive and harmonic the amp becomes isn't it.

The 10 watt difference between the 40 watt and the 50 watt is really not all that great in terms of volume depending on how you choose to run it. Adding a speaker cab with more speakers would make it considerably louder because more air would be moved but essentially the tube character is what will really be noticeable. It just depends on the sound you prefer especially when the power tubes begin to be overdriven. EL34's generally tend to have a tighter bass response with lower head room than the 6L6. 5881's have even more headroom. 6L6's yield a beautiful esoteric glassy clean tone we all know and love. EL34's provide the warm wooly british overdrive tone we all know and love.

Pacomc79 wrote:

In fairness, that sounds bad on just about everything save maybe a Mesa.

the dreaded tone descriptive words. Traynors are good amps we know this. Fact is they can't sound like a Plexi regardless of guitar because the structure of the amp itself is just not wired that way, also the Vintage 30 while also excellent is nice warm and velvety but not the ceramic greenbacks most often paired with "Plexi's" of the late 60's.

It may indeed sound a bit like a modern marshall (1980's to the present) but it's pretty tough to get that plexi tone without actually cranking a plexi.

Pacomc79 wrote:

THis is from Ted Weber's site. It's pretty interesting.

From: Steve

I have a 20/50 watt THD 'plexi' amp which I run either 2-EL84s or 2-EL34s.
In order to get rich distortion and compression, it must be played loud. I would like to get that sound at lower levels, so I intend to purchase a THD HotPlate or similar attenuator. I understand that at lower volumes, the sensitivity of the ear changes according to a Fletcher-Munson curve, so I'm wondering what kind of speaker cabinet or system I should use to compensate at the lower volumes?

Steve, that's true about the F-M curve and the correction needed at the lower volumes. I would have to recommend though, before using a power attenuator that you go through the calculations or have a professional amplifier technician advise you on its use with regards to steady state power handling and thermal dissipation capabilities of your output circuit. There's some 'sonic psychology' involved here, in that as you are listening comfortably to the lower, attenuated level of acoustic power, the output circuit is still giving it all it's got. So, since your ear hears the lower level, it isn't quite so evident that the output circuit is working so hard. The bottom line is that the output transformer is heating up, it might be in saturation alot of the time, you lose some bass due to the saturation as well as increased resistance of the windings due to heating, etc. As far as speakers go, depending on how much attenuation you want to dial in, you'll probably want to get the most effecient speakers you can find. The bottom line is that you are attenuating the big amp down to the power level of a small amp, so you need a speaker that will make the small amp sound huge. If you want to restore alot of the highs, you might go with a Kendrick 10, which is very efficient at the high end. As far as AlNiCo vs Ceramic goes, since you aren't going to really blast the speakers with a high average volume, that is to say alot of your tone (distortion plus compression) will be coming from your output circuit, I think Ceramics would work just fine, and save you some money.
Additional comments submitted by Joe Pampel:
Another option you might consider is the use of a closed back or sealed cabinet. With an open back, you lose a little bass due to cancellation between the rear and front. In a closed back, that problem diminishes, however it takes more power to get the same loudness. Also, rather than using high efficient speakers as suggested above, you might actually prefer lower efficient speakers. Assuming you'll have plenty of power to put into either the power attenuator or the speaker, you can put less in the attenuator and more in the speaker for a given loudness. You might find that this arrangement will give you more overall control of your tone at the loudness you desire.}
_________________________________
the softer output is due to the ratings on the speakers. If you had say a 100 watt 12 inch, or say 4 25 watt 12" speakers on an ab switch the 4 12's are going to be louder when fed the same wattage because the surface area moving air is greater. Vintage 30's are 60 watt speakers. thus the 120 watts peak instead of 60. This is what is causing the drop in volume, regardless you are gaining the tightness the cabinet yields. If you added 10 watts in that case to your multiple speaker array it would make a considerable difference in the volume. But on 1 speaker, it's not tremendously different.