screamingdaisy said:
rocknroll9225 said:well, "best" is always subjective, so you'll get different answers, but id recommend finding a local store where you can try all the ones youre considering side by side and compare, if you havent already. take any advice you hear with a grain of salt and make sure the decision you make is yours, and that youre not just being told what to buy.
anyways, now for the answer youre looking for...
the only difference between the dual and triple is the wattage. dual = 100W, triple = 150W. IMHO, the dual is better, because 150W is just simply too much power. most people dont even get chances to crank their dual, and its even harder to get any power tube saturation out of a triple because its just simply too damn loud. granted, the multi-watt switch kind of fixes this, but id rather have two usable power settings than one usable and one superfluous. on the other hand, if you can crank a triple all the way up, it would probably shatter the fabric of reality because of the ridiculous volume and hugeness the extra 50W will give you, but unless youre playing madison square garden, chances are you wont be able to use a triple to its full potential. seriously, until you crank a triple, you dont know what loud is. so you pay $100 extra for the amp, and re-tubing it costs 1.5 times more than a dual, the amp is heavier to carry around, and you probably wont be able to harness it to its full potential. sounds like an easy decision to me.
have you considered a road king or roadster? theyre voiced smoother and darker than the regular rectos, and a little bassier and flubbier IMO. they sound a little closer to the older 2 ch rectos than the 3 ch's, if thats the sound youre after. the main difference is a lack of the infamous "recto fizz" in the roadster and RK. as always, neither is better and its best to try them out if you can. between the 3 ch's and roadster/RK, i personally like the 3 ch's a little better. i never got the smoother voicing to "bite" enough for my taste. if versatility is important to you tho, it would be a more than worthy trade off.
you'll see a lot of people go on forever about how much better the 2 channels are than the 3 channels, but i think a bit of it is hype. i think 2 channel owners convinced people that 2 ch's were better once the 3 ch's came out because they had financial interest in doing so. that and the fact that its kind of part of our nature to think that if something's older or harder to find, it must be better. thats not to say that there isnt any truth to it, tho, because the 2 ch's and 3 ch's definitely sound different. 3 ch's are generally fizzier and 2 ch's are darker. thats a gross over-simplification, tho. but if youre getting a pre-2000 recto, its going to be an earlier revision. generally, the earlier the serial number, the brighter and tighter it will sound.
if you go for one of the newer models, you wont have to worry about the clean. the multi-watt rectos, the roadster and road king all have gorgeous cleans. the roadster and RK are probably a little better tho, because of the fat mode and on board reverb (i love using reverb on cleans). the later 2 ch rectos (rev F and G) have usable cleans, but not great cleans. same with the pre-2010 3 channel models. the clean was good, but not great. ive only played a rev G 2 ch (post-2000) but ive heard that the cleans before rev F were god awful.
i agree with screamingdaisy. if tightness is what youre after, any mark has it in spades. rectifiers tend to be more geared towards players wanting a wall of distorted sound.
hope that helped
screamingdaisy said:
:lol: that might be the best metaphor ive heard in my entire life. you just made my day
its true that rectifiers (and most mesa amps, really) are designed around preamp distortion, but theres no denying that they sound a lot thinner without the power amp being pushed. so to clarify what i meant, yes more wattage doesnt drastically increase volume, it increases headroom. but, to get the same amount of power amp distortion out of a triple, youll have to crank it a lot louder. i guess it is a matter of opinion whether you prefer power tube saturation or clean headroom, but id think that for an amp designed to get crushing amounts of gain, youd rather have the extra depth (along with a little less preamp gain) than to have a "cleaner" high gain sound and have to push the gain knob really high.siggy14 said:To clairify some things here.
1. Rectifiers are designed around pre-amp distortion, so techncially unless you are using really low gain on the rectifier there is no need to get tube saturation on the rectifier, actually if you get too much power tube distortion with alot of pre amp distortion you will end up with cross over distortion which will make the amp sound worse.
2. The triples are tighter then the Duals, reason for this is the two extra power tubes gives you more headroom, usually a good rule of thumb is pre amp distortion is tighter, power amp distortion is looser. So you want more headroom so that the power amp does not distort too much, however you do not want the power amp section too cold.
3. The original Road kings are bright amps, but in a good way, I call them a mix between a 2 channel recto and a tremoverb, I have not had the chance to play the Road King II however I have played a few roadsters and found them to dark for my liking, they are alot darker then the older 2 channel recto's.
rocknroll9225 said:well, "best" is always subjective, so you'll get different answers, but id recommend finding a local store where you can try all the ones youre considering side by side and compare, if you havent already. take any advice you hear with a grain of salt and make sure the decision you make is yours, and that youre not just being told what to buy.
anyways, now for the answer youre looking for...
the only difference between the dual and triple is the wattage. dual = 100W, triple = 150W. IMHO, the dual is better, because 150W is just simply too much power. most people dont even get chances to crank their dual, and its even harder to get any power tube saturation out of a triple because its just simply too damn loud. granted, the multi-watt switch kind of fixes this, but id rather have two usable power settings than one usable and one superfluous. on the other hand, if you can crank a triple all the way up, it would probably shatter the fabric of reality because of the ridiculous volume and hugeness the extra 50W will give you, but unless youre playing madison square garden, chances are you wont be able to use a triple to its full potential. seriously, until you crank a triple, you dont know what loud is. so you pay $100 extra for the amp, and re-tubing it costs 1.5 times more than a dual, the amp is heavier to carry around, and you probably wont be able to harness it to its full potential. sounds like an easy decision to me.
have you considered a road king or roadster? theyre voiced smoother and darker than the regular rectos, and a little bassier and flubbier IMO. they sound a little closer to the older 2 ch rectos than the 3 ch's, if thats the sound youre after. the main difference is a lack of the infamous "recto fizz" in the roadster and RK. as always, neither is better and its best to try them out if you can. between the 3 ch's and roadster/RK, i personally like the 3 ch's a little better. i never got the smoother voicing to "bite" enough for my taste. if versatility is important to you tho, it would be a more than worthy trade off.
you'll see a lot of people go on forever about how much better the 2 channels are than the 3 channels, but i think a bit of it is hype. i think 2 channel owners convinced people that 2 ch's were better once the 3 ch's came out because they had financial interest in doing so. that and the fact that its kind of part of our nature to think that if something's older or harder to find, it must be better. thats not to say that there isnt any truth to it, tho, because the 2 ch's and 3 ch's definitely sound different. 3 ch's are generally fizzier and 2 ch's are darker. thats a gross over-simplification, tho. but if youre getting a pre-2000 recto, its going to be an earlier revision. generally, the earlier the serial number, the brighter and tighter it will sound.
if you go for one of the newer models, you wont have to worry about the clean. the multi-watt rectos, the roadster and road king all have gorgeous cleans. the roadster and RK are probably a little better tho, because of the fat mode and on board reverb (i love using reverb on cleans). the later 2 ch rectos (rev F and G) have usable cleans, but not great cleans. same with the pre-2010 3 channel models. the clean was good, but not great. ive only played a rev G 2 ch (post-2000) but ive heard that the cleans before rev F were god awful.
i agree with screamingdaisy. if tightness is what youre after, any mark has it in spades. rectifiers tend to be more geared towards players wanting a wall of distorted sound.
hope that helped
screamingdaisy said:
:lol: that might be the best metaphor ive heard in my entire life. you just made my day
