6505 vs. 6505 / White vs. Black

[Lasse Lammert]

hey...
I've got two 6505s here...one is completely stock...the other one has some cosmetics mods, is biasmodded and has got different tubes (=C= in the poweramp instead of ruby and Chinese in the preamp instead of JJ)...
the white one used to be my studio 6505....
now I'm actually not to sure anymore and am thinking about swapping the preamp tubes...I want the killer metal machine for the studio and the other one for live...Biasmod and =C= definitely are better than how the stock amp is running, but I'm not sure about the preamp tubes.....

you tell me which one you prefer (soundwise)

black
white
and with JJ in v2 of white:
whitejj


settings are the same, but the black one was a tiny bit louder, so the hotter API might have some influence, too...


I like the tightness and bite the white one has, but also like the thickness of the black one....overall I'm leaning towards white...what do you think?

 

[MetalJonesy]

black has a bit more punch and bite, but the character of the white in the upper mid range is alot smoother IMO almost seems held back infact

 

[P-E]

Black one sounds a bit smoother IMHO, while white sounds a bit more aggressive/tight.

Both sound great, again IMHO, but I think I prefer white.

EDIT : Oh damn, MetalJonesy said the exact opposite. Weird, I trust him more than I trust myself, with my bad setup.

 

[MetalJonesy]

just did a proper A/B test in my DAW and im going for Black on this un!! had to back the vol off on the black track as its a tad louder than the white, so thats the upper mids and punch that i may have been hearing... the blatent fact its a db or so louder

 

[Lazzari]

I think the black one has a thicker tone to it.. Which is why I think it sounds cooler.. (I was going to say better, but I think that's not the correct word, since both of them sound really good)

EDIT: For live situation I would use the black one.. But for studio is a different story, so I would use the white 6505

 

[MetalJonesy]

just listening back the White one has those 3-5k annoying frequencies (which my cab has) where as the other doesn't.... my initial comments were just both played back on my comp so they had their different levels.. so yeah i may have been wrong first listen, but i still prefer the black

 

[MicSlut666]

I really like the tone of the black one !

 

[::XeS::]

Black is tighter...in my opinion this test rapresentes the standard vs bias modded results I found. With hotter bias the 6505 sounds good, but the standard setting is tighter and aggressive (in my opinion). Little differences, but alone I think the standard is better. Anyway with a bias mod you can set the bias how you want so you can use different bias settings for different songs

 

[Lasse Lammert]

just replaced the china in V2 with a JJ (white one)...like that better I think.

the black one is actually running rather hot for a stock 6505...usually they're about 8-16mA...this one is drawing 30mA...and the bias modded one is currently running at 24mA

 

[greyskull]

yeah white with jj sounds great.

 

[::XeS::]

Ops so my theory wasn't right

 

[P-E]

White with JJ's sounds sick.

 

[acappa]

which API model did you use for the test ??

 

[John_C]

white all the way. Chinese and with JJs both sound good, just different

 

[DigiV]

The difference is so small that it probably doesn't even matter.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

weird, I actually think the differences are quite obvious.....I had Recto and 6505 sound more similar to each other than these two..

 

[16S]

white with JJs was the worst IMO. There was more fizz. I would use the black for live and the white for studio - i think blacks "thickness" is a tad muddy.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

white with JJs was the worst IMO. There was more fizz. I would use the black for live and the white for studio - i think blacks "thickness" is a tad muddy.

wow, I think it's the best one

 

[MicSlut666]

Which cabinet and mic did you use?

I would also like to know which settings were used on both amps (including Post gain)?

Thanks!

 

[AntonioPetrole]

am i the only one who cant tell much of a difference? I think the black one sounds a bit thicker but thats it