Digital transistor amps. modelling amps not really solid state ??

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This is something that I see people stating fairly regularly. " A digital amp like the Tonemaster or any modelling amp is NOT solid state " but an analogue transistor amp IS solid state" (?). Not sure where that idea comes from. Any amp where the circuit , pre & power stage is composed of transistors IS therefore solid state
 
Whether it is digital or analog it is still solid state. Integrated circuits are just collections of transistors. The advantage of large-scale integrated circuits is that the number of transistors is high enough to perform multiple functions without a dedicated circuit for each function.
 
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Since no one is giving you the correct answer, the reason why they're treated differently is because the tone shaping is entirely different. On a traditional solid state amp, you have either an op amp with diodes after it, or you have a bunch of MOSFETs or JFETs behaving like tubes. On a modelling amp, you have a weak computer processor running an ampsim. It's a totally different process.
 
Cynical said:
Since no one is giving you the correct answer, the reason why they're treated differently is because the tone shaping is entirely different. On a traditional solid state amp, you have either an op amp with diodes after it, or you have a bunch of MOSFETs or JFETs behaving like tubes. On a modelling amp, you have a weak computer processor running an ampsim. It's a totally different process.
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How about the actual poweramp? Is a digital poweramp a thing at all? Not that I know of. At least not in guitar amps. If I'm not misssing something, then yeah, even digital preamp amps have solid state components.
 
It's a semantic distinction. Some people use "solid state" to refer to anything with just transistors and no tubes (which is what it actually means), other people use it more narrowly because they've got "solid state" in their head as a certain kind of amp and want to use the term to differentiate it from both tube and modeling amps.
 
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Yeah, but most amps with digital modeling technoglogy have transistor powearmps, don't they? Wether it be class A/B like the Katana or Class D like... pretty much anything else, LOL.

There are other interesting modeling amps like the Vypyr which have analog gain stages.
 
Cynical said:
Since no one is giving you the correct answer, the reason why they're treated differently is because the tone shaping is entirely different. On a traditional solid state amp, you have either an op amp with diodes after it, or you have a bunch of MOSFETs or JFETs behaving like tubes. On a modelling amp, you have a weak computer processor running an ampsim. It's a totally different process.
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basically with a modeller or in the case of things like the Kemper , you are playing through a computer. but I think you'll agree , it is still solid state technology ..
 
I never use the term "solid state" for anything guitar related, but I'd assume the distinction might be, as others have pointed towards, solid state doesn't have tubes but your signal is still analog, wheras digital is reserved purely for any product that turns your signal into 1s and 0s, such as most modeling amps.
 
'Solid state' with regards to amps is just a term that denotes that the circuit in the amp doesn't pass through a vacuum (tube). If your amp doesn't use tubes to pass the electrical signal through, it's solid state.

'Digial' vs 'analog' is talking about the way the audio signal is treated. With analog you have a continuous wave, with digital it is broken up into discrete steps (often for processing):
image6-2_a66c2608-238b-4b57-bcc1-ea182cbadb20.jpg



There are fully analog solid state amps (if people are being lazy, this is often what they mean when they're talking about a solid state guitar amp). There are solid state amps that are fully digital (again, if people are being lazy this is often what they mean when talking about a digital guitar amp). The Tonemaster amps are solid state digital amps - they use microprocessors and digital processing to modify your guitar signal to sound like Fender amps that are modelled and the electrical signal doesn't go through tubes.
 
GuitarStv said:
'Solid state' with regards to amps is just a term that denotes that the circuit in the amp doesn't pass through a vacuum (tube). If your amp doesn't use tubes to pass the electrical signal through, it's solid state.

'Digial' vs 'analog' is talking about the way the audio signal is treated. With analog you have a continuous wave, with digital it is broken up into discrete steps (often for processing):
image6-2_a66c2608-238b-4b57-bcc1-ea182cbadb20.jpg



There are fully analog solid state amps (if people are being lazy, this is often what they mean when they're talking about a solid state guitar amp). There are solid state amps that are fully digital (again, if people are being lazy this is often what they mean when talking about a digital guitar amp). The Tonemaster amps are solid state digital amps - they use microprocessors and digital processing to modify your guitar signal to sound like Fender amps that are modelled and the electrical signal doesn't go through tubes.
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looking at that diagram, I guess the same could apply to digital radio waves, digital TV programme transmission
 
Digital amps don't exist, 0s and 1s don't make any noise and you cannot have louder 0s and louder 1s. All power amps are analog using solid-state transistors or vacuum tubes to amplify their input level.

Wikipedia:
The term solid-state became popular at the beginning of the semiconductor era in the 1960s to distinguish this new technology. A semiconductor device works by controlling an electric current consisting of electrons or holes moving within a solid crystalline piece of semiconducting material such as silicon, while the thermionic vacuum tubes it replaced worked by controlling a current of electrons or ions in a vacuum within a sealed tube.
 
donaldr said:
Digital amps don't exist, 0s and 1s don't make any noise and you cannot have louder 0s and louder 1s. All power amps are analog using solid-state transistors or vacuum tubes to amplify their input level.

Wikipedia:
The term solid-state became popular at the beginning of the semiconductor era in the 1960s to distinguish this new technology. A semiconductor device works by controlling an electric current consisting of electrons or holes moving within a solid crystalline piece of semiconducting material such as silicon, while the thermionic vacuum tubes it replaced worked by controlling a current of electrons or ions in a vacuum within a sealed tube.
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"Digital" just means at one point the signal becomes 1s and 0s. If your amplifier has a DAC of any nature, it would be considered digital.

All "solid state" means is no vacuum tubes, regardless of whether you are talking about amps or not.
 
So digital/modeling amps are using software (digital) running in a DSP chip to generate the sound (gain, eq and effects) and analog components (solid-states or tubes) to amplify it.

Analog amps are using analog components (solid-state transistors/op-amps/diodes/etc. or vacuum tubes) to generate the sound and to amplify it.
 
Chistopher said:
If your amplifier has a DAC of any nature, it would be considered digital.
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Putting a DAC in front of an amplifier doesn't make it a digital amp, t's still an analog amp, but now with a DAC input. The input of an amplifier is analog and its output is also analog.
Take your home theatre receiver as an example. It will have many analog inputs and digital inputs, there outputs feeding the input of analog amps.
 
Yeah, any deeper than dividing tube/solid-state/modeling becomes confusing. I'll post the block diagram to how my Johnson Millenium works when I get the chance, but it has an all-tube power and preamp section, but it also has sevel solid state non-digital stages as well as digital modeling (including a digital preamp).

It can be configured to work as all tube so that the audio only sees tubes, but it's still being digitally controlled, so who knows what that falls under.
 
If something sounds 'fake' (sanitzed) & has no ballz (does'nt move air) it's digital :p

Haha..j/k, but not completely... :lmao:

I do have a preference for tube & analog SS amp's though... :bigthumb:
 
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