GM40 v GM36

Absolutely agree with most of what you say Koitsu, I certainly would not say that anything you said was of no consequence.

The one thing which I would definitely disagree with is the first comment we both made. I still maintain that the average owner, I would be surprised if it wasn't above the 80% mark, will never use the Redbox out to feed their amp into a PA or recording setup. The massive majority of all amp owners are people who just use them at home in a spare room or garage to noodle away to CDs or at most to play their covers with a few friends in a garage band. For them the amp will be connected to a speaker or two exclusively. Even the majority of us who play in bands semi-professionally as I do will never use that Redbox XLR socket. In truth it is another aspect of the amp that I have never had cause to use even though I have been gigging a couple of times a week for some years now. I don't mean to imply it is in any way unimportant, only that it is of limited significance in the bigger scheme of tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of basic customers. It's a good selling point for the higher professional and the more ambitious semi-pro market. I certainly support you totally in giving feedback on this side of things for other users, there will definitely always be some who are looking for this specific info. And I didn't mean to criticise you when I said what I did, look at my choice of the word "initially". I was only trying to coax you into giving the more general info on how you found the GM40D with speakers as well.

Your description of the Gain point is well made now. I get what you mean when you say "tighter and more structured", though with my tastes I would also like to see something like "rounded and creamy" able to be dialled in too. My own view, having been a H&K user for some time now, (in through TM36, on to GM36 and out again), and having had a couple of informal technical conversations with H&K support is definitely that the design brief was for an amp voiced for high gain metal and the idea of using it for my more classic "grandad rock" ( ) was not a priority. It came in with the development of the GM40D when they found a bevvy of people complaining that they didn't do that aspect particularly well. (There were a good number of posts on their Faecesbook page about that very issue and a lot of comments under some of the reviews.) The GM40D was tweaked so they could say it suited older styles as well.

All very interesting to me and please, make no mistake, your feedback is very relevant, very interesting and most welcome.

Maybe I am not an average owner, then, but I've been using the redbox out for both gigging and playing at home with my TM36. In fact, I haven't even once miced the cab.
At home is just really convenient when you need to keep levels down. I really love the clean channel with the master at full, which is somenthing I can't normally do at home even in the 1 watt setting (which to me sounds a bit fizzy, anyway).

Bordonbert, again, I don't disagree with you that right now there is no doubt that the majority of players fit the profile and needs that you're describing. And it will be no surprise if the majority are always that way. However, I also have reason to believe that there is a new home recording explosion in progress, with quickly growing numbers of players who want to output their sound to their own DAW or mixing gear, and that the wise amp manufacturers must take notice or be left in the dust by things like Axe-FX, Amplitube, etc. I admit that my perception of this "scene" is surely biased since I'm in it.

The truth is that this very thing brought me out of years away from the guitar. Through high school and university I played with friends and cover bands, doing Metallica and Megadeth covers and the like, but slowly fell into the depravity of... computers and video games...! My career ended up following that path, and for years, my guitars slowly collected dust. All amps but a JC120 were sold. A few years later, I picked up a Boss GT6, and all the sounds and tweakability satisfied my noodling needs, but my playing still stagnated. Fast forward to about five years ago, and I somehow came across the world of home recording through USB audio interfaces and inexpensive DAWs. Suddenly, I had the desire to not only record guitar covers of various things but to also start working on my own music. The convenience of amp sims and modelers in a situation like this is unmatched, but after a while, I started wondering what it would feel like to switch back to a tube amp. The timing turned out to be right, for there are now several excellent reactive load box options and amps like the Grandmeister with very usable DIs and loads built right in. The TM18 was my first dip back into tube amps, and I was really struck by how much more fun I was having playing through an amp aimed into the box rather than a sim--even though I'm very experienced with sims and low latency configuration, and even though I'm perfectly capable of getting nice tones through both real and virtual gear. I can't put my finger on exactly what it is about a real tube amp, but for me, it's there, and thus I am back on the old amp quest.

Anyhow, over this period, I have encountered many (usually much younger) musicians online who have filled the sad lack of such people in my life lately. I would say that these younger guys and girls seem as interested in recording something direct and putting it on soundcloud and youtube as they are taking it on stage. Apologies for the long-winded post and life story, but maybe it will offer some background and evidence of the new home scene.

Again, I do not mean in any way to underestimate or downplay the overwhelming majority of musicians who play direct through an amp+speaker setup or mic it and may never even touch something like the redbox out. But as one of the "home" enthusiasts, I am excited and of the belief that cases like me will only become more common as time marches on. This may have its good and bad aspects, but that's a whole other conversation. If it is ultimately shaking more sad sacks like me out of their stupor and making them creative again, then what a boon for humanity.

By the way, I'd give you my impressions of different speakers if only I had them. I've only had the amp hooked up to a Recto 4x12 so far, which I did not like. Something too flabby and open for my ears. All of my playing at home is through Reaper, through a plugin called NadIR, which loads my collection of impulse responses.

Now that's a response I have to take my hat off to.

No need to apologise to me for a long post.  As the site "scribe of the tome", (some would say "never uses one word when forty can do"), I'm at least one who understands how putting together sentences to make paragraphs expands the breadth and clarity of what you say way beyond a twin-thumbed pseudo-tweet which is so terse it then needs four more posts to explain.  Your musical background is genuinely of great interest to hear as so much of it matches my own.

And your point about planning and implementing for the future is a good one which I simply had not considered.  I think you are absolutely on the ball in that the availability of decent audio mastering software and cheaper quality interfaces is opening up a new approach.  I am aware that this is proving to be very attractive to younger players, I just had not thought of it as a substitute to their playing live and with others.  I had only considered it an extension of their collective activities for the most part. I guess not being a writer/composer myself also limits my view of things in that way.  I do play around with a little recording, (SE2200a/Lexicon Lambda/Audacity, that's how up to date I am ), but it's very rare and I always simply plug the guitar directly into the interface, I never go through the amp and then on in.  It's simply sheer laziness in setting up!  I shouldn't let my own limitations obscure the possibilities for this sort of stuff to take off.

So point definitely made and conceded, I can see the relevance of the Redbox reviewing in the bigger picture for the future. I think it is a little sad that more people will perhaps go down the route of making music as individuals and not as ensembles, (or as we used to call them - bands  ).  Who knows, perhaps it will kick off a healthy rise in that side too as they all come to see themselves as a lonely person locked in the gloom in a little room in front of their monitor all day.  No hang on a minute, can't be right, that's somewhat like I'm doing I guess.  

 Errrm. The prosecution withdraws the charges m'lud.

Hah, thanks and no worries--I didn't feel like I was on the stand. I certainly could have been clearer in the first place.

Totally agree with you about solitary music. I certainly wish I had more time and an environment where I could jam with others more often, but at least there's still a cool creative outlet with all of the easy access to affordable AND powerful gear these days.