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Good alternative to a Noble?
- Thread starter MisterrMisterr
- Start date
I was thinking of this video. Obviously, the $22 Pyle sounds awful, but the zillion dollar Noble doesn't sound notably better than other, much cheaper options.
I should add, though, that Philip's tone choices are wildly different to my own. He very much goes for the 1960s vibe, and I am after a modern tone. Of the units he compared, the Radial JDI was my favorite, the REDDI second, the ZOD third, and the Noble fourth.
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As one who’s waiting for a noble and just received a khan vtdi and played with it live today… the noble is going to have to be 2x better or I’m going to sell it and buy another khan vtdi cuz it’s that good.
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the JDI was my favorite surprisingly.
I have watched this video so many times. I almost bought the jdi and may still but I am pretty happy with the sushi box finally. It certainly confirmed to me that dropping big money on those boxes is not necessary
The JDI was my clear favorite as well. Good tone isn't a mystery and that DI has the right components to get it done.
I'd try it with two pedals:
Effectrode LA-1A. This is a compressor, but it also manages to add that very special sound enrichment that high class tube gear tends to get you. It also has a high quality balanced out.
Origin Effects DCX Bass. This is a preamp/drive pedal that has a very usable two band EQ.
This should get into the ballpark of the Noble.
Both pedals will cost a bit more than half of a Noble, plus they should be relatively easy to obtain.
Effectrode LA-1A. This is a compressor, but it also manages to add that very special sound enrichment that high class tube gear tends to get you. It also has a high quality balanced out.
Origin Effects DCX Bass. This is a preamp/drive pedal that has a very usable two band EQ.
This should get into the ballpark of the Noble.
Both pedals will cost a bit more than half of a Noble, plus they should be relatively easy to obtain.
I’ve owned the Noble twice before. I didn’t care much for the EQ section and I didn’t need a power supply for pedals so I decided to get a Khan. I feel like the Khan sounds very very similar to the Noble set flat and for a fraction of the price.
As great as some of these DIs are I can't really compare a straight DI like a Khan or Radial to a preamp/DI a Noble. The preamp component is too important to me. There are some boxes I like as much as the Noble like the Monique and Tonecraft but no preamp/DI in that league I know about less money than the Noble except for the Arkham Oracle. I was impressed by that one and even more impressed he's doing it for $600. It's also about the same size as the Noble and that compact form factor is appealing too.
Run a high quality preamp before the Radial JDI and you'll meet the same level of quality. Something as simple as the Broughton Audio SV-Pre into the JDI is exquisite.
It (Oracle) is about to be more compact!
Any more info?
Only if you want a power supply that isn't isolated. IMHO it won't replace my Cioks, or even Voodoo Labs, as they are both isolated power supplies. Making it not-isolated, IMHO, is a big drawback as it means you are paying for a feature you possibly will never use.
From the Noble website:
The built in power supply for me is actually a drawback to the design. I much prefer having those components separate.
I have been waiting for my Noble to arrive and, hopefully, it will be here at the end of this month. In the meantime, I have been using an Effectrode LA-1A as my preamp/compressor. This is possibly the purest, most open bass tone I have ever enjoyed. Truly. Plugged it in and sat there playing and I was totally blown away. The warm, woody sound, but also totally unforgiving haha! Passive bass with Lollar pickup into Effectrode LA-1A into Baby Sumo. Just delicious! The Noble will have to be *really special* to sound better than this!
It is funny, because many people chose the Radial and Noble. Really driving home how minuscule the differences are in reality. Yet you are looking at about $1000 price difference here.
Also, the test should have been all clean sounds, having a few with some grit in there throws off the test completely (IMHO). Ampeg should have been clean, no scrambler and so on.
Here's another little comparison from Tim Lefebvre, even just the difference between the Capo and Noble - though noble has mentioned in the comments it wasn't set flat - the differences int he end product are slim.
I truly think there is a hell of a lot of confirmation bias going on when it comes to the noble. Loads of hype, long delay to get the product, and people not willing to admit that after all that money and time there are many other products that will do exactly the same thing for 1/4 of the price. Anyone listening in a mix won't know the difference. But after waiting 10+ months and dropping $1200-1500 bucks on a product, many people just can't come to the conclusion that the wait was for very little improvement - especially with all the new technology coming out regularly, some tube, some tube emulated - all get you there.
If its about "feeling good using the gear makes me play better" kinda line, that does come into play, but can be used to argue anything, from paying $4000 for a Fender, or any other piece of expensive equipment.
I mean does it play the same way with a car? eg: I bought a 200,000k car because driving it makes me feel better, so I must drive better. I feel better using a 5k computer, as opposed to a 1k computer, so I must be more productive?
I do get it, having something nice and shiny that is scarce, you paid a lot for and waited a long time to get, does give your impression a sparkle and make you feel good. But in the end, is it worth it, can people hear the difference? Is it simply confirmation bias? If you were playing and had your noble there, but unbeknown to you someone disconnected it and plugged it into a a Bassrig or Ampeg SGT, or SushiBox, would you really notice the difference and lose that "great feeling whilst playing".
I'm not too sure myself, which is why i'd love to see more real direct comparisons with some of the newer products like the Bassrig, Ampeg-SGT, Darkglass, Sushi-Box, Sansamp etc. I'd love to see a review really look into how tube emulation pedals do emulating a tube pedal. Not all running flat, get a baseline with the noble if it is the gold standard at whatever settings you want, then get the other pedals to go as close as possible to that sound. Then do a blind shootout. Not some with grit, some clean and so on.
Now I could be looking at this all wrong, but thats what i've come to so far.
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