The Super Champ XD surprises

ol man · January 17th, 2008, 08:24 AM

Tried out a SCXD in a shop today and
I have to questions:
How come it appears so relatively quiet?
I mean, it sounded perfectly alright but
was far from as loud as my old Rivera Super Champ.
Even my six watt SF Champ is as loud as th 15 watt XD.
I also noticed that some of the cleanish digital amp-modes
was louder than the nondigital channel. What´s up with that?
The speaker?

11 Gauge · January 17th, 2008, 09:29 AM

Just venturing a guess, but the voltages for the power tubes on the XD could be very different from the older Champs. Also, if the grid feed resistor is of a dramatically different value, this can cut down drive, as well.

Fender may have had to play with the power section dynamics due to the digital/SS preamp circuitry, as well, particularly with the digital, which must first convert the signal back to SS analog (which it had to convert to digital on the modelling chipset's input!), and second must have an output impedance that will work with tubes.

The output transformer could be a different design, as well.

I don't think it's the speaker - if anything, newer ones have gotten to be much more efficient. You could try swapping the new and old, and see what happens.

Unless we could put two schematics up side-by-side, or take the XD apart and measure component values (or see obvious differences in the circuit), we can only assume that they aren't similar, circuit-wise. Given the digital and AD/DA conversion process, we know that there are differences.

ol man · January 18th, 2008, 05:54 AM

I guess you´re right 11 gauge. The low volume was a little disapointing...
I´m no tech and I still don´t know if the clean channel really bypasses the digital domain or not.
And maybe that´s not important. Anyhow, to me any SF Fender in good condition
sounds better than these China-Fenders.
On the other hand, the XD sounds very very good for the money.
If I wanted a small amp for livingroom playing only I would go for the
Vibrochamp XD, just plain fun to mess around with all the different sounds.

January 17th, 2008, 08:24 AM	#1 (permalink)
ol man Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Sweden Posts: 242	The Super Champ XD surprises Tried out a SCXD in a shop today and I have to questions: How come it appears so relatively quiet? I mean, it sounded perfectly alright but was far from as loud as my old Rivera Super Champ. Even my six watt SF Champ is as loud as th 15 watt XD. I also noticed that some of the cleanish digital amp-modes was louder than the nondigital channel. What´s up with that? The speaker?

January 17th, 2008, 09:29 AM	#2 (permalink)
11 Gauge Friend of Leo's Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: The East Coast Posts: 3,000 10 Photos	Just venturing a guess, but the voltages for the power tubes on the XD could be very different from the older Champs. Also, if the grid feed resistor is of a dramatically different value, this can cut down drive, as well. Fender may have had to play with the power section dynamics due to the digital/SS preamp circuitry, as well, particularly with the digital, which must first convert the signal back to SS analog (which it had to convert to digital on the modelling chipset's input!), and second must have an output impedance that will work with tubes. The output transformer could be a different design, as well. I don't think it's the speaker - if anything, newer ones have gotten to be much more efficient. You could try swapping the new and old, and see what happens. Unless we could put two schematics up side-by-side, or take the XD apart and measure component values (or see obvious differences in the circuit), we can only assume that they aren't similar, circuit-wise. Given the digital and AD/DA conversion process, we know that there are differences. __________________

January 18th, 2008, 05:54 AM	#3 (permalink)
ol man Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Sweden Posts: 242	I guess you´re right 11 gauge. The low volume was a little disapointing... I´m no tech and I still don´t know if the clean channel really bypasses the digital domain or not. And maybe that´s not important. Anyhow, to me any SF Fender in good condition sounds better than these China-Fenders. On the other hand, the XD sounds very very good for the money. If I wanted a small amp for livingroom playing only I would go for the Vibrochamp XD, just plain fun to mess around with all the different sounds.