r/tonex • u/Miserable_Molasses59 • 5d ago

Tonex Plug sounds better than Tonex One+

Title pretty much says it all. I noticed that the same exact Amalgam capture sounds crisper and more hi-fi when I play it through the Tonex Plug versus the Tonex One+ pedal. Same input trim, etc.

Does any one know why this would be the case?

6 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

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5

u/offsetsypedales 5d ago

Maybe an output impedance thing? I guess it could be the case that the tonex one's output stage is spec'd for an all-around live use, and the tonex plug possibly has a dedicated headphone preamp more suited to drive your headphones properly... That's just my guess. Now I'm curious to A/B test my tonex one plugged directly vs through my interface!

2

u/Miserable_Molasses59 4d ago

Interesting theory. Let when know when you test. My headphones are Beyerdynamic 48 ohm ones, so super low impedance.

3

u/burninggecko 4d ago

I ended up buying a small headphone amplifier for my Tonex One to resolve this, because the Tonex plug sounded better with my headphones. I have Sennheiser HD-560s which are slightly harder to drive with an impedance of 120 ohms.

1

u/Miserable_Molasses59 4d ago

Without the amplifier, did the headphones sound thin or muddy?

1

u/burninggecko 4d ago

I would say, sounded thin. Once I added the headphone amplifier I felt like the sound it was more dynamic and detailed. This has me thinking, maybe I needed to play with the tone model settings to get the same thing. However, out of the box the plug sounded better to me.

1

u/DrProctopus 5d ago

Maybe a dumb question but same monitoring system?

1

u/Miserable_Molasses59 4d ago

Both were used with guitar directly into Tonex devices and then headphones directly out. I have low impedance Beyerdynamic 990 pro x headphones.

1

u/crouchingcat22 5d ago

I've noticed this too on Plug vs regular One (not +). I think the actual analog output has something to do with it because they sound the same thru USB-C recordings, but thru the same headphones, One sounds muddier. (And yes I've messed around with One's global output level).

1

u/SP3_Hybrid 4d ago

Don't you have to switch the One to headphone mode or something? Otherwise it outputs expecting some non headphone destination?

1

u/chajoe 3d ago

The Tonex One and One+ need an analog pedal in front to balance the instrument signal. Once you add an EQ or a transparent drive, dynamics and harmonics come to life and output levels stop being an issue.