The Captor I have is still the current model, 8 ohm. It is just like the X version without the IR loader. From what I have read it is the same reactive load across all of the Two Notes offering. Some models offer multiple ohms or exclude the attenuator part.
When I went for the Captor the ability to attenuate, run without an additional power cord, and technically offer a headphone option for the same price as the Suhr were selling points. But I did not realize how important the impedance curve piece was a year ago and would have done it differently in hindsight.
Gotcha. Yeah I am only just now taking a deeper dive into this impedance data. When I had a torpedo I primarily used it for attenuating, but remember being pretty unhappy with the DI and preferring the tone and workflow of the plugins. Perhaps that curve explains why.
So yeah, if a head-only capture is only going to be as good as the DI box, I would def like to see which ones come out on top / are recommended by neural or the 3rd party guys before I make any moves.
If you have not already done so, might want to check out some of the demo videos of people doing demos with the Axe Fx III swapping between impedance curves to get a good apples to apples sense of how much of an impact it can have on the overall tone and response of an amp. I am getting the same results switching between all of the options in the TAE. It is another powerful tone shaping tool at the end of the day. I think I might ballpark ~15% of the tone, post guitar output, coming from the impedance curve with the rest being about evenly split between the amp and IR.
Pretty sure I’ve read the Rock Crusher doesn’t have a realistic impedance curve either. The only two I know that have confirmed realistic impedance curves are the Suhr and Fractal. You don’t need real world use review with the Cortex or recommendations from Neural, both are proven reactive loads that do what they’re supposed to.
And much like how reactive loads are an important part of getting the amp sound right, fuzzes sound like they do cus of their impedance interaction with the guitar. Neural Capture would have to capture and/or replicate the input impedance of the fuzz for it to sound right, so I have my doubts.
Thanks, I appreciate that. I hadn’t read that about the rivera, will check that out.
I too have my doubts about capturing fuzz accurately, but only because it’s been asked a bunch of times in every social platform and at no point have I seen neural chime in. That’s one of my least used fx so i don’t have a horse in the race - but it would still be nice to see them comment on that officially.
Speaking of which, right about now would be a realllllllllllly nice time to get another Q&A session with doug to help clarify points like this. It’s been quite some time since the last one - which was chock full of ‘should’ points that i’d like to see updated and boiled down to ‘does’ and ‘does not’. We’re now weeks away but are in many ways still working with an amount of info appropriate for ‘months away’ perspective. Absent a spike in forum involvement, i think a session like that is appropriate at this point and would be widely appreciated.