Engl E530 Settings and Misc

[grants]

I recently acquired an Engl E530 and was psyched out of my mind to receive it, only to be (I think??) disappointed.

Here is the deal; this amp seems like a very hissy amp on the high gain stuff. Even more so the more you crank the high mids and the treble. I'm assuming this is the case for all of the E530's and is not exclusive to mine. However, this is my issue:

I currently do not have a power amp, so I've been using the headphones jack and jamming through that. Point is, I don't like the tone at all. It sounds like a tight version of a BOSS DS-1. The low B on my 7 doesn't even distort much unless I have the gain at 7 O'clock +. What I'm wondering is if the tone sucks simply because I am using the headphones, and whether or not it would get better in quality if I were to run it through a power amp (don't worry guys... I'm an all tube d00d.)

Also, how many of you guys have your E530's boosted and with what?

And one last question: for all you metal heads.. what are your E530 settings?

 

[asmegin_slayer]

One of my buddies has the thing, I heard/played it personally, and imo its a good preamp... We ran it through a Mesa Power amp and it sounded great!

Here is an unmastered recording of the E530..
Ruin The Rival on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Videos

 

[grants]

I just ran the ENGL through a Marshall JTM45 and got some pretty fantastic tones out of it. I guess it is actually due to the headphones jack that it sounded sucky; I am very glad!

 

[raximkoron]

Yeah, the headphone amp does not do that pre justice. I have some damned good headphones I throw on it (Grado SR80's) and it doesn't sound wonderful no matter what settings I give it. Sending it through a power amp into a guitar cab though, the thing slays.

On High-gain Lead settings, I get devastating distorted tones with the gain set just to 10 'o clock.

 

[Fionn]

i got mine gain at 12 o clock boosted with a od808 bass about 3 oclock low mids 11oclock hi mid and treble at 2 oclock nice mildly scooped rhy sound kick in the contour button and BAM shred central!!! oh with the hi gain mode engaged too.