Strymon Iridium

[Thom]

This just arrived...will give it a whirl later. Reviews seem good, worth a punt for £102.

[Mike]

Let me know how you go, it does look cool (and a lot more affordable!)

[Doog]

Nice one, let us know Thom; definitely looks to be a grand choice if you're happy for other pedals to act as your preamp.

[Mike]

Do you reckon you would be able to use something like the American Sound in front of it or would that sound bad if it's cab sim into cab sim?

Would this sound bad just plugging a guitar into it as a clean platform? I.e.would it be shit to test pedals with standalone?

[Doog]

Do you reckon you would be able to use something like the American Sound in front of it or would that sound bad if it's cab sim into cab sim?

Would this sound bad just plugging a guitar into it as a clean platform? I.e.would it be shit to test pedals with standalone?

I guess for testing purposes, going direct would be fine; you've got a Presence and Drive control (presumably some kind of power-amp distortion vibe), but I'm not sure I'd necessarily want to use it for regular playing like that.

Given that the speaker sim on those Character pedals is more of a mild EQ curve, I reckon it'd sound fine with the Joyo. As you've got so much control over the 'cab' and 'mics' on the NUX, and EQ on the Joyo, you'd surely fine something to suit.

[youtube][/youtube]
It really doesn't too bad with a drive pedal 'direct' tbh, very neutral as you'd expect

[Mike]

Interesting. It would be nice to have everything ‘on the bench, so I’m not crawling under the desk (hot) to turn on the wee squier and grab headphones etc

I’ll see what thom says!

[Thom]

Ok so I just had 20 mins on it before the kids get ready for bed, so this is very much first impressions and not much tweaking.

I did 2 things, firstly, guitar straight in with no pedals and headphones straight out:
- Bypassed it obviously sounded shit, but with amp and cab sim on, as a quick no hassle late night silent practice set up, it does the job.
- However, it was a bit noisy straight through like that, especially if you push the drive past noon.
- Bypassed I was also getting a high pitched whine, which might have been from daisy chaining it off my pedalboard.

Secondly, I powered it separately, went through my board and then into my interface (Focusrite Scarlett) and out of my desk speakers:
- Sounded way better, no high pitched whine, and generally quieter I thought. But, still, you get a bit of buzz if you are pushing the drive past noon with the master up.
- The drive is not high gain at all, but it does also depend on the amp mode. I would say that you get a decent amount of drive with the EL84, a bit less with the 6V6 and the EL34 has much more "headroom" and volume. I think it's best used as a clean platform.
- With low gain drives into it it sounded great (Bluesbreaker type and Blues Driver), didn't try anything higher gain.
- Mostly played the 6V6 mode and I thought it was pretty convincing. Didn't have time to tweak much, but with the Deluxe Reverb 1x12 or Bass 4x10 cab it sounded very Fendery.
- The cab sims I think are really good, they make significant sonic difference and for the ones I have experience of sounded pretty true to character.
- The mic position switch was subtle, but noticable, a nice EQ shift option to have.
- The mic sims also sound different, but I don't know enough about mics to say how realistic they are, I basically just stuck it on the SM57 setting.

Have not yet tried it into an amp, but I bought it as a recording tool and in that sense I *think* it's going to do a very good job of that.

Mike - take it with a pinch of salt as only played 20 mins, but I think it would be a good pedal testing platform, it seems neutral and the settings/controls are varied and subtle enough to find the base sound you need.

[Mike]

Thanks for the early and really detailed feedback Thom. I'll do some more reading and listening around too and get a feel for it.

I guess in an ideal world I'm wondering if it could replace Amy's old Squier practice amp which is acting as a glorified headphone amp after the American Sound when I test pedals/play quietly. So I wouldn't be keen to also power and plug in my Focusrite interface (though that makes me sound like a wanker), so if that was required that would be a shame.

I guess I'm wondering if:

Guitar -> American Sound -> Solid Studio -> Headphones

sounds gewd like a nice clean Fender amp, which I can then slot pedals into in front of the American Sound.

[Thom]

Yeah, I don’t see why that wouldn’t work, I’m not sure why it was noisier through headphones. I’ll have another play tomorrow and put some pedals in front of it through headphones when not daisy chained.

[Thom]

Actually just been reading a few threads about people doing exactly what you describe Mike, I.e. using a Joyo preamp with it, with good results.

[Mike]

Thanks mate!

[Thom]

Had another quick play and I'm still finding the headphone output a bit noisy. I mean it's not bad but it's not super quiet either, there's definitely background buzz. The guy in the demo Doog posted mentions ground buzz and it definitely feels like that. Seems more so through the headphones, I guess by their nature. I don't have an isolated power supply - still using the old Diago Powerstation, so not sure whether that could help. The sounds themselves I'm really liking. Stuck a few different drive pedals in front of it and it was great.

[Mike]

That’s a shame - grounding buZz should only really be an issue with the DI output and on higher priced stuff you often see a ground lift switch to avoid ground loop issues when your kit is not all sharing the same common ground

The headphone issue sounds separate - what headphones are you using and do you know their impedance? They definitely have a TRS connector (3 separate bands - tip ring and sleeve?)

Don’t know if it’s common to all units or an issue with your setup

Is it always obvious or only when for example you engage the amp or wind up the power amp drive?

[Thom]

Using the Focusrite headphones that came with the interface (hp60 mkiii), 32 ohms impedance and yeah definitely TRS. I meant to put earlier actually, that yes, it's only when you engage the power amp side of things, and only really when you wind up the drive level. I've done a few searches and can't see anything where others are complaining about it, so am thinking it's just the normal buzz that you'd get from having the gain turned up.

[Thom]

Watched a bunch more videos this morning, and thinking there's something going on with my setup - no obvious buzz or mention of it in any of the videos, either out to speakers or headphones...hmm...

[Doog]

Some pedals just don't seem to like being daisy-chained with others; is the noise there when it's running off the Diago alone?

[Thom]

Yeah something going on with my setup...plenty of comments about how quiet it is... Might be back to the power supply, not sure. Confusing specs, the manual says <240ma current draw, but on the bottom of the pedal it says it needs a 500ma power supply.

[Thom]

So pedals just don't seem to like being daisy-chained with others; is the noise there when it's running off the Diago alone?

Yeah still there, it's really odd. I tried it through the virtual battery too and it really didn't like that and shut itself off, but looking at the specs, that only delivers a max 120ma so makes sense.
Not heard of a pedal not liking too much current before, but could it be that? I think the Diago has 3000ma total.

[Mike]

no that's not a thing - pedals only draw what they require, they can't be given "too much" current.

[Thom]

That's what I thought, am a bit stumped, might be a dodgy pedal. Gone back to getting the high pitched whine when bypassed, clearly something not right.