Jaded Faith
Well-known member
While doing testing this morning on my RM22 to determine if the Foglifter would be a worthwhile upgrade for this amp, something of interest crossed my mind. I often get inquiries about why the RM20 and RM22 don't sound the same as the bigger MTS amps with any given module. Sure, the EL84's are part of it. But the power supply is a bigger part of the equation that you may have never considered.
The RM22 provides 245V of B+ to the module when it's at rest. Palm muted chugging calls for an amp to deliver more than most other techniques. With a stock Mr Scary module in my RM22 the B+ drops from 245V down to 212V when palm muted chugging was run through it. That's a 14% drop in available voltage.
Now let's do a comparison with an RM4. The RM4 provides 310V at rest, as does the RM50 and RM100. Chugging caused 0% voltage drop.
MOD 50? The module was seeing 372V for a difference of 34-48%!
So the RM4 at rest provides 21% more voltage at rest and as much as 35% more under stress to the module. There is a huge variable in the equation with regards to the lack of punch and sounding as big as the other amps. When cranking the volume up on the Mr Scary to 3:00 or higher the amp can actually be pushed to cut off, which sounds terrible.
So there you have it: there's more to the tone difference than the small bottles alone.
The RM22 provides 245V of B+ to the module when it's at rest. Palm muted chugging calls for an amp to deliver more than most other techniques. With a stock Mr Scary module in my RM22 the B+ drops from 245V down to 212V when palm muted chugging was run through it. That's a 14% drop in available voltage.
Now let's do a comparison with an RM4. The RM4 provides 310V at rest, as does the RM50 and RM100. Chugging caused 0% voltage drop.
MOD 50? The module was seeing 372V for a difference of 34-48%!
So the RM4 at rest provides 21% more voltage at rest and as much as 35% more under stress to the module. There is a huge variable in the equation with regards to the lack of punch and sounding as big as the other amps. When cranking the volume up on the Mr Scary to 3:00 or higher the amp can actually be pushed to cut off, which sounds terrible.
So there you have it: there's more to the tone difference than the small bottles alone.