Yamaha THR AMps anybody?

[Eric***]

I'm genuinely excited about this product and what it could do for me. But I do understand also that if your sole use for this amp is as a practice amp there are other better bang for buck options out there.

Your explanation makes sense, and I think I understand a bit better now. It seems like it's definitely a specific-use tool, kind of what you said about a desktop studio. I can see this either really succeeding (due to frustration from people about VST menu surfing and monitoring issues) or struggling to find a market (since a lot of people already have a lot of the stuff that this replaces). The latter point was why I didn't really understand the attraction. I don't feel like I have a very complete recording setup, but even I have some computer speakers, an audio interface, some headphones and a USB amp. When I've recorded, I've just monitored myself through the amp and the backing track either via headphones or my computer speakers. Then again, I wasn't trying to do it late at night so I never had to have all sources coming through just one listening device (i.e. headphones or amp).

BTW, I didn't mean to put down the THR or defend any other amps -- just trying to use a convenient example with the Mustang I. I know you probably realize that, but this is the internet (where people get worked up all of the time), so I figured it doesn't hurt to qualify my statements a little bit. Thanks for expanding on your thoughts a little bit.

[Lev]

BTW, I didn't mean to put down the THR or defend any other amps -- just trying to use a convenient example with the Mustang I. I know you probably realize that, but this is the internet (where people get worked up all of the time), so I figured it doesn't hurt to qualify my statements a little bit. Thanks for expanding on your thoughts a little bit.

I knew exactly where you were coming from Eric. I do have a reasonable recording setup at the moment also but my PC speakers crapped out on me a year ago and I never bothered replacing them because I was mostly using headphones while the kids were in bed (which started my monitoring frustrations with the Mustang). So I'm in the market for a good set of monitoring speakers anyway which justifies/offsets some of the cost of a THR. I also find that I get so little time to play these days that I don't want the hassle of trying to get the right sounds and then running cables between multiple devices. The THR just seems a bit cleaner in that regard. Time will tell I guess, I remember being very excited when I got my Mustang too but over time it's weaknesses (albeit minor) started to bother me more and more. We'll see how I get on with the Yamaha when I eventually order one.