adamqlw: Yup, that's why I said the Spider Valve was more akin to a Digital Pod into a full tube atomic reactor. I would say the concept of the Visual Sound Workhorse and Pony is very similar to the atomic reactor since they act as poweramps for whatever effects you're going to plug into it. However the Spider Valve is better in the regards that it has preamp tubes as well. So you have digital preamp into tube preamp (12AX7) into tube poweramp, kinda like digital effects into hybrid tube amps such as the Vox Valvetronix into a full tube amp. In my opinion then, the most important linkage would be at the point where the digital preamp and tube preamp interacts ie. how well the tube preamp can "tube-ify" the digital signal before sending it into the poweramp for final processing.
It is different from the real tube amps eg. JCM 800 that it is trying to emulate simply because, while it may have the preamp modelling section of the JCM 800, it just does not have the poweramp modelling of the JCM 800 since it has only one poweramp section by Bogner. So the difference will be there.
Let me quote a mini review from one of the members (Baba) of BAM.
"Let me start by saying this, a friend and I both only tried it for 5-10 minutes, but, we both pretty much have the same experience and ears, and both have owned a plethora of tube amps, SS amps, digital amps, rack gear, yada yada, both play in bands, and have been for almost 30 years. We only tried it for 5 minutes because we are both familiar with the Spider in and out, it's a pretty simple setup, and you can pretty much get the vibe of the amp very quickly. Having said that, we actually didn't want to play it more, it was a bit uninspiring, probably because he and I both play all tube amps.
It's not THAT bad. Actually, it's pretty good for it's price, seeing that nothing else out there does what it does, save for an H & K Switchblade, which costs a lot more. But "pretty good for it's price" does not always mean "pretty good". I personally don't like all the models of the Spider series, I would have liked Line 6 to do this with the Flextone series. We stayed pretty much on the clean models and the crunch models. Of course, the tones were much better than the digital version, and it sounded more "real", but I guess just not all the way "real", so I wouldn't put it up next to an all tube amp and expect it to sound/feel the same, it doesn't. It still has a tinge of that "blanket over my amp" sound to it, like there's something holding it back from breathing. It's MUCH MUCH less fizzy than the digital version, I will give it that.
Bottom line, it sounds/feels MUCH better than a digital Spider, but still (to our ears) sounds like you plugged a POD into an Atomic amp, which, isn't a bad thing necessarily, it depends on who you are and what you're into. The Switchblade I owned sounded and felt better, but again, they may go about it in a different way, and it's much more expensive."
To which a subsequent reply
"I think Baba put it very well, so I don't see the need to pour it on. If anything I think he's being generous."
For me personally, I think that the spider valve would be a great introduction into tube territory, much better so than the current hybrid amps we have in the market. The versatility it offers may well be worth the small loss in tone compared to the real deal - I mean how many in the audience actually care that it does not sound as good as the real deal as long as it sounds reasonably good, which it does in spades. I would gladly lug a single spider valve to a gig as opposed to bringing a Fender, Marshall, Vox and Mesa Boogie in order to just get that final 10% improvement in tone. For the pure tone conneisours out there, of course it would be a different story.
My final say: Wait for the *most likely upcoming* Vetta valve if there's no hurry to upgrade!
