S-Gear 2.5

I've heard lots of folks say this is the best Amp sim available. What say you all?

It's available for $99 at the Scuffham site.

It's the best one I've used, but I'm wearing a Scuffham T-shirt right now as I type! I may be biased.

And now TH3...

Still my go-to since it was released so a resounding 'Yes' from me.

clintmartin
All of these amp sims are getting pretty good. It's hard to go wrong these days.
I like Amplitube 4, but I don't think it's a huge improvement over A3.
TH3 probably won't be on sale for awhile since it just came out.
Right now S-Gear or Bias Amp Standard are the cheapest ones I guess.

If you buy TH2 from the Cake shop for $99 you get TH3...

(If you buy TH2 from the Cake shop for $99 you get TH3...)
Really? If that's true TH3 may be tempting.
 
From the other TH3 thread it would seem it's not playing nice with Sonar.

S Gear wins hands down for me when I play my Strat. I tend to lean towards A4 when playing my ES 335. I think a lot has to do with your rig. My Band mate gets excellent tones out of TH2. Therefore I would advise demoing them first.

I like the GUI on the new A4 the best of the SIMs I own and have tried.

I have a number of sims and S-Gear is the one I use the most.

My favorite by far, though I do use Kuassa Creme for metal/leads occasionally.

Thanks for all the feedback. Much appreciated.

I've got A4, G Rig 5 with Rig Control board, Pod Farm 2 with a XT Live, and TH2 full.

I have had good luck with it, but it takes an adjustment in thinking and listening. If you still have the demo installed I would suggest trying the clean Duke preset I made for my Strat.
http://www.scuffhamamps.com/forum/9-presets/7481-the-duke-clean
Finding the right IR and knowing it will never sound like an amp in the room...are key IMHO. You have to change your expectations to what the amp would sound like in another room, and your hearing the playback on studio monitors.
I also like the Fender collection in Amplitube for great clean tones.
This is just my opinion...I know you know what your doing Dave. Some people (like Batsbrew) insist on using real amps and mics. I probably would to if I had a good room where I could crank my amp up a bit and get the tubes hot and singing. For me...recording in a bedroom and keeping  peace with the wife. S-Gear has been the closest I've been able to find so far.
 

I've been looking at small studio amps over the past year, and it is actually possible to acquire one (that sounds good) for little more than the price of S-Gear. The main reason I haven't done so is that even if it sounds great, you're stuck with the sound of that one particular amplifier. I don't want to just do guitars with it; I want to do electric pianos, too. So I keep coming back to amp sims as the most practical solution.
 
Another observation is that I can make any sim sound OK, even Kontakt's built-in effects, playing low melodies. It's high notes that I have the most difficulty with.
 
I have used Amplitube and Guitar Rig and a bunch of freebies, and was never satisfied with any of them. Clint, I've heard some of the tunes you've posted and the guitars sound pretty good, and many fall within my target. Which of those are S-Gear? 
 
 
 

I was thinking in particular about your Santana tribute, which has some semi-clean high notes going on that I like, and especially Incognito's clean Strat-ish sound.

My finger twitched over the Buy button several times, but while I was mulling it over I found something else to blow my limited budget on. Ironically, it's a guitar library that could have used S-Gear I'm sure. Oh well, it'll have to be Guitar Rig until next Black Friday.

I own all the big ones and TH2 is by far my favorite. After that Guitar 5, then Positive Grid Bias/Amp FX, then S-Gear. YMMV