I honestly find both S Gear and A3 to be about equal in tone right now. I A/B them on every song record, have each in the FX bin and flip back and forth. Sometime one wins, sometimes the other, based more on how they sit in my song mix. I think so much depends on your guitar, your pickups, the height you set up your pickups, your playing style, the personal tone your looking for in a real amp, that it is really hard to say that one definitely beats out another. Tone is just too subjective.

I am hoping that the "feel" and cabinet simulations are improved. I feel that alone would be an upgrade. Hey, if the sound of the amps themselves improve....well that would be awesome. I like that they have added more Marshell tone. 😀

The only thing that bothers me is this "Hyper-Realistic" moniker! I would think that the legacy amps from 3 would have to be re-coded to sound and FEEL "Hyper" which leads to having to update ALL the amps available in Custom Shop. It seems to me that they need to be clearer about will there be a noticeable "Hyper-Realistic" sound of the old amps or are we just embellishing the old amps with the new cab features. IOW, the NEW amps and cabs sound "Hyper" and the legacy amps still FEEL the same!
I have a POD HD500 and though the sound is better than the old PODs, it's the controls to make the HD models FEEL like a tube amp that I was impressed with. I hope A4 is going to improve on 3 as far as that is concerned.

my issues with Amp4 coming out are many.
 
Amp4 doesn't add anything that I want.  the new Marshall amp sims are not licensed Marshall sims.  the only Amplitube licensed Marshall is the one in the Slash pack - I own that pack, it's good.  it's better than "meh" but to me it's just good.  if the new Amp4 amps were modeled so good why not go the extra mile and do the licensing to put the name on um.  fee's and licensing is a pain and expsensive but my 1st thought when I saw the Amp 4 announcement and psotings was - oh the new amps not good enough for the Marshall name?  why would they be good enough for me then?
 
less content then Amp3  a lot less.  that's okay I am an Amp 3 owner I can import all my gear.  but that imported gear is going to sound different in the new cabs etc and new engine.  not bad, hopefully, but I just KNOW that some of it is gunna be in the "meh" column.
 
no GOOD Vox clone or official Vox stuff.  the current AC30 clone amp sim available for Amp 3 sucks balls.  sorry it just sounded horrid.  why no love for the old legendary Vox sound?  the 60's sound of Vox?  come on.  go find The Edge from U2, sit him in a room and get him to let you use all his gear!  Sorry I like the Vox sound if ya didn't know that - all the sims out there have a real hard time with that Vox tube warm sound - I get it.  but nobody is investing time and resources into it.
 
with Amp 4 I just don't see the need or feel the need to upgrade currently.
 
Every day I go to the S-Gear page and almost hit BUY.  Maybe I should and just move on and let everybody else get on getting on.
 
maybe I am just missing something so fundamental about this whole guitar/sim/amp thing.  I am a Synth and sampler guy.  too much money invested in crap that the GAS is gone.

Maybe I'm mistaken but I thought we were going to be able to use our T-Racks stuff in Amplitube.

nothing about t-rack stuff in amplitube.  don't know where you got that impression but it has not been said.

Machine,
 
Next time you almost hit the S-Gear buy botton, go ahead and hit it. You will not be disappointed. It has a unique niche and a worthy tool in the arsenal.
 
And congrats on GAS being (almost) gone, although it can raise its ugly head any time. Passed this threshold somewhere awhile back also. Trying to do a 12 step program and avoid buying one plugin, one day at a time.
 
Understand your point about the amp sims, and why I was referencing HeadCase. The dev shared truth that there is no sim out there that can remotely replicate the real thing accurately. Too many variables and inferences beyond anything our technology can handle in 2015. Seal of approval from some company or not, the thing will fail if looking for an accurate revival of the hardware it claims to represent.
 
I deal with these Vox, Fender, Orange, Mesa clones as a possible starting point to find something useful, and forget the name as my first approach. Vox will not be a sorry Vox wanabe, but might be something useful with a bit of tweaking.
 
That said, one of my favorite opening pages is Amplitube 3, the Fender interface.
 
Once gain is applied to mimic overdrive, it falls apart predictable like they all do. However...
 
Open up the MXR comp in Amp 3, drive the "Fender" head below saturation (and back off the spring reverb). Set up the noise gate properly.
 
Use as a preamp into HeadCase, and this is about as far as we have come.
 
John

I thought I could use my $55 gear credits on the AT4 preorder but don't see how. Am I wrong in assuming that I can use them?
Anyone?
Michael

pentimentosound
I thought I could use my $55 gear credits on the AT4 preorder but don't see how. Am I wrong in assuming that I can use them?
Anyone?
Michael

You'd have to order from the Custom Shop to use your credits I believe...

cclarry
Just remember it has "Hyper-realistic Tone"...

Might need some "Digital Ritalin".

I hope the previous post was helpful.