VOXVE-ME VALVENERGY - MYSTIC EDGE Effects Pedal

This is one of those "sound in your head" pedals that I was chasing after. It has that Vox AC 15 / 30 chime, cut and a harmonic richness that has to be heard. It's so good I'm buying a second one and am itching to try out the rest of the line. Now I understand why they showcased that "Link" switching function in the product demos... I wasn't planning on getting the others, aside from maybe the Copperhead, but I ordered the others today. It's that good.I'm a bedroom player / hobbyist and have been increasingly curious (and occasionally frustrated) by trying to figure out how "that sound" is achieved on an album or live. Of course a lot of it is down to pro mixing, production, quality signal chain / equipment and most importantly, the skill of great players. Still, it irked me that I couldn't get even close to some of those iconic guitar tones, especially certain crunch / distortion ones. I'm amazed at how much of a difference this little red box makes.I've started to tinker around with an interface and a DAW and am just getting into the world of cab sims and impulse responses (IRs). I had no idea that 30-50% of the "sound in my head" came from that end of the equation until recently. As fun as that is, I still want something "plug and play" that sounds great, hence wanting to build a pedalboard and being a bit overwhelmed by the thousands of pedals out there...I've never had a tube amp, so I can't say for certain if that mini-tube makes a huge difference. This does seem to match the technical description of why tube amps sound good, though -- emphasizing certain harmonic overtones over others. It sounds so good that I burned through the included 9V battery in the hour or two of runtime I got out of it right after I popped it in to test. I'm of the opinion that "if it sounds good, it is good" -- if it inspires getting lost in the sound and playing more, then it's worth its weight in gold. (Bonus if it means I buy less pedals in the future and sell off the others I got while searching for sounds like this.)I've been playing it through a digitally modeled practice amp - a Boss JS-10 with a darker neutral-ish clean amp -- think JC-120 or Fender with warm low end -- and it sounds great. The "standard" switch mode is pretty basic and not as clear, chimey, and defined -- probably due to the amp sim I'm using or the signal chain. Perhaps that's for people who want a tube powered stomp distortion / boost with a similar flavour. The "cab" switch mode sounds fine, but seems more like an emergency / fallback option if playing live and something blows up. Cool feature, but to my ears, it's all about the pre-amp mode.Flipping over to the pre-amp mode is like lifting a blanket off the speakers. I can hear all the nuances in my picking attack / muting and less than ideal technique. :) IMHO the pre-amp mode is the main selling point of this series, with the other features being useful bonuses or options. I don't know that I'd even want an AC 15 / 30 now, as this gets me 85 - 95% of the way there (to my ears) with more flexibility in a compact form factor for a fraction of the cost. I don't know how durable it'll be in the long run, but the casing seems solid and the knobs / switches are good. It's likely nowhere near as bombproof as a Boss pedal, but it looks like it'll stand up to a decent amount of abuse.The manual confused me, stating that it a 9V @ 600 mA power supply was recommended. I don't think I saw anything lower listed on the pedal itself either. I thought I needed to buy a special, harder to find power supply from McMaster-Carr or a similar quality supplier? Googled around a bunch and people mentioned a database hosted on the "Stinkfoot.se" website, which has the pedal listed at 95 mA current draw. Seems to run fine off a Boss PSA adapter, so I assume any reasonably decent power supply input will work just fine.