Buzzword Compliance: A Useless Feature Does Not Count as a Bullet Point

First, I want to be clear that this is the best-sounding amp I've ever played through. I Absolutely Love playing through it.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Sep02/articles/voxvalvetronix.asp

If you read the yellow sidebar on the above page, you will see that the "direct-out" feature of the amp is somewhat disappointing.

1. It Sounds worse than the speaker output. Not a desireable quality in a direct-out, but presumeably it serves to allow you to run the amp silently in a room with other instruments, thus avoiding leakage.

2. The speakers stay on when you use it, and there is no cut-off for the speakers, and no way to unplug them, so you can't do the above.

3. OK, undocumented fix: you can plug a set of headphones into the headphone jack, and that will shut off the speakers. BUT

4. Your headphones will blare away and get picked up by any mics in the room. So you have to CUT THE HEADPHONE WIRE.

But folks, that ain't Nothin'.

Let me show you what happens when you actually use the direct-out in a recording session (which is what a direct out is for.)

HOW CAN YOU SELL THIS AS AN AMP WITH DIRECT OUT??? (MP3)

And I repeat my new slogan:

I Am Not Your Friggin' Test Department.