Question about Matrix power amps

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darkknight91

Inspired
Are there two different kinds of these, one made in UK and one in USA? There are two separate sites selling them. The USA site says made in America but the photos show UK made amps. Also, the US site amps are GTXXXXFX and the UK are XT800. I’m totally confused on these.
 
Matrix used to be based in the UK and they also used to manufacture their products in the UK too. They've moved their production to the US and sales too I do believe.
 
Iirc the ‘guitar power amps’ side of the business (GT models) is now in the USA with the founder, Andy, and the PA stuff (XT models) is still in the U.K. headed by Robin.
 
The XT and GT are different as far as I know. I don't know the details or why they need to be as I thought they are both meant to be flat response designs.
 
The GT and XT amps are different I thought? XT for PA and GT for guitar but in an Axe rig flat is flat.
 
Ah yes, I read that wrong. Indeed, XT and GT are different. XT is Pro Audio for PA systems. GT are for guitar players.
 
I used to pop down to the UK factory when Andy was over here. The GT whilst remaining tonally flat, was designed to replicate more of the feel of a guitar amp from a response perspective, i.e. more like valves, less like class d power amps, if that's even a thing. The XT I believe are a better suited to PA from a technical perspective.

I don't think either are mutually exclusive so it's down to the user preference.
 
xpenno said:
I used to pop down to the UK factory when Andy was over here. The GT whilst remaining tonally flat, was designed to replicate more of the feel of a guitar amp from a response perspective, i.e. more like valves, less like class d power amps, if that's even a thing. The XT I believe are a better suited to PA from a technical perspective.

I don't think either are mutually exclusive so it's down to the user preference.
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I wonder what that "feel" means?

Typically, it would be compression. But, only when they're over-driving.

How do you overdrive a 400-500W/side power amp into 4 Ohms worth of guitar speakers?
 
marsonic said:
I wonder what that "feel" means?

Typically, it would be compression. But, only when they're over-driving.

How do you overdrive a 400-500W/side power amp into 4 Ohms worth of guitar speakers?
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I don’t know how they determine that. I‘ve only seen the GT in people’s setups so thats the one I figured I want. I’ve never seen an XT. I was confused with the two different sites and models. I didn’t know if one was discontinued or what. The sites aren’t the most comprehensive so I thought I’d ask. Used ones don’t seem to pop up for sale very often.

Thanks for all the info, everyone.
 
I think they are still probably the best solid state amp for a passive speakers axe rig. I have a GT1000FX 2U and while I think the Fryette is marginally better at higher volumes I mostly play quite low and it works very well for this with the quiet fan in the 2U.
 
Andy Eagle said:
I think they are still probably the best solid state amp for a passive speakers axe rig.
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May I ask why?

I'm really, honestly curious.

I'm of the school of thought that all clean power amps sound basically the same, apart from some having restricted frequency range, as long as they're used with input signals that don't drive them nonlinear....pretty much unless they incorporate some circuitry that's intended to change the sound (e.g., tone stacks in guitar amps).

I've never been able to identify even wildly different power amps, so long as they were similar in noise performance, level matched, and operating linearly.....with the sole exception that some tube amps roll off their amplification response as you get up toward 20kHz.....which you can easily "match" with a low pass filter.

The reason I ask is that the thought has crossed my mind to use one outside of a guitar context just because the feature set seems good and they look cool.
 
Probably no such thing as perfectly flat frequency response, no matter how expensive and no matter what the claims of the manufacturer, just different shades of coloured. All the data sheets have that perfectly flat line for frequency response but those are shot using a resistive load. I’d love to see a technical comparison between some of the heavy hitters, with actual data, frequency response using a speaker load, etc.

If flat were really flat all studios would be using the same cheap studio monitors that boast 20-20 flat response.

What makes matrix successful is probably a combination of factors.

-They say it’s for use with Axe FX/other modeler, and most guitarists using modelers probably don’t know what they’re looking at when searching for a PA power amp.
-they use 1/4” combo connectors so you can use your instrument and speaker cables as usual, without banana plug or speakon adapters.
-they’re super light, my GT1000 is like 3lbs or something silly. I think I have pedals that weigh more.
-1000 watts is a huge amount of headroom.

Regarding sound, I also have an old 400 watt matrix PA power amp from the 90’s and they’re extremely close. Maybe slightly clearer high end on the GT, but hard to say for sure because of the time delay between swapping cables around. The GT is a lot lighter and smaller and way more headroom though. But about the same fan noise level.
 
Space Helicopter said:
Probably no such thing as perfectly flat frequency response, no matter how expensive and no matter what the claims of the manufacturer, just different shades of coloured. All the data sheets have that perfectly flat line for frequency response but those are shot using a resistive load. I’d love to see a technical comparison between some of the heavy hitters, with actual data, frequency response using a speaker load, etc.
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Unless I'm really mistaken, those differences arise from the speakers, not the amplifiers, apart from that low-pass filter thing from tubes.
 
yek said:
Ah yes, I read that wrong. Indeed, XT and GT are different. XT is Pro Audio for PA systems. GT are for guitar players.
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And what does this mean exactly, I wonder.

If frequency response is supposedly flat, how is a PA amp different from a "guitar" one?
 
vangrieg said:
And what does this mean exactly, I wonder.

If frequency response is supposedly flat, how is a PA amp different from a "guitar" one?
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I don't know. I think that Matrix designed guitar-oriented flat power amps for a reason, and they do sound good. I'm using one for my stage sound and love it.
 
yek said:
I don't know. I think that Matrix designed guitar-oriented flat power amps for a reason, and they do sound good. I'm using one for my stage sound and love it.
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I have a Matrix "guitar" amp, too, but never understood what they meant, if they actually meant anything aside from marketing the two products differently.

Possibly a PA amp has better cooling or something to that effect.
 
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