2RU valve power amp recommendations??

Georgy

Georgy

Inspired
I've been on a 'sonic' journey (like most of you no doubt) and decided to try out my EVH 5153 50w with my Axe 2. I used the EVH as a power amp, nothing more - I used the Axe to do everything else. Man oh man did it sound good! It sounded really good! Every amp sim that I tried sounded damn good.

I then had one of those 'light bulb moments' and realized that different valve amps will 'colour' the tone with their own flavour and personality.. I used to have the Carvin TS100 which sounded completely lifeless, with no personality whatsoever. Ok, fair enough, when I had the Carvin TS100 a year ago, we weren't @ QUANTUM firmware then so things have developed since then. It was because of the Carvin that put me off going down the rack-mountable 2RU power amp path.. HOWEVER, after messing around with the EVH the other night and purely using it as a power amp, I was pleasantly blown away! To the point where I'm happy to sell my Bogner XTC!!

Hence, the beckoning question.. For those of you who do not really use FRFR but DO use a valve power amp with their Axe FX.. what do you use and why? Are some better than others? What should one look out for and what should one avoid? Ideally, something that will sit my 4RU rack would be ideal.. I'm open for suggestions and recommendations..

Thanks in advance guys :)

EDIT.. apologies if this question has now been asked for the 55th time!!
 
I am using a Fryette Power Station with a 2x12 cab and it's great. It's not too heavy, it adds tube warmth and feel with minimal tone coloration. A Fender sounds and feels like a Fender, a Marshall a Marshall, etc. I originally bought it to use in a wet/dry rig with a old Fender but since getting my AxeFx2, I have gone just straight Axe fx into the Fryette to a cab, the Axe has taken over my rig, haha.

A lot of guys favour the Matrix stuff on here for this purpose and I'm sure it's great too, I just bought the Fryette already and it sounds so great, I don't feel the need to explore any other options.
 
Steve73 said:
I am using a Fryette Power Station with a 2x12 cab and it's great. It's not too heavy, it adds tube warmth and feel with minimal tone coloration. A Fender sounds and feels like a Fender, a Marshall a Marshall, etc. I originally bought it to use in a wet/dry rig with a old Fender but since getting my AxeFx2, I have gone just straight Axe fx into the Fryette to a cab, the Axe has taken over my rig, haha.

A lot of guys favour the Matrix stuff on here for this purpose and I'm sure it's great too, I just bought the Fryette already and it sounds so great, I don't feel the need to explore any other options.
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Thanks Steve, I value your input. It's really good to know that the Fryette does that so well.

I've had all three of Matrix's 1RU power amps and they definitely work better with FRFR than normal cabs in my humble opinion. For this application, my plan is to use a valve 2RU power same as you.

Cheers boss!!
 
Hey Georgy I've been running FRFR for years and am just getting into 4x12 cabs for a different approach. The Fryette power station seems to be a good way to go from what I can see? Not sure on the price getting one to Australia as they're out of stock... I have a Matrix GT800 which I've always found to be plenty, but haven't really A/B'd with a valve power amp to hear what it is you guys seem to think is lacking! Anyway, I'm interested in this topic.
 
ninja9 said:
Hey Georgy I've been running FRFR for years and am just getting into 4x12 cabs for a different approach. The Fryette power station seems to be a good way to go from what I can see? Not sure on the price getting one to Australia as they're out of stock... I have a Matrix GT800 which I've always found to be plenty, but haven't really A/B'd with a valve power amp to hear what it is you guys seem to think is lacking! Anyway, I'm interested in this topic.
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Hey dude! Finally another Melbournian!

Whilst it comes across as though I'm knocking the Matrix stuff, I've found that it really suits FRFR applications better than 'normal' cabs. But hey, that's just my opinion, hey.. Mate would love to do that experiment one time with your gear.. PM me and we can work something out.. it'd be good to do some comparisons - I'm all for it. When I say it's lacking, to me, it's lacking in feel and maybe thump, or air-movement - call it what have you.. Then at the back of my mind, I know that there IS a difference between a solid state amp vs a valve amp.. it's called valves!! Lol! Horses for courses man..

That aside, I'm definitely keen to get some guidance and hopefully first-hand opinions on 2RU valve power amps.. I know that Fryette stuff is good if you can find it here in Oz.. but good luck with that!
 
I used an ENGL E850/100 before switching to Matrix. This is the sweetest tube power amp to use with Axe, IMO, as it has tons of clean headroom and, if needed, can make holes in walls. It has two 100W channels with 6L6GC tubes, we used one amp for two guitars. Or you can have one channel as backup. :) All other power amps I tried colored the sound too much, sounding great with preamps they were intended to be used with, but not universal enough to use with Axe FX.

As a matter of fact, I'd still use it now if it were just for the sound. Since I've gone the IEM route it doesn't matter that much what the cab on the stage produces, and most of the times I don't even use any, deciding on the spot if the venue can handle a cab on stage. For this use case, the weight of a tube amp is just too much.
 
I like my VHT 2/90/2 the best. I have a Mesa Dual rectifier 2/100 rack mount that is nice but its almost too powerful and thick! I had a Marshall EL34 100/100 but it was a little too problematic sometimes and didn't have the punch of the VHT. The VHT's are now Fryette. I have a Matrix GT1600 but its thin and week sounding compared my rack tube amps.
 
Georgy said:
I know that there IS a difference between a solid state amp vs a valve amp.. it's called valves!!
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It's called transconductance circuit vs voltage amplifier and various amounts of negative feedback, actually, and for whatever reason solid state amps are never made to resonate with guitar cabs, but no matter the reason, they indeed sound different, and that's by design.

If you want more of that tube amp feel with a solid state amp, you need to adjust settings on the Speaker page in AFX.
 
I get tube-like feeling with my Matrix.
It just need small adjusting with dyn Depth/Presence and speaker LRF otherwise it sounds thin as you describe.
 
Se7en said:
I get tube-like feeling with my Matrix.
It just need small adjusting with dyn Depth/Presence and speaker LRF otherwise it sounds thin as you describe.
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Man, this is encouraging.. Are you happy to provide a screen-shot of your speaker page??
 
Georgy said:
Man, this is encouraging.. Are you happy to provide a screen-shot of your speaker page??
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It won't help you. The major difference between solid state amps and tube amps (or, more precisely, voltage amps and transconductance amps, since solid state technology can be easily used to make a transconductance amp) is that the latter resonate with the speaker, thus boosting some frequencies. Those frequencies are specific to particular cabinets. If there is a mismatch, the sound will be dull, thin and sort of lifeless. So you need to experiment by adjusting the low and high resonance frequencies on the speaker page while connected to your cabinet.
 
vangrieg said:
It won't help you. The major difference between solid state amps and tube amps (or, more precisely, voltage amps and transconductance amps, since solid state technology can be easily used to make a transconductance amp) is that the latter resonate with the speaker, thus boosting some frequencies. Those frequencies are specific to particular cabinets. If there is a mismatch, the sound will be dull, thin and sort of lifeless. So you need to experiment by adjusting the low and high resonance frequencies on the speaker page while connected to your cabinet.
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I hear you.. I wasn't going to use it with a valve amp.. I've got a friend's solid state Behringer power amp that I was going to use for this experiment..
 
Georgy said:
I hear you.. I wasn't going to use it with a valve amp.. I've got a friend's solid state Behringer power amp that I was going to use for this experiment..
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You don't need it for tube amps, tube amps are "automatic" with regard to speaker resonances, they don't dampen them. Solid state amps do, and the Speaker tab is there to compensate for this. BUT those settings are specific to each cabinet, that's the point. Someone else's Speaker tab will look the same as default, but the numbers will be different. You need to find the right numbers for YOUR cab. Using someone else's numbers won't help. Only by coincidence.
 
Hey Georgy. I though you had gone down the 4CM route. Are you changing things up a bit and dumping that model of operation ?
 
mmpete said:
Hey Georgy. I though you had gone down the 4CM route. Are you changing things up a bit and dumping that model of operation ?
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Are you unhappy with your Friedman ASM monitor and Frfr? Im just curious, if you're like me you want to try every possible option with your Axe lol
 
mmpete said:
Hey Georgy. I though you had gone down the 4CM route. Are you changing things up a bit and dumping that model of operation ?
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Hi Pete,

No no, i'm still staying with 4CM, but did some 'experimenting' the other night with a mate and we discovered that my 5153 50w actually makes for a great power amp! It's got great thump, great kick, and huge presence (not treble/presence, just SOUND presence) and it sounded damn good.

I started rubbing chin wondering and thinking how cool and easy it would be to have a great 2RU power amp that will sit inside my 4RU rack, right next to my Axe 2.. Definitely NOT dumping that model of operation, just 'experimenting'!! Lol
 
Reet said:
Are you unhappy with your Friedman ASM monitor and Frfr? I'm just curious, if you're like me you want to try every possible option with your Axe lol
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Hey Reet.. When you're a greedy little piggy like I am, I like to be able to alternate between using FRFR and going the 'old fashioned way' of using my amp as a power amp and using the Axe for it's infinite amp sims. :D I chop and change, depending on what I want to do. Because I used my 5153 50w the other night as a power amp, and because it sounded ridiculously good, I've started the knee-jerk, shoot from the hip reaction to see what decent 2RU valve power amps there are out there, and what experiences people have had with them. I'm just like you man; I wanna have every possible option under the sun! Whether I use them all is a different story lol!!

I love my ASM and that will stay with me for a very long time!
 
vangrieg said:
Keep in mind that such a beast can add like 20 kg of weight to your rack. :D
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I know I know I know... That's what's doing my head in!!!! Arrgh!!!

And that's why it could be better to just continue using the EVH as the power section, OR, I can use it in 4CM as well - either or will work either way.

At the end of the day, ultimately I think we're all kinda happy to pay a little extra for convenience.. not having to lug around an excessively heavy rack, or having a small but efficient rig is always gonna be appealing to most players put there... unless you're in a band called Metallica and you have full-time road crew doing EVERYTHING for you.. Last time I checked, I wasn't quite sharing the stage with James and Kirk!! lol.
 
Georgy said:
And that's why it could be better to just continue using the EVH as the power section, OR, I can use it in 4CM as well - either or will work either way.
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Well, if you're already carrying it and like the sound, why do you think you need an additional amp?
 
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