another CLR user

adam

Inspired
hey fractal peep's,

i just wanted to drop a quick note regarding my experience with the CLR.

UPS brought a thrashed box to my door last week. i worked for UPS many years ago, and sadly, this is not a surprise.

i thought i had an issue with my LED's and emailed Tom, who called me in a couple of minutes. quick word on tom; i own the FRFR and the 112-50 reactor, and typically whenever i had an issue, it was pretty easy to get in touch with tom, who has always been helpful, friendly and quite generous. i love doing business with folks like this.

anyway, i'm not gonna do a scientific review of the CLR, cause i'm just not qualified to do so, and there's a lot of folks around here that are very qualified (i.e. scott!)

i'll just say that i've been playing the CLR since last week. mostly in my apartment studio, so at moderate (and even low) levels. my hands hurt, cause i can hardly stop myself. it's hard to explain, but it's so flat, yet somehow sounds/feels so good. my patches, which are usually set up on my tannoy monitors (which very much need replacing) and my atomic FR, translate very well, but i can easily hear where they need to be tweaked. there's so much detail coming out of the CLR.

i had my first rehearsal this weekend, and it worked beautifully. i just kept it in wedge position and it filled the room, which includes a loud drummer. every sound i tried really cut through, without cutting my face off. i use a lot of sound-designy patches, which have a lot of range and detail, including some very rude dubstep filter patches. i also used clean tones (fender/AC), bluesy tones, and some large, metal tones (herbie, diezel, 5153, and marshall), all of which were really effective at a high volume.

my drummer, who's also a professional engineer (and has been playing with me since my line 6 days) couldn't get over how wide, clean and nonabrasive the dispersion is on the cab. he's been sitting in direct aim of my atomic FR for some time, so this was a surprise to him (again, i use some obnoxious sounds). i even ran my obligatory van halen and metallica riffs for fun, and was pleasantly surprised at how big and wide everything is sounding. i never totally bonded with the FRFR. i've used it in many situations, mostly to good effect, but conversely loved the CLR right out of the box.

it's also worth mentioning that it's a bit unforgiving, in that what goes in (sounds, playing) is what's coming out.

i have my first gig (an improv gig on haight in san fran) next week, so i'm excited to have that experience.

anyway, to sum up, this thing is killin' and i'm really enjoying the experience. oh, and i love the look of the thing. awesome product!

cheers,

adam
 
Very cool!, 'Im guessing that we are only going to hear more good reviews of this cab as time goes on.
 
hey fractal peep's,

i just wanted to drop a quick note regarding my experience with the CLR.

UPS brought a thrashed box to my door last week. i worked for UPS many years ago, and sadly, this is not a surprise.

i thought i had an issue with my LED's and emailed Tom, who called me in a couple of minutes. quick word on tom; i own the FRFR and the 112-50 reactor, and typically whenever i had an issue, it was pretty easy to get in touch with tom, who has always been helpful, friendly and quite generous. i love doing business with folks like this.

anyway, i'm not gonna do a scientific review of the CLR, cause i'm just not qualified to do so, and there's a lot of folks around here that are very qualified (i.e. scott!)

i'll just say that i've been playing the CLR since last week. mostly in my apartment studio, so at moderate (and even low) levels. my hands hurt, cause i can hardly stop myself. it's hard to explain, but it's so flat, yet somehow sounds/feels so good. my patches, which are usually set up on my tannoy monitors (which very much need replacing) and my atomic FR, translate very well, but i can easily hear where they need to be tweaked. there's so much detail coming out of the CLR.

i had my first rehearsal this weekend, and it worked beautifully. i just kept it in wedge position and it filled the room, which includes a loud drummer. every sound i tried really cut through, without cutting my face off. i use a lot of sound-designy patches, which have a lot of range and detail, including some very rude dubstep filter patches. i also used clean tones (fender/AC), bluesy tones, and some large, metal tones (herbie, diezel, 5153, and marshall), all of which were really effective at a high volume.

my drummer, who's also a professional engineer (and has been playing with me since my line 6 days) couldn't get over how wide, clean and nonabrasive the dispersion is on the cab. he's been sitting in direct aim of my atomic FR for some time, so this was a surprise to him (again, i use some obnoxious sounds). i even ran my obligatory van halen and metallica riffs for fun, and was pleasantly surprised at how big and wide everything is sounding. i never totally bonded with the FRFR. i've used it in many situations, mostly to good effect, but conversely loved the CLR right out of the box.

it's also worth mentioning that it's a bit unforgiving, in that what goes in (sounds, playing) is what's coming out.

i have my first gig (an improv gig on haight in san fran) next week, so i'm excited to have that experience.

anyway, to sum up, this thing is killin' and i'm really enjoying the experience. oh, and i love the look of the thing. awesome product!

cheers,

adam

You right about about it being unforgiving
The first 2 days with my CLR's made me sound like I just started playing
and now after a week , I think my playing has improved more than it has in a long time.
They are amazing speakers!! but brutally honest and thats a good thing
 
You right about about it being unforgiving
The first 2 days with my CLR's made me sound like I just started playing
and now after a week , I think my playing has improved more than it has in a long time.
They are amazing speakers!! but brutally honest and thats a good thing

Agreed.

You cannot hide behind any mush... because there is no mush with the CLR.

OP: good review.

All in all, these CLR speakers are IMHO, damn good and worth getting excited over. They are doing the job. I have 3 rehearsals this week and a 4 set gig on Friday night - then P&W on Sunday. So far... damn good stuff.

I've found I can turn down yet still hear it better. It's been a bit startling like that - clarity is the perfect word here. Everything is just 'there' with no hype or mush at all.
 
I found a similar issue with my RCf it's a lot more unforgiving than a "regular guitar cab thru a tube power amp) is.
glad to see no bad reviews of these things yet.
More win for us :)
 
Forgot to mention I tried JamUp Pro on my Ipad2 through the clr and was very impressed, It sounded great! you could easily use for rehearsal or back up at gigs, hell even as very lightweight rig. Airturn BT105 silent footswitch is compatible and used as a footswitch making it completely usable as a rig.
 
You right about about it being unforgiving
The first 2 days with my CLR's made me sound like I just started playing
and now after a week , I think my playing has improved more than it has in a long time.
They are amazing speakers!! but brutally honest and thats a good thing


It's funny; I really noticed this as well. I'm hearing--more than ever before--all the notes (and other noises) that I'm NOT supposed to be producing. Humbling. I already sounded like a beginner. Don't know what to call it now. :)

But in truth it's made me pay more attention to doing a better job muting unwanted strings. I wasn't sure the CLR would really sound appreciably better than my Atomic Reactor, but it does.
 
Sometimes mush is a good thing.... Like the way a Marshall sounds through greenbacks is a good kind of mush...
Does the CLR do a good JTM into a greenback kind of thing?
 
Sometimes mush is a good thing.... Like the way a Marshall sounds through greenbacks is a good kind of mush...
Does the CLR do a good JTM into a greenback kind of thing?

In terms of a modeler, that off the mark to me.

I want the mush to come from the modeler and the FRFR speaker system to change it as little as possible.

This: modeler with juicy mushy Marshall preset -> neutral speaker system =========> eargasm for audience and band!

Not: modeler with juicy mushy Marshall preset -> more mush speaker system ======> bored MILFs leaving the club in droves!
 
i hadn't tried a JTM through greenbacks, but i do have a number of fender presets, and they sounded just like the amp was in the room, minus the buzz!
 
Forgot to mention I tried JamUp Pro on my Ipad2 through the clr and was very impressed, It sounded great! you could easily use for rehearsal or back up at gigs, hell even as very lightweight rig. Airturn BT105 silent footswitch is compatible and used as a footswitch making it completely usable as a rig.

Hey BD,

How does the CLR compare to your VTC Pro Audio - C4?
 
Hey BD,

How does the CLR compare to your VTC Pro Audio - C4?

Im no expert but the VTC sounded really good. They were much more like amp and cab configuration but clearer, they moved some serious air. were They were not as CLeaR as the CLR and the dispersion angle was alot less.
I ended up getting rid of them and my matrix gt800 because I wanted to use the speakers for PA as well , I was just about to buy another power amp for use as PA when the announcement came out that CLR were ready to ship so I did the math and decided it was cheaper to sell everything off and save a few bucks and pounds. I also have a pretty bad GAS problem as well LOL. But for Bass and Guitar the VTC's were definatly better than amp and cab.I would have like to see what they would have sounded like with some more watts pumping through them.
 
In terms of a modeler, that off the mark to me.

I want the mush to come from the modeler and the FRFR speaker system to change it as little as possible.

This: modeler with juicy mushy Marshall preset -> neutral speaker system =========> eargasm for audience and band!

Not: modeler with juicy mushy Marshall preset -> more mush speaker system ======> bored MILFs leaving the club in droves!

I guess I did a bad job of explaining myself.
I don't mean to ask if the CLR itself can get mushy in a good way but rather when using an IR of a speaker that has a good bit of desirable inherent character/breakup does the CLR stay out of the way a lot better than other high end FRFR's do?

I know, that's kind of a round about way of simply asking ' Is the CLR good'? But the reason I'm trying to highlight the greenback kind of sound is that's where even the best FRFR's seem to struggle the most for me. Where the guitar speaker/cab is responsible for some really musical sounding breakup or smearing of the distortion/overdrive.
It's as if there is an unwanted articulate-ness mixed in with the otherwise fair replication of that speaker character. I'm guessing its a crossover issue but totally uneducated in that guess.

The AxeFxII is so darn good at the amp and cab modeling and FRFR cabs or monitors have always been a bit of a mixed bag that can't live up to the potential of the AxeFx so I kept going back to power amps and guitar cabs. Now I'm without an AxeFx and hoping the CLR will be so good I rationalize getting another one.
I guess I'm hoping for some of you guys who's previous reviews have steered me in the right direction before to really start gushing like schoolboys after your first sexual encounter so I'll know a new world has opened up to us, not just an incremental improvement.
 
IMHO thus far, the CLR is a remarkable FRFR. It's far exceeding what I expected. IMHO - it's an extremely good and sonically transparent match for the Axe-FX II. I'm digging it.
 
when using an IR of a speaker that has a good bit of desirable inherent character/breakup does the CLR stay out of the way a lot better than other high end FRFR's do?
Hi Randombastage, in the end you'll be the only one who can decide this for yourself. What I can tell you, however, is that being transparent (or staying out of the way) is the foundation of what the CLR was built to achieve. So far, CLR owners including some of the posters in this thread are loving it for this exact reasons (amongst other things).:)

-TK
 
The CLR to my ears, is the best speaker system I have ever owned.

What you put in, you get out.

It makes it very easy to hear differences in IR's.

As to how much "better" or "worse" a particular IR played through the CLR would sound to *you*, I can't say.

I really like the CLR personally though. It is remarkable for the price.

Tom and Jay deserve some kudos for bringing this type of performance at the their price point. Astounded!
 
I am borrowing a CLR wedge for the weekend to test out (while I wait for my name to be called on the list and sell off some gear). I have an RCF that I love dearly, it really is an incredible PA monitor and everything sounds VERY good through it, but there is always this bit of "sheen" for back of a better word. I love my Adam A5 nearfields and the RCF seems like a much bigger, fuller, louder version of studio monitors which is awesome. Super detail, excellent stuff.
That being said the CLR to me just feels more truly flat, better dispersion (for me uses) and just simply sounds incredible for guitar work (currently using Kemper KPA and Zoom G3). It's astounding.
 
I am borrowing a CLR wedge for the weekend to test out (while I wait for my name to be called on the list and sell off some gear). I have an RCF that I love dearly, it really is an incredible PA monitor and everything sounds VERY good through it, but there is always this bit of "sheen" for back of a better word. I love my Adam A5 nearfields and the RCF seems like a much bigger, fuller, louder version of studio monitors which is awesome. Super detail, excellent stuff.
That being said the CLR to me just feels more truly flat, better dispersion (for me uses) and just simply sounds incredible for guitar work (currently using Kemper KPA and Zoom G3). It's astounding.

Looking forward to hearing more about your take on the CLR.
 
One thing for sure, these things get crazy loud. Whew. I can't imagine feeling under powered with two of these.
 
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