There is also the possibility that although it's quite popular here, that perhaps the Matrix power amps really don't sound as good as a ss power amp could.
I know that comment may be sacrilege to some forum members but it is a possibility what with all the folks recently who have not liked the Matrix amps.
The GT Series of Matrix power amps are modifications of Matrix's XT Series of power amps.
The XTs were designed to be hi-powered hi-fidelity light-weight ss power amps.
In theory, we should all be using power amps with the highest fidelity possible in order to accurately reproduce the signals that the Axe is producing after all of Cliff's hard work analyzing the circuits of all these guitar amps.
But they modified the XTs to become more "tube-like" in their feel to create the GT line.
The Matrix GT users here will swear up and down that this is an improvement over the original design goals of the XTs, but I've always had my suspicions.
And I've been contemplating buying a GT1000 1U power amp myself because although my Bryston 2B LP Pro sounds fantastic with the Axe it's a little bit under-powered for some gigs when I want to be in stereo and I need a 1U power amp with more power and there's not many products with that form factor out there.
The Art SLA-2s don't sound nearly as good as my Bryston so I won't go that route.
But at the moment I'm on the list for 2 CLR active wedges primarily because I'm sick and tired of the directivity issues involved when using guitar cabs.
(And yes I know about the Mitchell doughnut but I've not been able to obtain any proper acoustical foam for this here in Canada because McMaster-Carr won't sell to Canadian customers they don't already know, which sucks, and i've been unable to track any other supplier of the proper foam.)
But I might pick up a GT1000 at some point anyway because I'll probably still want to use guitar cabs at some point on some gigs.
I have a feeling though that I'd like their XT1000 more and might end up exchanging a GT for an XT at some point.
At any rate...
All I'm trying to suggest here is that before some of you guys give up totally on ss power amps with the Axe that you try some other ss amps that are designed for the highest fidelity possible before you give it up.
My understanding is that Bryston is about as good as it gets.
But prices for new Bryston stuff are really high and the 1U 2B LP is still quite weighty and doesn't have much power.
I can't make any other suggestions because I don't know much about too many other ss power amps.
But I tried a QSC PL something-or-other way back when, and it was OK.
If you are going to use a tube-power amp, in theory, it should be better to use one that's designed for hi-fidelity as opposed to guitar-oriented tube power amps like the Mesa stuff.
People say the Fryette 2:50, although designed for guitar, is capable of a flat response.
Atomic has (had?) a product like this as well but I can't find it on their web site anymore (so maybe it's been discontinued?).
Other than that, I think you'd be looking at audiophile tube power amps.
But I worry that for some of the loud clean stuff that I need to play occasionally, that 50 watts a side of tube power would not have enough headroom.
My Bryston's got 60 watts per side (un-bridged) and it's not loud enough.
Yes, 50 watts of tube power can go louder than 60 watts of ss power, but not w/o clipping.
So if I was going to go with a tube power amp I'd want at least 100 watts a side and even if there was a product with that kind of power and a flat response out there, it would be way too heavy to be practical for me to use.
The Axe can be made to sound fantastic and musical through nearly anything you can power it with.
But if you want to accurately reproduce what Cliff has programmed in there you'll want the highest fidelity monitoring system you can afford.
E.g. Especially with v11, my Mesa-based presets sound incredibly close to the real Mesa amps that I've owned in the past (using similar knob and virtual knob settings) when I power the Axe with my 2B and run it into an open-back EVM-12L loaded cab (which is the same type of cab and driver I used with the Mesa combo amps I've owned).
If you ran a Marshall based preset through a 2B into a Marshall cab I'll bet it would sound nearly identical to a real Marshall amp with the same knob positions.
Etc., etc., etc.
If you're not concerned with accurately reproducing the tones of the real-world amps that are simulated in the Axe, then none of this matters and you can still get a great musical tone.
And you may still be able to come real close to the tone of the real-world amps.
But you'll have to spend lots of time lurking in the Amp Block's Advanced Parameters.
With my Bryston, I rarely have to do anything with the Advanced Parameters because the default amp sims are so well programmed.
Just my own opinions...
I know that comment may be sacrilege to some forum members but it is a possibility what with all the folks recently who have not liked the Matrix amps.
The GT Series of Matrix power amps are modifications of Matrix's XT Series of power amps.
The XTs were designed to be hi-powered hi-fidelity light-weight ss power amps.
In theory, we should all be using power amps with the highest fidelity possible in order to accurately reproduce the signals that the Axe is producing after all of Cliff's hard work analyzing the circuits of all these guitar amps.
But they modified the XTs to become more "tube-like" in their feel to create the GT line.
The Matrix GT users here will swear up and down that this is an improvement over the original design goals of the XTs, but I've always had my suspicions.
And I've been contemplating buying a GT1000 1U power amp myself because although my Bryston 2B LP Pro sounds fantastic with the Axe it's a little bit under-powered for some gigs when I want to be in stereo and I need a 1U power amp with more power and there's not many products with that form factor out there.
The Art SLA-2s don't sound nearly as good as my Bryston so I won't go that route.
But at the moment I'm on the list for 2 CLR active wedges primarily because I'm sick and tired of the directivity issues involved when using guitar cabs.
(And yes I know about the Mitchell doughnut but I've not been able to obtain any proper acoustical foam for this here in Canada because McMaster-Carr won't sell to Canadian customers they don't already know, which sucks, and i've been unable to track any other supplier of the proper foam.)
But I might pick up a GT1000 at some point anyway because I'll probably still want to use guitar cabs at some point on some gigs.
I have a feeling though that I'd like their XT1000 more and might end up exchanging a GT for an XT at some point.
At any rate...
All I'm trying to suggest here is that before some of you guys give up totally on ss power amps with the Axe that you try some other ss amps that are designed for the highest fidelity possible before you give it up.
My understanding is that Bryston is about as good as it gets.
But prices for new Bryston stuff are really high and the 1U 2B LP is still quite weighty and doesn't have much power.
I can't make any other suggestions because I don't know much about too many other ss power amps.
But I tried a QSC PL something-or-other way back when, and it was OK.
If you are going to use a tube-power amp, in theory, it should be better to use one that's designed for hi-fidelity as opposed to guitar-oriented tube power amps like the Mesa stuff.
People say the Fryette 2:50, although designed for guitar, is capable of a flat response.
Atomic has (had?) a product like this as well but I can't find it on their web site anymore (so maybe it's been discontinued?).
Other than that, I think you'd be looking at audiophile tube power amps.
But I worry that for some of the loud clean stuff that I need to play occasionally, that 50 watts a side of tube power would not have enough headroom.
My Bryston's got 60 watts per side (un-bridged) and it's not loud enough.
Yes, 50 watts of tube power can go louder than 60 watts of ss power, but not w/o clipping.
So if I was going to go with a tube power amp I'd want at least 100 watts a side and even if there was a product with that kind of power and a flat response out there, it would be way too heavy to be practical for me to use.
The Axe can be made to sound fantastic and musical through nearly anything you can power it with.
But if you want to accurately reproduce what Cliff has programmed in there you'll want the highest fidelity monitoring system you can afford.
E.g. Especially with v11, my Mesa-based presets sound incredibly close to the real Mesa amps that I've owned in the past (using similar knob and virtual knob settings) when I power the Axe with my 2B and run it into an open-back EVM-12L loaded cab (which is the same type of cab and driver I used with the Mesa combo amps I've owned).
If you ran a Marshall based preset through a 2B into a Marshall cab I'll bet it would sound nearly identical to a real Marshall amp with the same knob positions.
Etc., etc., etc.
If you're not concerned with accurately reproducing the tones of the real-world amps that are simulated in the Axe, then none of this matters and you can still get a great musical tone.
And you may still be able to come real close to the tone of the real-world amps.
But you'll have to spend lots of time lurking in the Amp Block's Advanced Parameters.
With my Bryston, I rarely have to do anything with the Advanced Parameters because the default amp sims are so well programmed.
Just my own opinions...
Bet they were a PITA to lug around.
