Here's my quick review. I need more time with mine and probably need more volume pumping into the thing, but already very close. Heads and tails better than any other FRFR I've tried over the years, even prefer it largely to the Atomic CLR I've had many times before (part of my comment at the end). I mix it up between traditional rig, traditional board with Iridium and now the FM9 but the FM9 is now my primary setup going forward. This is the missing piece for "total control" and getting a complete handle on what the audience (and myself and my bandmates) will ultimately hear at gigs which is all that matters. I might follow others lead and bring down the treble on the EV a notch or two, seems pretty simple.
Long story kind of short; it's still a monitor wedge and still FRFR.
That "simulated" aspect is still there slightly, but the benefits between this and running into a solid state power amp + cab are important (to me).
Because this is my "digital rig" I REALLY want to know what the crowd is hearing FOH, I want to be able to sanity check my tones, I want to be able to switch seamlessly between IEMs and this monitor and I want "stage support" from the wedge itself.
I need the continuity and the confidence to know my digital tones are holding up well.
The poweramp + cab setup is cool (cab is on huge casters and stays in trailer, so easy cartage) but there is an inherent "dampness" for me with solid state power plus that cab is still blasting past my ass and back of thighs into the audience; it's not really giving me much of that extra monitoring push that much.
The EV PXM12 seems very balanced, loud enough (I have it on 0dB and can play with the Output 2 volume, usually a noon but can definitely be bumped to push the EV and it responds VERY well; like, sounds really damn good on my fat, clean, deluxe reverb patch which is my core base tone LOUD.
I have 3 gigs next weekend, we are providing sound at each one so I'll try it behind me and in front as a dedicated wedge; for house provided sound gigs I can easily unplug their wedge and run a mix + FM9 into this wedge, or just have them side by side. We have some festival gigs coming up and that would work great for that. There is one place where "something funky" is going on with my guitar feed, this way I can compare straight from FM9 to house and tell the engineer "undo anything you are doing to my guitar signal... it's already been done".
I definitely have some light EQ'ing to do and I have found my overdrive and especially lead tones are not popping because they are simply not loud enough, maybe need more mids and I should make them stackable more like what I do with traditional board.
I'll also get a chance to compare my traditional board (with Iridium) vs. the FM9 and get them both really close.
And, I can throw the PT15-IR into the mix and do a great comparison when a tube amp (loaded down) is actually in the mix.
In summation, a high quality FRFR solution is a blessing to have when you are relying on digital tones for everything. I'm very impressed, I'll get more me because of angle and dispersion patterns without hindering the FOH mix and the real truth -- I'm ecstatic to finally have an option that is sold by a major MI company, IN STOCK OFTEN and not playing games with that "other" company.
