After refreshing the Matrix Aus website ten times a day for 2 weeks, I finally got the chance to nab an FR12, good thing I did because they were all gone within a couple of hours. It arrived in 5 days which is incredible for something coming from the US to Aus, but before I go on, a little background. Up to now I have been playing my Axe FX2 through an Atomic Reactor FR50 powered cab, the one with the tubes, which was the cabinet of choice back in 2010 when I first bough an Ultra and laetr uopgraded to the Axe FX2. All of my presets have been made and tweaked over the 6 years through that cab. I know the Reactor cabs aren't thought of all that highly these days but it always worked for me and was plenty loud enough to use for outdoor gigs or pretty much any application, yet I always had a suspicion that it was the weak link in my tone chain. I had been wanting a CLR for a long time but the price here in Aus for a CLR is prohibitive, so about a month ago I began looking at alternatives, which is when the Matrix FR's came to my attention.
It seemed too good to be true, a powered FRFR cabinet, half the weight of my Reactor, with a Neodymium speaker, at less than 1,000 AUD ($700 less than the CLR and less than half the price of the CLR Neo). How good could it be? The reviews are few but very, very positive so it gave me the courage to jump in and I am really, really glad that I did.
At first, presets that I had tweaked to what I thought was perfection sounded flat and lifeless through the FR12, which worried me, but I knew the speaker would need a few hours of high volume playing to really loosen up and reflect the full range of frequencies. So I persevered, and now after approx 4 hours of high volume playing, it is sounding amazing! I have had to adjust almost all of my presets, mostly to add low end and reduce the mids, which I think confirms what i always thought about the Reactor, that it was heavy on the bass and just a fraction scooped in the mids.
The FR12 just sounds so even across the tonal spectrum. The low end is very natural sounding and restrained, doesn't get woofy or flubby when cranked, but you can feel it. Just perfect I would say. The highs are smooth, no harshness. Cleans sound very alive and vibrant and my dirty tones have a more natural sound minus the sometimes raspy quality that they had with the Reactor. I'm pretty sure the Reactor did add a bit of it's own distortion/break up to all of my tones which i guess I just adjusted to without thinking about it, so consequently I have needed to up the gain a little on quite a few of my dirty tones. Everything sounds so much better now, I didn't realise what I was missing for the last few years with the Reactor.
I can't believe how light it is, I can carry it with one hand, no problems, and I'm a weakling. The DSP functions are excellent, I particularly love mode 2 that adjusts for low volume playing, what a brilliant innovation.Still can't believe it was less than 1,000 AUD.
Sorry for the long, rambling review, but given the lack of info out there I hope this will be helpful to others.
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