Never underestimate the psychological impact of scooping the mids. It always sounds "better" at first but after a while it gets fatiguing and will make your tone get buried.
Nice! Please let know what you think! Like this post when you respond. So, I can see it.
Just a little circle back. I picked up a non-working Mesa 2:Fifty from a friend to try out, figuring I'd probably need to re-tube it. Turned out it was just unplugged at the back of the rack.
Gotta say, there's just no comparison to my ears. A/B'ing the Matrix against the Mesa is like night and day. Granted, I didn't build patches specifically with the Matrix in mind, this is just stock patches with power amp modeling turned OFF and cabs disabled. Man, I can't stop playing this thing now. Might have to rethink my live rig (direct to FOH and to a Matrix CLR for stage volume). Of course, I use IEM's live so I guess I wouldn't really be getting the benefit, but whoosh. If the Matrix sounded anything like this no one would be having this discussion right now.
what were you running each power amp into for the comparison?
I had a Matrix GT1000FX, I felt the same... then I bought a Crown XSL2500. It's solid-state, but it stands up to my Mesa 2:Ninety, but it only weights about 10lb, and more versatile. The only downside is it's 2U, but then again so is a 2:Ninety.
The price is nice for what you get and it's built solid. It's been very reliable over the past year, and I used it with both Real Cab and FRFR setups.
XLS 2500 | Crown Audio - Professional Power Amplifiers
I recommended it to a friend... he's thrilled with his too. In fact; I believe he and his other guitar player are both using each side as independent channels. Pretty wild.
Looked a the Crown specs - I'm ignorant when it comes to this: The Crown is 4ohm or 8ohm - What if my cab is 16 ohm?
I use to use a Mesa 2:90. Great amp but the Matrix GT1600FX sounds as punchy and doesn't color sound. Amp sims sound better and vary so much more now.