Since many of you use the the Fractal products direct to the FOH and they use whatever brand PA poweramp to power up their PA system why bother buying a poweramp made specifically for guitars? I'm asking this because I'm contemplating selling my rig and going direct everytime I play live but at home I want something that I can also hear myself without using monitors or headphones and because of this I think that any PA poweramp that I can get cheap will do the trick no?
If you want to hear the signal that comes out of the Axe FX as accurately as possible, then you should amplify that signal with the cleanest most accurate power amp you can afford. IMO
This is true whether you're going FRFR or power amp + cabs.
Power amps designed specifically for use by guitarists are never flat.
But some guitarists enjoy the colouring or feel that a non-flat power amp imparts to their tone.
As for me, I'd rather trust Cliff.
I want my power amp to simply amplify the signal that the Axe-FX puts out w/o colouring it in any appreciable way.
I've had a love/hate relationship with my Matrix GT1000 since I bought it.
On the one hand it's got all the actual power and headroom I'll ever need in a 1U lightweight form factor.
But compared to my Bryston 2B LP Pro its shortcomings become clear.
The illusion that I'm playing through a real tube guitar amp is enhanced when I use the Bryston.
If you don't know about Bryston power amps, please do some Googling.
They're about as good as power amps get.
Lately I've had the GT in my rack.
But every few months I go through this thing where the Axe FX starts sounding just "not right" to me.
The highs and/or the lows just seem out-of-whack or harsh or plastic or whatever.
It just happened yesterday again as a matter of fact.
I got out the Bryston and it's all good again.
I did a quick test (an extremely unscientific test I admit) again yesterday with studio monitors and CD music too, A/B'ing the GT and the Bryston.
And with a fully-mixed, full-bandwidth audio recording the difference is palpable.
The GT has a comparatively scooped mid response and the top end is slightly pronounced as well as harsher sounding than the Bryston.
[I also have an ART SLA1 and it sounds more musical to me than the GT too, but not nearly as musical as the Bryston.
The GT line of amps were designed when certain Fractal users were dissatisfied with the sound of their SLA1s and SLA2s.
So there are lots of folks out there who will disagree with me on this and feel strongly that the GTs sound way better than the SLAs.]
The people at Matrix will swear up and down that even with the mods they implemented in the GT line compared to their earlier XT P.A. power amp line, that the GT's are "flat" and I'm sure that in some technical sense they are.
But whenever I compare my GT with the Bryston reference, the Bryston always wins.
But the Bryston is quite heavy and unless I use it in bridged mono mode it's pretty much under powered for gigging in stereo.
My current 4-space rack was built around the idea of having a 1U power amp.
But I'm thinking of going to a 5-space rack again so that I can use one of the light weight QSC 2U power amps with the Axe.
I might go out and rent a QSC PLC today actually to try it.
Except for the 2B LP Pro I've not been happy with any other 1U power amp I've tried.
[Note: I've also briefly owned a GT800 and a Carvin DCM200L in my quest for a 1U power amp.
IMO The GT1000 smokes both of these offerings.
The GT800 was a BIG disappointment.
So much so that I suspect that there may have been some issues with the unit I was sent.]