So I received my AX-8 a couple days ago and today was the first chance I've had to get to the rehearsal studio and let it rip at volume through a powered FRFR monitor. I can't believe I'm actually saying this but I honestly believe the tube amp has become obsolete, or very close to it.
I own, or have previously owned: Dual Rectifier, Savage 120, Powerball II, Iommi GH100TI, Ironball, EVH 5150 III, and a couple Marshalls. It absolutely boggles my mind what the AX8 accomplishes. I felt like I was flipping back and forth between my tube amps when I was sampling the factory presets, which really are exceptional out of the box. I made a couple of my own presets and was surprised how easy it was. The whole "Fractals are way too complicated" just doesn't hold water when you have AX8-Edit. It's as easy as anything else out there. I also bought some aftermarket Metallica tone-match presets, which are pretty good, but I actually like the factory ones and my own much more.
I was worried that if the Fractal was lacking in any area, it would be low-end oomph. That concern was quickly dispelled today. That thick, wall shaking chug was bang on. I can't believe that a little featherlight box and a 12" PA speaker can cause that much havoc!
One thing I noticed is the lack of significant ear fatigue with the AX8 + FRFR. The 100 watt monster tube amps with a 4x12 sound great, but only for 5 minutes, given the volume you need to run them at to get good tone. Then your ears are shot. I found that even high-end molded ear plugs caused the tone to lose its "in the room" fullness, so why bother with those massive amps if you lose that? With the AX8, I was playing for about 2.5 hours with the monitor pointed right up at my head, and my ears felt great afterwards. It was quite loud and very wide and full sounding, just not ear-splitting loud like a 100 watt tube amp running at 12 o'clock.
I feel like this technology has solved a lot of problems tone hounds have always grappled with and have had to compromise their way around. I no longer feel like I need to make any compromises. I imagine it will only get better when my RCF NX12 shows up.
It's also nice that the company really has their stuff together. I had a bit of a glitch when putting my order though, and out of the blue on a Sunday night I was getting CS from a gent named Mark. Nice to know that emails will not fall into a black hole if something goes wrong.
I own, or have previously owned: Dual Rectifier, Savage 120, Powerball II, Iommi GH100TI, Ironball, EVH 5150 III, and a couple Marshalls. It absolutely boggles my mind what the AX8 accomplishes. I felt like I was flipping back and forth between my tube amps when I was sampling the factory presets, which really are exceptional out of the box. I made a couple of my own presets and was surprised how easy it was. The whole "Fractals are way too complicated" just doesn't hold water when you have AX8-Edit. It's as easy as anything else out there. I also bought some aftermarket Metallica tone-match presets, which are pretty good, but I actually like the factory ones and my own much more.
I was worried that if the Fractal was lacking in any area, it would be low-end oomph. That concern was quickly dispelled today. That thick, wall shaking chug was bang on. I can't believe that a little featherlight box and a 12" PA speaker can cause that much havoc!
One thing I noticed is the lack of significant ear fatigue with the AX8 + FRFR. The 100 watt monster tube amps with a 4x12 sound great, but only for 5 minutes, given the volume you need to run them at to get good tone. Then your ears are shot. I found that even high-end molded ear plugs caused the tone to lose its "in the room" fullness, so why bother with those massive amps if you lose that? With the AX8, I was playing for about 2.5 hours with the monitor pointed right up at my head, and my ears felt great afterwards. It was quite loud and very wide and full sounding, just not ear-splitting loud like a 100 watt tube amp running at 12 o'clock.
I feel like this technology has solved a lot of problems tone hounds have always grappled with and have had to compromise their way around. I no longer feel like I need to make any compromises. I imagine it will only get better when my RCF NX12 shows up.
It's also nice that the company really has their stuff together. I had a bit of a glitch when putting my order though, and out of the blue on a Sunday night I was getting CS from a gent named Mark. Nice to know that emails will not fall into a black hole if something goes wrong.
Eric
