Just wanted to share my experience from my recent purchase, a Victory 112 Neo cabinet.
My 3.5 years with using Fractal products have been a blast. Having the ability to dial in whatever tone you have in mind with both a low spatial footprint and not putting your hearing at risk is truly amazing to me and keeps me (and my cohabitants) happy. Having used tube amplifiers for a good 10 years before delving into modelling, my point of reference and preference in regards to how the sound of an electric guitar spreads out into the room while playing has been that of the traditional guitar cabinet - even though I got into recording and music production at the same time that I picked up the guitar.
For me, the main advantage of playing the Axe by yourself through studio monitors and FRFR-systems is that I find that their dynamic response remain somewhat more even than traditional cabinets when feeding them signals with different saturation of the frequency spectrum. That might be me hearing things, but no matter what reason it might be, I find studio monitors/FRFR systems more cooperative when dealing with lots of different sounds.
I had been thinking a good while about getting myself a SS power amp + cab setup for band rehearsal and practicing at home, but having the above in mind I was a bit sceptical of the results I'd get with me liking to use a whole plethora of sounds. At first it seemed like I was correct in doubting I'd be satisfied with having only one cabinet to do "everything" from glassy to high gain; Orange cabinets were really good at giving a good thump when playing high gain (but not so much the cleans, for me anyways), and greenback/creamback Marshalls/Victory cabinets worked fabulously until they got into high gain territory, where they lost their bite and became somewhat flubby compared to their performance at lower amounts of gain. Feeling kind of dissapointed while I was demoing cabinets, I decided to try a Victory Neo just for the fun of it. Having read about the Neo Copperback speakers and finding the specs to sound a bit "odd", I though I going to unplug straight away after hitting my first chord, but..
This speaker just handled everything really well. Switching through different presets the dynamic character of the cabinet did not seem to change at all - and because of that it was extremely predictable, in the good way. I think this cabinet will scratch my itch for the "cab sound" for years to come. The way it sounds in the room is nothing like the somewhat spiky sound clips I've heard after I bought it - had my first impression of the cabinet been through the sound clips, I find it hard to think I'd ever consider it. I hope to find a reason to put it to the test when miced up soon, and see if I'm able to capture the spectral balance it gives of while standing next to it. If you find yourself looking for a cabinet to handle all kinds of genres, I would recommend giving this one a shot.
Thanks for reading, and have a great day.
My 3.5 years with using Fractal products have been a blast. Having the ability to dial in whatever tone you have in mind with both a low spatial footprint and not putting your hearing at risk is truly amazing to me and keeps me (and my cohabitants) happy. Having used tube amplifiers for a good 10 years before delving into modelling, my point of reference and preference in regards to how the sound of an electric guitar spreads out into the room while playing has been that of the traditional guitar cabinet - even though I got into recording and music production at the same time that I picked up the guitar.
For me, the main advantage of playing the Axe by yourself through studio monitors and FRFR-systems is that I find that their dynamic response remain somewhat more even than traditional cabinets when feeding them signals with different saturation of the frequency spectrum. That might be me hearing things, but no matter what reason it might be, I find studio monitors/FRFR systems more cooperative when dealing with lots of different sounds.
I had been thinking a good while about getting myself a SS power amp + cab setup for band rehearsal and practicing at home, but having the above in mind I was a bit sceptical of the results I'd get with me liking to use a whole plethora of sounds. At first it seemed like I was correct in doubting I'd be satisfied with having only one cabinet to do "everything" from glassy to high gain; Orange cabinets were really good at giving a good thump when playing high gain (but not so much the cleans, for me anyways), and greenback/creamback Marshalls/Victory cabinets worked fabulously until they got into high gain territory, where they lost their bite and became somewhat flubby compared to their performance at lower amounts of gain. Feeling kind of dissapointed while I was demoing cabinets, I decided to try a Victory Neo just for the fun of it. Having read about the Neo Copperback speakers and finding the specs to sound a bit "odd", I though I going to unplug straight away after hitting my first chord, but..
This speaker just handled everything really well. Switching through different presets the dynamic character of the cabinet did not seem to change at all - and because of that it was extremely predictable, in the good way. I think this cabinet will scratch my itch for the "cab sound" for years to come. The way it sounds in the room is nothing like the somewhat spiky sound clips I've heard after I bought it - had my first impression of the cabinet been through the sound clips, I find it hard to think I'd ever consider it. I hope to find a reason to put it to the test when miced up soon, and see if I'm able to capture the spectral balance it gives of while standing next to it. If you find yourself looking for a cabinet to handle all kinds of genres, I would recommend giving this one a shot.
Thanks for reading, and have a great day.
