I have had Fractals since the Ultra days, but only recently I went "back in time" to try a clean or almost clean amp with a classic drive pedal in front of it. Much more beefy and "breathing" sound than most preamp/master volume or high gain amps. The JTM 45 and the 4-knob Tube Driver or OCD sounds amazing. Fuzzes sound fantastic too, obviously this is the scenario that they were invented for. Wish I had tried this earlier.