Blackstar HT5R MkII (HT5R Mk2)

[kartikg3]

Any owners (or former owners) of the Blackstar HT5R Mkii Head or Combo?

Care to share your experiences with it?
How do you think it takes pedals?
How is the FX loop? Does it take modelers in the return loop well?
Is the 0.5 W mode quiet enough for home playing?

I heard that it is a tube/valve amp, but with some solid state/transistor stages that play into the gain structure. Thoughts on that?

Would love to hear about this amp.

 

[Iron1]

I had the combo for awhile. You can get some good tones with it and it's very, very versatile. I never tried to run anything in the loop, but did put a few pedals out front. I used it for recording for a short while, but, the emulated out is hot garbage, so I moved onto a Line 6 HD500x (prior to getting a Helix). I ultimately traded it to a buddy for his 6505MH. He replaced the speaker in the Blackstar with some sort of Celestion and it sounded dramatically better.

It's not what I would consider a professional level amp, but a solid bedroom/practice amp that lets you go from clean mellow stuff to in your face metal.

The thing that scares me off Blackstar at this point is the dramatic amount of users I see in the FB groups who experience sudden failures of the amps that essentially brick them because amp repair folks can't get tech support from Blackstar.

All that to say, if you see one for a good price, grab it and have fun. Just don't expect pro quality/sound/reliability and adjust what you're willing to pay accordingly.

FWIW, my wife still has an ID60 TVP and it gets after it with the right pedals. Sounds noticeably better/higher level than the HT did.

However, If I was in the market for something like that again, I'd grab a Boss Katana instead and never look back.

 

[kartikg3]

I had the combo for awhile. You can get some good tones with it and it's very, very versatile. I never tried to run anything in the loop, but did put a few pedals out front. I used it for recording for a short while, but, the emulated out is hot garbage, so I moved onto a Line 6 HD500x (prior to getting a Helix). I ultimately traded it to a buddy for his 6505MH. He replaced the speaker in the Blackstar with some sort of Celestion and it sounded dramatically better.

It's not what I would consider a professional level amp, but a solid bedroom/practice amp that lets you go from clean mellow stuff to in your face metal.

The thing that scares me off Blackstar at this point is the dramatic amount of users I see in the FB groups who experience sudden failures of the amps that essentially brick them because amp repair folks can't get tech support from Blackstar.

All that to say, if you see one for a good price, grab it and have fun. Just don't expect pro quality/sound/reliability and adjust what you're willing to pay accordingly.

FWIW, my wife still has an ID60 TVP and it gets after it with the right pedals. Sounds noticeably better/higher level than the HT did.

However, If I was in the market for something like that again, I'd grab a Boss Katana instead and never look back.

That really helps! Thank you