Fractal FM9: my seat of the pants review

[GTR37]

So, FM9 Turbo GT-R Spec-V AWD Hybrid. More performance than before, and better gas mileage.

The pro's:

1. The tones. Jesus. Sweet Baby Jesus. What are we on now, Cygna 2? I have no idea what that even means, but the kerchunk, the kerrang, the pop, the zest, the tanginess......it's all there. We're here. I have no idea what the f**k @FractalAudio is going to do next on this, because sweet f**k it's awesome.
2. My simpleton brain can't max this thing out. I just can't get above 50%.
3. Solidly built*
4. Editor is top notch, all the way

The con's:

1. Screen is a little small, for working directly on-unit
2. Navigation is still a little clunky, but usable. I can do an entire patch from scratch without touching the editor. So is that a con? Eh.
3. *Physically, the unit wobbles on flat surfaces. Kinda weird, kind of a bummer when stepping on switches. My FM9 don't jiggle it rocks.
4. That's it, really.

Caveat: I've not yet done any recording with the USB interface. I'm hoping it's better than the FM3 was.

Overall, this is a decent chunk of change for a modeler. $1800+ after shipping and taxes. BUT......I personally feel it's worth it, especially in the face of $2000 25w tube amps upon us. For the amount of flexibility and quality, I have zero interest in any of the other platforms at this point, with the exception of still playing with plugins here and there.

Your first point , it is at a really good place now , I have no idea how Cliff will improve it but I know he will try

Back to the amps all you said above is true , by the way try out The Triple Crown Red , I had a local player here the other day as he was considering going digital again and when he heard the FM9 cranked up he about lost his mind , he was but the Harmonics the Chunk it’s all there

I let him play it and he played through about 4 or 5 of my presets
/13 , DrZ. Triple Crown and now he wants one lol

 

[paisleywookiee]

Nice review man!

Thinking hard on one of these just for FX; it’s overkill and I have the HXFX but I think one of these would be better in the loop, and I’ve had the AxeII and the Ax-8 and I miss those FX.

Glad you’re digging it.

I'm going to try it with my OR15 this weekend, I think.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Your first point , it is at a really good place now , I have no idea how Cliff will improve it but I know he will try

Back to the amps all you said above is true , by the way try out The Triple Crown Red , I had a local player here the other day as he was considering going digital again and when he heard the FM9 cranked up he about lost his mind , he was but the Harmonics the Chunk it’s all there

I let him play it and he played through about 4 or 5 of my presets
/13 , DrZ. Triple Crown and now he wants one lol

I've got the real versions of a bunch of the amps at the shop now, so I'm going to have some fun A/B'ing with the Quilter as the power section. Last time I compared the FM3 with my "Badlander" patch through the same 2x12 vert, it was impressive.

 

[GTR37]

I've got the real versions of a bunch of the amps at the shop now, so I'm going to have some fun A/B'ing with the Quilter as the power section. Last time I compared the FM3 with my "Badlander" patch through the same 2x12 vert, it was impressive.

What amp did you use to match the Badlander orange Recto?

 

[Sascha Franck]

Fwiw, did they bring global blocks or any similar feature to the FM9 yet?

 

[GTR37]

Fwiw, did they bring global blocks or any similar feature to the FM9 yet?

I doubt it will ever have global blocks
Dual amps , performance pages
Most of the stuff from the 3 but no tonematch or global blocks

 

[paisleywookiee]

What amp did you use to match the Badlander orange Recto?

Recto 1 Orange (old two channel), then fuck with the negative feedback, changed the tone stack to something else, and then EL34's. I'll check, but yeah I dig it.

 

[eggpl@nt]

Wtf, that's €1,692.52 - and at G66.eu the FM9 Turbo kicks in at €2,299.00 that's a whooping 600 more - how in the world can they justify that? @FractalAudio, any word on this?

This has been discussed to death but ultimately, G66 needs to make a profit after buying the unit from FAS; in the states, we buy direct, so no distributor margin. That and additional transport/import/taxes for going across the pond.

Edit: if our industries are similar in this regard, FAS may have little to no influence over the distributor price. It would be illegal for my company to dictate the price at which a distributor sells our products.

 

[GTR37]

Recto 1 Orange (old two channel), then f**k with the negative feedback, changed the tone stack to something else, and then EL34's. I'll check, but yeah I dig it.

Ya that the coolest thing about Fractal if you know the basic topology you can Frankenstein pretty much any amp , I was working on a Mesa Cali Tweed
I tried a few things like the Bassman tone stack into a lone star but nothing got there then last night I was like I dig the /13 FTR 37
Then I started looking at the specs
Hmmm 6V6 , Fullerton tone from the 50 / 60sAround 40 watts Alnico matching speaker , It pretty much had the identical specs , so I am going to check that out this weekend

 

[Steinmetzify]

I'm going to try it with my OR15 this weekend, I think.

Nice man, report back if you would. If it does great thru that loop it’d kill thru one of the Herbert loops.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Nice man, report back if you would. If it does great thru that loop it’d kill thru one of the Herbert loops.

This isn't something I was really planning on doing, but since the effects are so nuts, I might as well. Apparently in/out 3 is tailor-made for this shit.

 

[Steinmetzify]

This isn't something I was really planning on doing, but since the effects are so nuts, I might as well. Apparently in/out 3 is tailor-made for this s**t.

Appreciate you sir!

 

[TubeStack]

Nice man, report back if you would. If it does great thru that loop it’d kill thru one of the Herbert loops.

https://thegearforum.com/threads/the-fm9-is-amazing-for-effects-only-use.1570/

 

[Steinmetzify]

https://thegearforum.com/threads/the-fm9-is-amazing-for-effects-only-use.1570/

Shit thanks man; I always forget about the FX8. All I really need are the FX!

 

[paisleywookiee]

s**t thanks man; I always forget about the FX8. All I really need are the FX!

Pretty sure it can be rigged to use the preamp from the FM9 with the power amp of the OR15 though too, which would be slick as fuck.

 

[Fireproof]

Congrats on your new gear. I can’t imagine not loving it…

 

[Steinmetzify]

Pretty sure it can be rigged to use the preamp from the FM9 with the power amp of the OR15 though too, which would be slick as f**k.

Now you just flip flopped me again; I forgot about that.

I remember doing that years ago with BIAS on an iPad; was pretty cool to run into a 5150 combo and have Marshall tones.

Dammit, now I kind of gotta do it; be pretty slick to have 5150/Marshall/Recto tones out of a Diezel lol

 

[TubeStack]

Now you just flip flopped me again; I forgot about that.

I remember doing that years ago with BIAS on an iPad; was pretty cool to run into a 5150 combo and have Marshall tones.

Dammit, now I kind of gotta do it; be pretty slick to have 5150/Marshall/Recto tones out of a Diezel lol

I tried a FAS Friedman BE100 preamp with the real Mesa Simul-Class power amp of my Electra Dyne and it sounded pretty damn amazing.

 

[Sascha Franck]

This has been discussed to death but ultimately, G66 needs to make a profit after buying the unit from FAS; in the states, we buy direct, so no distributor margin. That and additional transport/import/taxes for going across the pond.

Edit: if our industries are similar in this regard, FAS may have little to no influence over the distributor price. It would be illegal for my company to dictate the price at which a distributor sells our products.

Perfectly aware of all that, but the margin still seems to be quite high. I think it'd be better for us folks outside the US if they had more distributors so there was at least a little competition. No wonder that you hardly ever see FAS products over here.

 

[Foxmeister]

Perfectly aware of all that, but the margin still seems to be quite high. I think it'd be better for us folks outside the US if they had more distributors so there was at least a little competition. No wonder that you hardly ever see FAS products over here.

The problem is we don't know how much discount Fractal offers to its distributors, so it is impossible to say with any certainty what the actual margin is.

If we convert the G66 price to USD, subtract the $170 that Fractal would charge for USD, and then remove an assumed VAT of 20%, we get a USD total of around $1900, so $200 more than the direct price in the US.

My gut feeling is that Fractal probably don't offer much of a wholesale discount to distributors, so they have to charge more to make a reasonable profit.

It is challenging to figure out the logic of pricing in different territories though.

Here in the UK, a Helix Floor will cost you £1249 from Andertons, which is £1041 excluding VAT and converts to $1253 US.

Sweetwater charges $1699 for a Helix Floor, albeit currently with a "free" backpack, and an ex-demo unit without a backpack is currently for sale for $1529!

You could buy a Helix Rack and Control from Andertons, and even with 20% UK VAT, it would still be $300 cheaper than buying from Sweetwater.