NAD: Fryette PS-100 Power Station

[Chocol8]

Anyone have a schematic?

Close enough. This confirms the presence and depth are on the output, and I would bet they are standard NFB amp controls.

 

[laxu]

Presence and depth are just standard poweramp controls.

The switches only have an effect on the load and thus the behavior of the amp connected. Turn presence and depth to zero, then flick the unit between bypass and on and listen to the sound and feel. Adjust the switches to either middle or top position until it sounds/feels closest to the bypass state.

I have never found Flat (resistive load) to be useful with any amp, it might only be useful if you play very loud.

The switches end up in different positions for all my cabs.

 

[Whizzinby]

@Whizzinby

You have the KSR stereo power amp right? Have you ever had the PS? Just curious how they might compare. Definitely the 2 power amps id be most interested in.

The KSR is mono. (I’d auto-buy a stereo version)

The PS100 as a power amp is extremely clean and neutral, which is has to be, in order to also be an effective attenuator. (And really good for modelers) The switches adjust the load frequencies, which I found desirable if you’re attenuating to low’ish volumes and having to deal with Mr Fletcher Munson and want to accentuate the edge frequencies. Bypassing the load it’s a ton of good clean/flat headroom.

The KSR is a different animal. Not neutral and heavily injects its own mojo. It does have a Hi-Fi mode which I think is meant to be used with modelers, but I’ve never used that once. All my preamps came to life once I got the KSR. Thing absolutely rips.

Just depends what you’re using it for:
Attenuator & clean headroom w/ a Modeler = PS100
Preamps = KSR

 

[Whizzinby]

View attachment 57366

I jammed around with the FM9/Duncan PS170 for a while before the Fryette got here, pretty quickly I was like "Man, what were my gripes about this? This sounds fucking great with this 4x12" and while I know my gripe is cranking class D stuff, I was still a bit shocked how great it sounded at apartment volume.

But still not as good as a tube power section at apartment volume!

I had it on the JCM800 Studio 20 just because I saw it there when I was setting up and never tried it before, had it boosted with an SD-1 and actually got lost for a while with both power amps and that model. Then I switched to a Bassman preset I dialed in when I first got the FM9 years' back and I stopped and laughed several times, whenever I'd hit certain notes on the low E the low end would just fill in the room and you'd get that thwack in the chest, even at a lower volume.



Then I grabbed a Les Paul and went to a IIC++ preset becasue it's the greatest high gain head ever and had even more fun. This is perfection.



I don't know why I didn't get one of these sooner and the whole time I was using the EVH 50-watt just because I didn't have a proper tube power section for the FM9 was just wasted time. I still haven't even plugged my Plexi into it, I've been having too much fun hearing these Fractal models whooping ass all over the place. I can't wait to bring this to work and really crank it up, or better yet, use it in a band situation, but even for just jamming in the living room I'll be using this thing.

I've got company coming over tonight but if I find time before I go meet with my singer tomorrow I'll toss a mic in front of the cab and make some clips of the difference in sound between the power amps. There's not a whole lot between the two class D amps but I'm really curious to see if the difference with the Fryette is audibly noticable or it's more of a feel thing. It definitely feels like the depth of the sound increased significantly.

Sounding killer dude

 

[R590]

The KSR is mono. (I’d auto-buy a stereo version)

The PS100 as a power amp is extremely clean and neutral, which is has to be, in order to also be an effective attenuator. (And really good for modelers) The switches adjust the load frequencies, which I found desirable if you’re attenuating to low’ish volumes and having to deal with Mr Fletcher Munson and want to accentuate the edge frequencies. Bypassing the load it’s a ton of good clean/flat headroom.

The KSR is a different animal. Not neutral and heavily injects its own mojo. It does have a Hi-Fi mode which I think is meant to be used with modelers, but I’ve never used that once. All my preamps came to life once I got the KSR. Thing absolutely rips.

Just depends what you’re using it for:
Attenuator & clean headroom w/ a Modeler = PS100
Preamps = KSR

I have the lunchbox KSR and this is spot on. The NFB control has to be the best feature ever for fine tuning analog preamps like the Synergy stuff

 

[DrewJD82]

Just spent the last 2 hours noodling away with the FM9 > Fryette > 4x12 and I'm having a second honeymoon with Fractal gear.

The only time I've used that 4x12 was at band practices with the EVH, it's been unplugged in my studio since I quit. When I started tweaking the Recto Orange Modern model I got hardcore deja vu of sitting in our rehearsal spot tweaking my Recto because the sound of the model and when I started playing my old band's riffs with the Mark IV and 5150 I couldn't stop smiling. There's a couple riffs I wrote in that band because of the sound of those amps and like a scent can warp you back in time, the same thing was happening with those tones/4x12.

Turning the power amp modeling off makes it sound like a practice amp, everything good about the tone went away turning that off.

I've only made a general preset that would mostly duplicate what my actual pedalboard/amp rig can do and I'm hitting about 77%-

There's plenty I could do to lighten the load on that, especially with the gapless switching (which still blows my mind is even a thing) but I was stoked to see I could add the cab block on without it going overboard. I'm going to grab an IR loader in pedal format to plug into the Line Out on the PS100, that way I can use either the FM9 or my pedalboard/head and still have a direct option either way.

Actually, I got that Valeton GP-5 for free, if it can load NAM files I'd have to imagine it can handle IR's?