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?

 

[Whizzinby]

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

100%. I keep the FAS PA modeling on when running into all Fryette power amps since they are so clean. You don’t get a bad stacking effect, and def feel like you lose some mojo disabling it.

 

[laxu]

When I used the Power Station with the Axe-Fx 3, the key to making it feel exactly like the tube amps I had was finding a speaker impedance curve that was a good match for the real cab I was using. It's kind of like messing with the loadbox switches on the PS, affecting the feel of the amp more than anything.

So go through the preset speaker impedance curves and see what might be a good match. Of course it ultimately comes down to personal preference, but I took the time to really compare it to my real amps.

It's not ideal, but if you plug things into the Line-in of the PS, that will take priority over whatever amp is connected to Amp in. Want to hear the amp? Just pull out the Line-in cable a bit.

 

[aivoryuk]

I use the Synergy modules with the self attenuation trick with the Power station an it sounds great. I have both the switches set in the middle position so it as acting as a reactive load rather than a resistive load (to my understanding)

 

[laxu]

I use the Synergy modules with the self attenuation trick with the Power station an it sounds great. I have both the switches set in the middle position so it as acting as a reactive load rather than a resistive load (to my understanding)

Yes the middle and top positions make it a reactive load, and the "flat" setting is resistive.

I think my 4x10 GB cab I have them both in the middle, and for my 2x12 V30 cab it's something like top/middle or vice versa, can't remember.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

That essentially gives you the impedance curve of the cab that’s plugged in, correct?

If you're attenuating, then you've got whatever the 'impedance curve" is of the load and cab in parallel. Keeping in mind that that is the impedance curve that the power station power amp is seeing and that as noted above the power station's power amp is designed to be less load-dependent tonally.

So you could run it that way with power amp sim off, but you're still going to have an unnatural EQ balance from the amp model, even if you get some tube compression and/or clipping added in. Or you could run it with power amp sim on and now you've got the EQ balance you'd expect from that amp model, but now have a bit of sauce on your sauce in terms of power amp compression.

 

[DrewJD82]

If you're attenuating, then you've got whatever the 'impedance curve" is of the load and cab in parallel. Keeping in mind that that is the impedance curve that the power station power amp is seeing and that as noted above the power station's power amp is designed to be less load-dependent tonally.

So you could run it that way with power amp sim off, but you're still going to have an unnatural EQ balance from the amp model, even if you get some tube compression and/or clipping added in. Or you could run it with power amp sim on and now you've got the EQ balance you'd expect from that amp model, but now have a bit of sauce on your sauce in terms of power amp compression.

Yeah, I’ll definitely be running it with the sims on. Turning them off just took away anything redeeming about it and basically made it sound like a distortion pedal. Thanks, man!

 

[OrganicZed]

If you're attenuating, then you've got whatever the 'impedance curve" is of the load and cab in parallel. Keeping in mind that that is the impedance curve that the power station power amp is seeing and that as noted above the power station's power amp is designed to be less load-dependent tonally.

So you could run it that way with power amp sim off, but you're still going to have an unnatural EQ balance from the amp model, even if you get some tube compression and/or clipping added in. Or you could run it with power amp sim on and now you've got the EQ balance you'd expect from that amp model, but now have a bit of sauce on your sauce in terms of power amp compression.

My solution to this additive effect was to decrease the amplitude of the low and high frequency resonances of the impedance curve on the speaker tab of the amp block.

 

[DrewJD82]

When I used the Power Station with the Axe-Fx 3, the key to making it feel exactly like the tube amps I had was finding a speaker impedance curve that was a good match for the real cab I was using. It's kind of like messing with the loadbox switches on the PS, affecting the feel of the amp more than anything.

So go through the preset speaker impedance curves and see what might be a good match. Of course it ultimately comes down to personal preference, but I took the time to really compare it to my real amps.

It's not ideal, but if you plug things into the Line-in of the PS, that will take priority over whatever amp is connected to Amp in. Want to hear the amp? Just pull out the Line-in cable a bit.

There’s a 99% chance I won’t bother matching impedance curves, the 1:1 recreation thing was never a huge interest to me, as long as I got the overall tone and feel of the amp I’m good to go! Obviously if something sounded off I would, but the only amp I have now that’s actually in the AxeFX is the EVH 50-watt. The Plexi50 is a bit of a Plexi mutt as it’s essentially a 1987x wired to ‘68 specs, plus the Hot Mod that I probably won’t take out, so I wouldn’t expect it to act/sound like a model in the AxeFX to begin with.

And after playing the 5150 model the other night, I prefer it over my actual 5153.

 

[JasonE]

The PS-100 is a fantastic device. I have had mine for 3 or 4 years. I bought it because I can use it with my tube amps as well as my modelers. It attenuates tube amps and amps modelers and does both very well. I wish it had an IR section in it like the units they have now. That is the only thing it is missing. I bought a Two Notes C.A.B. M+ to run after mine to get the IR and then XLR out to run direct.

 

[DrewJD82]

I haven't sat in my studio and played once this week, every time I get home from the park I look at the Plexi50 and the FM9 and decide which one I'm going to noodle with. While the Plexi50 sounds great and I'm getting everything I was wanting to get from playing it through a cab, it's crazy how much this reignited my love for Fractal's modeling.

It's funny, but despite growing up with tube amps and using them for 25 years before getting into modeling, when I'd read people on forums bring up "3D depth that modelers don't do" I'd roll my eyes, only to now hear exactly what they're talking about. Fortunately, I don't care about trying to "figure it out" in direct scenarios and it's not just a cab in the room thing because the EVH 50-watt (actual amp) doesn't have this same depth that a Mesa or even a 5150 model does through the Fryette. I haven't tried the model of the 50-watt through it yet, I'll try to remember for curiosity's sake but that's as close to A/B testing as I'm interested in getting. I'm guessing it has something to do with how the pre-amp is constructing the tone.

Just when I thought I was slipping too far away from the chugging metal stuff, those Fractal Marks through the Fryette brought me RIGHT BACK! OH! The Angle Severe 2! Damn! That's definitely a new favorite and could overtake the IIC++/IV as my favorite rhythm amp. FAS Brutalz and Modern III are stupidly sick for chugging as well. I pulled out the 7-string last night that's in A-standard and after messing with a bunch of Korn riffs with the Recto, riffed out with the FAS models for a while. That 7-string in that tuning practically needs the FAS models to 'work' right for tight stuff.