NAD: Victory Kraken VX MKII

[Desertdweller]

Psvane is the New Ruby factory after the fire burned down the prior
I know Freidman uses them the used to be the Shugang 12ax7

Perfect. That’s the detail I was missing. Thanks!

 

[2dor]

@Desertdweller have you tried it with EL34s yet?

 

[Desertdweller]

You guys all need to try this thing. It's been nearly 5 months I've had it now and I'm truly amazed they put a Marshall and a 5150 in a lunchbox and made it this loud.

The switching with the multiple footswitches is a chore and the presence knob adds presence in a weird frequency. The amp has a bit more noise than I'm used to so I did some tube rolling with the preamp tubes. One interesting thing I found is that throwing a 12au7 in V3 really brings down the volume of the amp. This is sometimes a good thing. I think the amp sounds better in 50w mode, but it's LOUD, and I am used to 100w and 150w heads. It keeps bass definition at loud volumes too since it has the big bottle tubes and the big PTs.

I do like keeping the presence knob off and sometimes just for kicks just adding presence with the button on the back. Though that does at a signficant amount of fizz - has to be the right song for it. I'm finding I get a heavy saturated sound out of the lead channel without needing a TS in front. Running a TS or SD1 in front of the crunch channel is the most glorious Marshall sound, even with just keeping the 6L6s in there, I have not tried it yet with EL34s.

I've had a lot of full size amps, and a bunch of the lunchbox amps too. This amp is the king of lunchbox amps and IDK why more people aren't buying it and trying it. It's awesome. It's a full-size 50w angry screaming munchkin of metal and I love it.

 

[Warmart]

You're really making me want one, gah! Clean and Marshall and Mesa, all in one!?

This and a 2x12 just isn't going to work so well in a 15'x16' room with my stepdaughter in the room above.

Must ponder. And I was a desert dweller for 6 years. Lived in Maricopa and worked in Tempe and Phoenix.

 

[Desertdweller]

You're really making me want one, gah! Clean and Marshall and Mesa, all in one!?

This and a 2x12 just isn't going to work so well in a 15'x16' room with my stepdaughter in the room above.

Must ponder. And I was a desert dweller for 6 years. Lived in Maricopa and worked in Tempe and Phoenix.

It's not quite Mesa on the 3rd channel. It's more 5150, but yes it does sound really good.

 

[Warmart]

It's not quite Mesa on the 3rd channel. It's more 5150, but yes it does sound really good.

Yes, I don't know why I typed that, lol. Guess my brain wanted it?

 

[JiveTurkey]

This thing looks killer \m/

 

[Deleted member 472]

Isn’t this the head Rabea Massaad uses?

 

[2dor]

Isn’t this the head Rabea Massaad uses?

Sure is.

 

[Deleted member 472]

Sure is.

Well, put me down for one, because the tones he gets out of that thing are sick.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Well, put me down for one, because the tones he gets out of that thing are sick.

Sick? Sounds healthy to me?

 

[Desertdweller]

Isn’t this the head Rabea Massaad uses?

My understanding is he co-designed it, and it sounds really good in the videos he made for it. Seems like a good dude too. I've had Victory amps before and I think their build quality is outstanding.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Isn’t this the head Rabea Massaad uses?

Sure is.

Depends on who's sponsoring the video

But yeah, Rabea does get killer tones. And @Desertdweller knows tone, for sure.

 

[2dor]

One month later and I'm loving this thing. It's a Fender, Marshall, and 5150 in one. Generally I prefer the Mesa sound and the ability to really pre-filter my amp with an overdrive of my choice, but this amp has such a rich gain structure it really isn't needed. Internally it's gorgeous too.

View attachment 37418

Have been revisiting the idea of grabbing one of these amps & was really trying to dig around for the trannies & who makes them. That Demeter Windings company was established by a guy who worked at Drake Transformers & delivered some of the first trannies to Marshall.

Was also considering a Ceriatone JCM51 All Access with a Heyboer OT (since Nik stocks them now) or a Ground Zero MOAB+ (this one just got significantly harder to pull off due to the _doodoo_that_shall_not_be_named_ ) but it looks like Victory're checking all the freakin right boxes.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Have been revisiting the idea of grabbing one of these amps & was really trying to dig around for the trannies & who makes them. That Demeter Windings company was established by a guy who worked at Drake Transformers & delivered some of the first trannies to Marshall.

Was also considering a Ceriatone JCM51 All Access with a Heyboer OT (since Nik stocks them now) or a Ground Zero MOAB+ (this one just got significantly harder to pull off due to the _doodoo_that_shall_not_be_named_ ) but it looks like Victory're checking all the freakin right boxes.

The Super Sherriff caught my eye here a while back as well I've been on a bender here for a bit so I think I am good for amps. For now

 

[2dor]

For now

 

[Desertdweller]

The Super Sherriff caught my eye here a while back as well I've been on a bender here for a bit so I think I am good for amps. For now

I had the Sheriff 44 for awhile. Great amp, but it didn’t cut like I expected it to and the FX loop on it was really bad. Sounded great boosted though.