Stereo Power Amp options

CorrosiveMatter said:
You’re correct I am a plant from some other power amp maker trying to sell my product! You caught me!

The store I got it from online says it’s a warranty issue is why I called them. A new switchcraft jack will be here today and an easy fix.

I think I am just old school and used to when a company would fix things lickety split to keep a customer for life rather than I got your dollars now and don’t care if you are ever back.
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Busted! Ha... in all seriousness, it's 11 days old. Warranty repair shouldn't even be in the picture IMO. It would have just sent it back under the typical 30 day return window. That seems like the obvious path of least resistance. That said, I don't know who you bought it from and if they tried to steer me back to the MFG for something that broke 11 days in, I would not be buying from them again.
 
SonVolt said:
Busted! Ha... in all seriousness, it's 11 days old. Warranty repair shouldn't even be in the picture IMO. It would have just sent it back under the typical 30 day return window. That seems a lot easier.
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I agree but the store is sh!t and says this was a factory defect and it might have been but I agree it should stil be their problem. It's my fault for trying to find one "fast" because I am impatient rather than like Sweetwater or hell even Amazon.
 
If these discussions have taught me anything it is that there remains a gap in the market for a company to come in and dominate if they could deliver a solution.

The Seymour Duncan amps are reasonably pedal board friendly, but are underpowered for use with 16 Ohm cabinets unless you get the PS700. The PS700 is an awkward size to mount on a pedal board and it takes up 1.5 rack spaces. It is also pretty expensive for what it is. Amongst the options I currently own, the PS700 would still be my current choice if I needed to use a power amp and cabinet in a live setting considering the favorable power to weight ratio.

The Matrix amps are mostly well regarded (although they can't deliver their rated power due to power supply design limitations), but the company has gone belly up and the prices on the used market are insane. Also, they're rack mount only whereas the ideal offering would be pedal board friendly.

Red Sound makes some guitar centric power amps, but I'm not sure they've distributed them to anyone other than Brett Kingman. Those are also rack mount only offerings.

The Fryette / Mesa / Marshall tube power amplifiers are great for a guitar preamp rig, but they are heavy, expensive, rack mount only, and they aren't neutral (impart their own sonic signature on the tone) which makes them less ideal for a modeling rig.

My choice for home use are the PA centric solid state power amplifiers. They can deliver a lot of power, have a very neutral signature, are stereo, and can be had for cheap on the used market. The downside is that many of them weigh about as much as a 1x12 tube combo amplifier and they have fans that can be quite noisy. I have replaced the stock fans on mine with slightly lower CFM models which are much quieter.

I'd love to see a company fill the void for a pedalboard friendly solid state stereo power amp that can deliver a continuous 200W into 16 Ohms per channel.
 
OrganicZed said:
If these discussions have taught me anything it is that there remains a gap in the market for a company to come in and dominate if they could deliver a solution.

The Seymour Duncan amps are reasonably pedal board friendly, but are underpowered for use with 16 Ohm cabinets unless you get the PS700. The PS700 is an awkward size to mount on a pedal board and it takes up 1.5 rack spaces. It is also pretty expensive for what it is. Amongst the options I currently own, the PS700 would still be my current choice if I needed to use a power amp and cabinet in a live setting considering the favorable power to weight ratio.

The Matrix amps are mostly well regarded (although they can't deliver their rated power due to power supply design limitations), but the company has gone belly up and the prices on the used market are insane. Also, they're rack mount only whereas the ideal offering would be pedal board friendly.

Red Sound makes some guitar centric power amps, but I'm not sure they've distributed them to anyone other than Brett Kingman. Those are also rack mount only offerings.

The Fryette / Mesa / Marshall tube power amplifiers are great for a guitar preamp rig, but they are heavy, expensive, rack mount only, and they aren't neutral (impart their own sonic signature on the tone) which makes them less ideal for a modeling rig.

My choice for home use are the PA centric solid state power amplifiers. They can deliver a lot of power, have a very neutral signature, are stereo, and can be had for cheap on the used market. The downside is that many of them weigh about as much as a 1x12 tube combo amplifier and they have fans that can be quite noisy. I have replaced the stock fans on mine with slightly lower CFM models which are much quieter.

I'd love to see a company fill the void for a pedalboard friendly solid state stereo power amp that can deliver a continuous 200W into 16 Ohms per channel.
Click to expand...
The Duncan stuff if weird. Agreed on all your observations on them. I will also add that you can barely send it any signal from all I have read before it's overloaded. Which is DUMB.
 
These guys make the power amps for Kemper. They got a pedal board stereo one.

Guitar Board Amps – DigitalGuitarGear

We offer electronic equipment for the modern guitarist. Add on amplifier modules for the Kemper Profiling Amplifier, small amplifier modules for up to date modeling guitar floor boards , DIY speaker kits and cabinets to make yourself heard.
digitalguitargear.com digitalguitargear.com
 
JiveTurkey said:
There's a moment when a SS power amp becomes a "nope; I'm not spending that much on this" proposition.
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This thread got me searching for a Marshall EL84 20/20. Imagine my amusement on finding an EL84 power amp going for $1000-$1500. I mean, OK, it's stereo, but yeesh.
 
OrganicZed said:
If these discussions have taught me anything it is that there remains a gap in the market for a company to come in and dominate if they could deliver a solution.

The Seymour Duncan amps are reasonably pedal board friendly, but are underpowered for use with 16 Ohm cabinets unless you get the PS700. The PS700 is an awkward size to mount on a pedal board and it takes up 1.5 rack spaces. It is also pretty expensive for what it is. Amongst the options I currently own, the PS700 would still be my current choice if I needed to use a power amp and cabinet in a live setting considering the favorable power to weight ratio.

The Matrix amps are mostly well regarded (although they can't deliver their rated power due to power supply design limitations), but the company has gone belly up and the prices on the used market are insane. Also, they're rack mount only whereas the ideal offering would be pedal board friendly.

Red Sound makes some guitar centric power amps, but I'm not sure they've distributed them to anyone other than Brett Kingman. Those are also rack mount only offerings.

The Fryette / Mesa / Marshall tube power amplifiers are great for a guitar preamp rig, but they are heavy, expensive, rack mount only, and they aren't neutral (impart their own sonic signature on the tone) which makes them less ideal for a modeling rig.

My choice for home use are the PA centric solid state power amplifiers. They can deliver a lot of power, have a very neutral signature, are stereo, and can be had for cheap on the used market. The downside is that many of them weigh about as much as a 1x12 tube combo amplifier and they have fans that can be quite noisy. I have replaced the stock fans on mine with slightly lower CFM models which are much quieter.

I'd love to see a company fill the void for a pedalboard friendly solid state stereo power amp that can deliver a continuous 200W into 16 Ohms per channel.
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See also:
mbenigni

Post in thread 'Quilter Elevate'

synthpenguin said:
This seems like a well-considered product in some ways, and I like Quilter's solid state tones quite a bit, but there are also a lot of weird choices here that make it feel pretty niche in the end. With the interface, I can't see this appealing to the crowd that is buying a lot of solid state preamp pedals etc because they don't want to use tube amps, but also don't want to go digital, and I can't see it appealing to the crowd that has already embraced digital and this type of workflow. I'm sure the build and fidelity will be rock solid, and the Quilter stuff is head and shoulders...
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  • Much Love
 
OrganicZed said:
@BigHairyGuitars hinted that there is a Friedman stereo power amp in the works. That could be interesting.

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:unsure:

Michael has also been hinting at a Friedman rack preamp being announced in January, so maybe it’s some sort of dual launch. I’m definitely interested to see what he might be cooking up for a power amp.
 
I just realized I had this class D amp (Fosi Audio BT20A Pro) sitting around (bought it for a turntable setup but ended up getting gifted an old receiver from the 80s that we are using instead):

1763664280512.png


I found some cheap banana plug to 1/4" inch adapter and going to see how this works into my cabs. Wish me luck :ROFLMAO:
 
Jet just announced a new stereo class D amp that costs $430. 2 x 50 watts rms at 4 ohms (down to 12 watts at 16 ohms). Not sure how competitive that is against the competition for specs. Unfortunately looks like it may use a laptop power adapter.
 
It's bizarre to me that Bugera, Harley Benton, etc hasn't done a stereo (or even mono) rackmount tube power amp. Seems like there's a market for it. Not saying it would be amazing or anything, but idk I'd seriously consider something like that for my needs. iirc there was a thread here of people using cheap tube heads from companies like this as power amps for home.

EDIT: not sure this is the thread I was thinking of, but here's one from @Jarick testing a 5 watt Blackstar tube head for this purpose: https://thegearforum.com/threads/tu...than-solid-state-power-amp-for-modelers.2480/
 
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synthpenguin said:
It's bizarre to me that Bugera, Harley Benton, etc hasn't done a stereo (or even mono) rackmount tube power amp. Seems like there's a market for it. Not saying it would be amazing or anything, but idk I'd seriously consider something like that for my needs. iirc there was a thread here of people using cheap tube heads from companies like this as power amps for home.
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Building anything with some level of quality and reliability with tubes is getting expensive, especially in a rack format. What I would like to see is more SS amps that are not the same off the shelf crap Class D shit already available from 50 other vendors. Bring back an updated version of the MosValve 982 (or 962) or some semi decent class AB designs.
 
Chocol8 said:
Building anything with some level of quality and reliability with tubes is getting expensive, especially in a rack format. What I would like to see is more SS amps that are not the same off the shelf crap Class D shit already available from 50 other vendors. Bring back an updated version of the MosValve 982 (or 962) or some semi decent class AB designs.
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Maybe, but with these same companies selling 25 watt (at 8 ohms) stereo power amps just using the same class D modules as everyone else for 450USD (really taking advantage of the guitar market imo), it's hard to imagine them doing that R&D and putting out something with decent wattage that is competitively priced. imo the best chance would be Orange putting out a stereo class AB power amp, but I could see that easily being around 1000USD even if it only matches the Pedal Baby's wattage (per channel). At that price, a lot of people start looking at used tube power amps anyway.

Quilter could do something with their excellent class D designs, but they don't seem interested in doing a dedicated power amp unit, and price would still be up there.

On the other hand, most of these budget amp companies are already making tube guitar amp heads and combos, and the circuits are very simple, so I feel like that's less of a stretch for them. Quality and reliability would definitely be the question, but yeah that def comes with the territory!
 
I don't think a lot of R&D money would be needed to build a MosValve clone, or other "tube like" SS amps. The designs exist and are LONG off any type of patent protection. I don't know what the manufacturing cost would be, but mosfets are fairly inexpensive, and there just isn't that much in these things. I would think if volume was high enough, you could build them under $150 (maybe well under) and retail them at under $450. Maybe I am way off, I don't know.
 
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