I do like the Hagen and it certainly has a very unique voicing....which definitely doesn't work for everybody.
I understand people who say it's very tight sounding, as it does the "start-stop" thing very well (actually feels like playing with a gate), and it also has great string separation.
But I definitely also understand the people who say its very untight or even muddy...by that definition of "tight" we mean how the amp emphasizes the pick attack on fast thrashy palm mutes, and the Hagen doesn't do that very much, it adds a lot of "smear" to that thrashy playing, which may sound "muddy" to people who're expecting that kind of tight (the pittbull UL had a similar thing going on btw, people say it's extremely tight, I never understood that, but that's just because of what we mean by "tight" and how we define it.).
So yeah, for MY taste and style it's lacking the quick pick articulation on thrashy palm mutes, so it sounds "muddy/loose" to me...I can still see how other people find it to be very "tight" sounding.
But that's just a matter of taste, not really a complaint.
The other "issue" I'm having with it is the lack of "openness" in the presence register, it's an extremely dark sounding amp and when trying to make it "open up" I always feel like a want to crank the presence, but that doesn't really work for this amp, since the presence pot reaches down quite low into the mid range, so raising it all the way still doesn't "open it up" like I'd want it to, but just adds high mid presence-graininess....
But if the amp works for a certain player or mix, it's awesome to have this unique voicing....doesn't sound like any other amp.
iPhone post, ignore the spelling