1U Rackmount Power Amps

  • Thread starter Thread starter McLeanAB
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fek said:
Stumbled across a Michael Nielson video, after checking this thread out, and he compares 3 VHT power amps and a PS2. Great comparison vid that should be easy enough to find. Have always wanted a big VHT power amp, but after watching, I will stick with the PS2. Close enough for me.
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I have considered a Power Station, but if I do this, I want Stereo.
 
Hamer95USA said:
When the HRI website was still up, there used to be a forum member named GrooveKing who had not only guitar rack gear, but also amp heads, combo amps, and cabinets. His home looked like a music store from the pictures that were posted.

I used to own the Mesa Boogie 20/20 power amp. It was good for low volume, small gig situations, sounded good, but it lacked the headroom of the bigger power amps in their product line. I also used to own an older Rocktron Velocity power amp. It's been awhile and I'm not sure which model it was, but the power amp would go into a thermal shutdown in the middle of a show. I had no backup power amp back then and it was really embarrassing, to say the least. I sold it off to someone on Craig's List and let them deal with the thermal shutdown issues.

My friend owns the Marshall 20/20 power amp that was powered with EL-84 power tubes. That power amp also would go into a thermal shutdown. He had it repaired and it was still having issues. It wasn't a reliable stereo tube power amp. He also bought a used Marshall 8004 stereo solid power amp from Mason Marangella (Vertex Effects). That power amp had thermal shutdown issues and my friend returned it to Mason for a refund.
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I used to have the Rocktron Velocity 300 and when I took it to my tech he said the cooling fans only switch on when the unit gets too hot, which I thought was a bit of an odd design choice as it would get very hot, so he just set them so they were always on and it was great after that.
 
RedPlated said:
I use an Avantone CLA-100. Dave Friedman had tested one and said it sounded great.

My Matrix died and used prices for them are ridiculous. And they aren’t made anymore. So I went with the Avantone. Price point is right on it. And the bonus is there’s no fan. So no noise.

https://www.sweetwater.com/c408--Mo...SlE7Qb1Fhb50l7PE4fBoCae8QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
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Curious about these 'reference' amps and the weird outputs on the back... I'm assuming that is for exposed wiring as opposed to a more 'traditional' guitar power amp with 1/4" jacks?
 
McLeanAB said:
...Ideally, I wouldn't mind having a Mesa 20/20 or Marshall EL84 20/20...
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They're both pretty good sounding units. The Mesa especially after giving it the "full range mod", which is noting more than removing two little caps.

20230929_075002.jpg
 
McLeanAB said:
Curious about these 'reference' amps and the weird outputs on the back... I'm assuming that is for exposed wiring as opposed to a more 'traditional' guitar power amp with 1/4" jacks?
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Yeah you just use banana plug to 1/4 adapters. They’re $10 or so.

I had almost gone with the Fryette 1U power amp. But after researching it I realized they’re very loud because of the fans. I didn’t want that for home use.
 
McLeanAB said:
Hey all!

So, experimenting and having a blast... running my ISP Technologies Theta Rack Preamp into the power section of my Mesa Mark V:25 and having a BLAST swtiching between not only all the modes in each channel, which offer up slightly different character, but with the wattage switch, it's even cooler... SO much fun...

Ideally, I wouldn't mind having a Mesa 20/20 or Marshall EL84 20/20 or an ADA Microtube or Microfet... hell, wouldn't even mind the Marshall 8008 again (had it a long time ago).

What other single rack space guitar power amps are out there? Rocktron? Any secret lowliers that are awesome, 1 rack space, and might have been used in the 80's?

Let me know!
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ISP do an interesting class AB SS power amp that's 1u rack and about 1/3 width. Comes with rack ears. Isp Stealth.
 
simon_d said:
ISP do an interesting class AB SS power amp that's 1u rack and about 1/3 width. Comes with rack ears. Isp Stealth.
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Getting an ISP Stealth Pro for my ISP Theta Pro MS to use with a guitar cab; just shipped today!
 
I have power amp on my shopping list. I considered just building my own tube power amp but I'm not skilled enough to design from the ground up and I couldn't find a suitable schematic/layout. I was leaning towards another KSR PA50 but I will definitely check out the others mentioned here.
 
ISP Stealth Pro was scheduled for delivery yesterday; they changed it to today (Saturday) and I was out; should be here Monday.

The Theta Pro DSP MS sounds great using the direct outs to a PA with subs; want to hear the Stealth Pro into my guitar cabs,


Next up getting my expression pedal working with it:



ISP-Theta-Pro-DSP-MS.png
 
RedPlated said:
I use an Avantone CLA-100. Dave Friedman had tested one and said it sounded great.

My Matrix died and used prices for them are ridiculous. And they aren’t made anymore. So I went with the Avantone. Price point is right on it. And the bonus is there’s no fan. So no noise.

https://www.sweetwater.com/c408--Mo...SlE7Qb1Fhb50l7PE4fBoCae8QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Click to expand...
I just ordered one of these to use with my FM3 based on your post. I do want to get a tube based power amp but I have 2 builds in progress that I need iron for. The OT and PT from heybooer is going to run me about 410. Jeez I miss classictone.
 
I finally settled upon a Seymour Duncan Powerstage 800 for my Fractal device. It works. Sounds pretty decent. Can’t complain. I was worried about it not sounding’tube emough’, and, I fretted greatly for months prior to buying it. Alas, I’m 100% satisfied with it, and haven’t looked back.
 
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