NAD: Mesa Mark V:25, as my Engl Ironball wanted a lil' bro.

[Speeddemon]

As some of you may have seen my questions on this forum earlier, in regards to how the Ironball compared to the Mini Mark V, I figured 'what the heck', the GAS is killin' me, I've seen every damn Youtube vid probably 5 times, I *need* this amp.
"Need", meaning "I have enough amps, but this lil' brudder seems so cool".



So having A/B-ed the Ironball and the Mark V:25 today plenty, it's fair to say it's a keeper!
(and the Ironball ain't goin' anywhere either)

I'll follow up with a more indepth review, but for now the main takeaway is:
-Ironball if you like tight, yet big sounding high gain and everything in between, in a bit of Marshally-way, with decent cleans, whilst operating silently.
-Mark V:25 if you like tight high gain, lots of flexibility for the in-between tones, GORGEOUS cleans and are o.k. with a little fan noise.

They weigh about the same, and size wise are very similar too (the Mark is a about 2.5" higher.)

I've owned a Mark IV Rev A for a short period, tried everything on it and loved the clean tones and high gain leads, but didn't care for R2 at all. Too 'rigid', raw, un-Marshally.
Luckily, the Mark V:25's crunch mode is everything I hoped it would be and more! I test drove it at the guy who was selling it and after hearing the cleans and the crunch, I was like "I don't really even need to bother testing the 2nd channel...this crunch mode is indeed worth the price of admission alone!"

 

[blackba]

Congrats on the new v:25. Almost got one but ended up with a ta15 that I love. I hear you about r2 on the mark Iva, I use a maxon od808 to boost r2 on my mark IV and it really helps a ton.

My only experience with engl was the fireball 60 which was just not versatile enough for me.

 

[zewango]

Mini Stacks look great. I had an Ironball cool little amp.

 

[Speeddemon]

I tried boosting R2 too, but it was the main character of that channel that left me wanting.
Even when boosted, I still missed a certain chunkyness and juicyness. It was more like a HiWatt amp trying to impersonate a Rivera's drive channel or something.

None of that in the Mark V:25 luckily.

 

[59Bassman]

Fantastic set of amps.

I love my Mark V. I was this close || to buying a V:25 earlier this year, but I went with a Suhr Bella instead to get me a different flavor.

I just wish they'd made the V:25 with 6V6 instead of EL84's....

 

[blackba]

Fantastic set of amps.

I love my Mark V. I was this close || to buying a V:25 earlier this year, but I went with a Suhr Bella instead to get me a different flavor.

I just wish they'd made the V:25 with 6V6 instead of EL84's....

+1 on the 6v6. Also with the v:25 had a 5 watt mode instead of 10w mode. The big mark v has a 10w mode.

 

[PBGas]

I tried one again the other day. Really nice little amp. Obviously lots of love for the extreme mode but channel 1 in the third mode is really nice!

 

[Speeddemon]

Fantastic set of amps.

I love my Mark V. I was this close || to buying a V:25 earlier this year, but I went with a Suhr Bella instead to get me a different flavor.

I just wish they'd made the V:25 with 6V6 instead of EL84's....

Why would you think that the 6V6 would fare better?
I read that a lot of times, but I think Mesa *has* managed to get an un-EL84 sounding clean channel (it can actually sound too Fendery and big/wide when you have a heavy V-EQ set up), and uses the EL84 compression and hi-mid focus to their advantage for the IIC+ and Mark IV sounds.
I seriously wonder if the 6V6's would have handled the high gain tones as well as EL84's can.

 

[59Bassman]

Fantastic set of amps.

I love my Mark V. I was this close || to buying a V:25 earlier this year, but I went with a Suhr Bella instead to get me a different flavor.

I just wish they'd made the V:25 with 6V6 instead of EL84's....

Why would you think that the 6V6 would fare better?
I read that a lot of times, but I think Mesa *has* managed to get an un-EL84 sounding clean channel (it can actually sound too Fendery and big/wide when you have a heavy V-EQ set up), and uses the EL84 compression and hi-mid focus to their advantage for the IIC+ and Mark IV sounds.
I seriously wonder if the 6V6's would have handled the high gain tones as well as EL84's can.

My only defense in this case is that I've never really fallen for any amps that have run EL84's. There's always a high end harshness that doesn't seem to get EQ-ed out. I have had much better luck with 6V6 amps than any I've tried with EL84's. I will gladly admit that I've yet to get the opportunity to plug into a V:25 - maybe they've made it work properly.

I just have had a bias after owning a few amps with EL84's. Nothing more than that.

 

[Speeddemon]

My only defense in this case is that I've never really fallen for any amps that have run EL84's. There's always a high end harshness that doesn't seem to get EQ-ed out. I have had much better luck with 6V6 amps than any I've tried with EL84's. I will gladly admit that I've yet to get the opportunity to plug into a V:25 - maybe they've made it work properly.

I just have had a bias after owning a few amps with EL84's. Nothing more than that.

I hear ya, but still, then you owe it to yourself to really try both the Mark V:25 and the Engl Ironball.

I've been on quite a trip myself to find a decent mini head. First owned the H&K Tubemeister 18 for almost a year, then the same with the Carvin V3M.
And once I got the Ironball, I was at a point that I finally liked the crunch and high gain tones, also with neck humbuckers. Because the TM18 and V3M would really make that a saturated fizzyness. The Ironball finally brought the 'thump', without mud, and scream without fizz.
The only thing that was so-so with the Ironball, was the clean tone. It sort of sounds like the Mark V:25 clean mode WITHOUT the graphic EQ.
But the Mark V:25 *with* the graphic EQ becomes pure magic, both in Clean and Fat modes.

 

[Little B]

very cool..definitely on my want to buy list is the v25...I actually think I like it better than the big mkV!.

 

[McLeanAB]

I am seriously considering one of these...

My only concern was that after trying out the Triaxis, I loved the cleans and mid-gain tones, but the high gain stuff left me wanting.

 

[blackba]

Fantastic set of amps.

I love my Mark V. I was this close || to buying a V:25 earlier this year, but I went with a Suhr Bella instead to get me a different flavor.

I just wish they'd made the V:25 with 6V6 instead of EL84's....

Why would you think that the 6V6 would fare better?
I read that a lot of times, but I think Mesa *has* managed to get an un-EL84 sounding clean channel (it can actually sound too Fendery and big/wide when you have a heavy V-EQ set up), and uses the EL84 compression and hi-mid focus to their advantage for the IIC+ and Mark IV sounds.
I seriously wonder if the 6V6's would have handled the high gain tones as well as EL84's can.

There was a Mesa rep on TGP and his point was exactly what your concern was, that the 6v6s would not handle the high gain well. I used to have an oranges rv50mk1 with 4 6v6s and it handled high gain well. I just think the 6v6s would give it more of that big amp tone, but would have probably added weight. When I hear the coma prison clips of the mark v versus the v:25, I can always hear more punch and authority in the mark v. However I am pretty sure that unless you are comparing them back to back, you likely will not notice a lack of punch with the v:25.

 

[Speeddemon]

However I am pretty sure that unless you are comparing them back to back, you likely will not notice a lack of punch with the v:25.

Yep, things wee Little one bringeth the Punch!
Especially if you use a good 2x12 cab. So far I've tried cranking the Master volumes, but when I got them at 3, it was already louder than the Ironball at 5.
Which makes me wonder, at what point do you run out of headroom and start adding major compression on the Mark V:25?