GtrGear said:
The past 30 years I have owned from past to present (with two or three poweramps same time):
1) Marshall Valvestate 8080
2) Peavey Classic 50/50 (EL84)
3) Mesa 20/20 (EL84)
4) Rocktron Velocity Valve (5881)
5) VHT 2:50:2 (EL34)
6) Mesa 2:90 (6L6)
7) Mesa 3:95 (6L6)
8) VHT 2:50:2 (EL34) 2nd time
9) VHT 2:90:2 (KT88)
10) Randall RT2:50 (EL34:6L6)
11) Mesa 2:100 (6L6) over 10 years now
1) no powertubes...
2) Very good for the money. But EL84 lacks punchy depth bass power.
Resonance and Presence nice feature
3) Louder than 2! Still EL84 lacks for me.
4) More mature than 1/2/3. A little nasal/'constipated' sound.
5) Very clear and open. Colors the sound less than 4
6) More 'guitar'. Mesa colors sound way more than VHT.
Depth and half power not usefull for my liking. Lacks a little punch
due to pseudo class A outer sockets. Mixing 6L6/EL34 possible.
Was thinking about outer sockets modifying to 'normal' bias for more
punch.
7) 3he and heavy. Can't remember well anymore. Was an old one and had
some trouble.
8) Again, see 5
9) Didn't like it that much. Too 'stiff' and lineair. Could be nice for powering a
heavy preamp that needs not to much coloration from poweramp.
10) Nice. But unreliable. 1 died on me.
11) In Modern mode a very pleasing 'grunt' to the sound no other poweramp
has. With clean and breakup sounds (Twin/DeLuxe/Bman/VX) I used it in
standard mode. Gain I switch by midi to Modern mode. Be carefull with
the presence knobs in standard mode (auto bypassed in Modern mode)
The 'grunt' could be annoying if you want ultra clear punch metal.
Tested a lot of other stuff like Synergy 5050, Koch ATR4502 and some I can't remember the brand anymore. Last 10 years the 2:100 and still going strong!
Never tried a valvestate, but heard it was decent. Tried every solid-state rocktron poweramp I could find; the velocity 100 was meh, the 300(new version, tried the old one, and an old 250 but they were also meh) was actually pretty good and ran that for a couple of years - would recommend it over the current Mainline which I found way too dark sounding. Tried more than a few of the Mosvalve offerings but didn't really like them at all and couldn't see why people dug them so much.
I didn't bond with the 20/20 either, with fat-mod and without - like you said it's too loose sounding. had a mesa 50/50 that was too loose too, though I did like the low-power mode on it. the 2:50 with 6l6s is too loose and too scooped, but running el34s gives it a much tighter and mid-focused sound which I like, and it's half the weight of the 2:100, which is another reason I've held onto it.
Would like to get my hands on a Strategy amp - a 400 or a 500 to see what one of those beasts is like. and even though it would be complete absolute overkill I'd like to own a Coliseum 300; double the power of the 2:100 with all the options of a 2:90 on it... If I could find one that wouldn't be bank-busting.
Like you, I've tried a *****-ton of poweramps but the 2:100 is the only one I've always come back to.
That said, there's a few I'd like to get my hands on to try like some VHTs, a Marshall dual-mono-block etc. The tone search is never over...
