Evh 5150 Iconic 80W Top IV

I d like to start by clarifying this IS my first Tube Amp, however, i have had allot of little combos, and played for about 20 years, mastered personal EQ ing to simulate an analog setup (amp/mic/cabinet) with whatever gear i had before IRs or external sound cards. - recently, having a custom 4x12 with very custom interchangeable speakers (which matter more), having a Joyo Bantamp, a solid state powerhead with 1 Ruby 12AX7 WITH a 2x9 channel studio EQ in the loop and a Rocktron Pro Hush (rig version) that amp sounds amazing. i have a CRATE GT1200H 120W amp, that can push series-wiring way over 16ohms cumulative value for all speakers (perfect for studio-room rec) - they sound great if you know what you re doing.
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but this amp... the Iconic, any 5150, and quite perhaps any tube amp will sound amazing, the feel is just there. it s what you ve ever dreamed of, and missed, playing these solid states. it s more of a feel thing, not as much a recording thing, but it s there, because the quality is there. it doesn t need mucking around in fx loops, it doesn t need much if anything before it. it s just all there.

great value for the money. why?

- Has 2 high or extremely high gain channels. Plus a boost on top of any.
- Green has OD, more naturally dynamic. Red has BURN, a more compressed distortion feel, highly suited for modern applications.
- has a built in noise gate which DOES help. doesn t do all of the work but compared to amps who don t have it, it s a plus, and makes your Gate cope better.
- sound is a tad thinner than the stealth 5150 series, the 5150 mkIII or the blockletter, but you DO have controls for that -- in some mixes and some youtube showcases, this produces a more mix-ready sound and a more clearer sharper more modern and polished tone. it s not a grit monster, that s very hard to put in the mix anyway, i mean a triple rectifier has allot of low end and isn t as tunable as a Boogie Mk5 which i understand can dial every guitar tone out there -- but hey -- you only need one good sound, and this sound, sorry to say, isn t good. it s great. i m not comparing it to Tube amps i didn t try that are double its price... that seem to do somewhat of a thicker sound if you re into that - as modern metal goes these days, but nothing you couldn t iron out in this.

Either way, i d advise you listen to Glenn Fricker's advice, the tone is in the speaker. I mean once you get one or two good amps, it s all in the dynamics of your capturing technique, oh i use it as a studio amp, i m probably not going to lug it around. it s a cheaper package and i understand there might be some chinese glue on some components that are prone to be impacted by extreme heat. we shall see.

Construction seems solid, Delivery was awesome, i got a tube amp shipped in the winter, let it sit in a room with a fireplace for at least 4-5 hours before i played it, though the packaging was superb, and it was above freezing those days anyway. YOU MUST let devices like these, even AMP ATTENUATORS sit for a while to acclimatize. You don t want any condensation shorting expensive high voltage equipment.

first time i used it, i used it without attenuator, didn t try it with that yet, have to patch up another cable for that. (cables must be of a speaker-gauge cable, much thicker than an instrument cable, the jacks are fine, the gauges are not).
Sound was amazing even as such. You don t have to use it full power anyway, cause it has a 1/4 Power switch on the right next to Standby and Power-on. 4x12 Room recordable

The Presence knob is awesome, gives another dimensionality to the high end gain, other than what the treble knob does. Treble sort of moves the high mids, like from a 2k 3k 4k 5k ish perspective and the Presence gives it a 5k 6k 7k up to a 16k perspective, but with what feels like an algorithmic envelope, not making it over saturated in higher frequencies, just bumps up the right freqs you d expect to hear.

The Resonance knob blew me out of the water.
Basically you can leave it to 0, and have the sound dry, thin, can work for multiple purposes and it s super nice to have. This depends on your speaker cabinet. The more you push it, the thicker it gets, but a pleasing harmonic bass undersaturated and low mid thickness, that just makes the amp come alive and makes my eyeballs go big and my ears perk up.

some reviews online do not do this amp justice. some thankfully do. Tone Wars knows what he s doing. took that advice over just seeing one guy and one cab and judging that one tone he had going. Maybe he used the XLR. i didn t use it yet, but i understand it s meh-ok. With an attenuator you can capture the line out as well and send your amp DI to further reamping later. Reamping an AMP DI is less likely and would require a HiFi rig tied to those speakers - but it s great for putting your own Cab IRs on the Amp sound if that s your thing. Why mention? Cause the XLR has its own IR. which i understand is decent but it s not necessarily something you d put on a record. Real world still is king.

Awesome amp. Thrash to Nu Metal. Prog. Signature Sound.
Beautiful and Feature Rich. You can't go wrong.

Well packaged although my unit had a slight cosmetic defect on the wrapping (Not sure if it's leather) Two very small dents that Thomann covered in a gift voucher which is always a plus! That way I didn't need to send my amplifier back. Amplifier looks absolutely stunning in the ivory model, Nice and neat with the black mesh in the front and back! I can't fault the looks of this model it looks absolutely stunning like I say. Functionality it might take about an hour to read the manual and find out how the amplifier works (I would highly recommend you read the manual :)) You have two channels 1# is clean and 2# is dirty channel that sounds absolutely out of this world! A overdrive button for the 1st channel and a burn button for the 2nd channel that makes it sound even more jagged and a boost for both channels if you wish to enable it. Absolutely no noise whatsoever (I don't have many pedals as of now however so) My first time using a tube amplifier and the detail is just insane. Every attack on the strings you make you can hear the angle you strike them at every little detail and no loss whatsoever,

The XLR emulated speaker is also very good and clear for recording! Absolutely no noise whatsoever no needing to go back in the DAW and remove certain parts. Every thing about this amplifier is absolutely 5/5 I'm in love with it! If you have the money spare and such go for this amplifier you will not regret it :)