wateroftyne

I can say that the Handbox R-400 is - IMO - the God of class A/B's, but understand that it doesn't meet your criteria for native UK support.

Just a thought: would like to see him do it with a bass, to see whether hairy-ar5ed bass frequencies give a different result.

It's a fact of life - like it or not, there's nowt you can do about it other than politely ask people nicely not to do it. ...but then you'd look a bit prima donna-ish.

Not unusual for Letterman back in the day when the guest band had a bass player...

A bit unfair without sources, I think...?

'Can you remember the first time you sang in public..?' 'Yeah - that was about two years ago in a pub...' That's got to be the dictionary definition of a meteoric rise, especially when you consider she was (and is) pretty much unique.

FWIW this isn't a new policy from them. I enquired about buying a new neck for one of mine (for cosmetic reasons) and he wouldn't entertain the idea unless I sent the whole thing back to him.

I’m confused now - that’s three amps I didn’t get on with..?

Ah, one of the rare joys of nicotine.

Interesting - I wouldn't have had the Streamliner, TC RH450 or Demeter down as "Euro-modern hard rock/metal" flavour.

So in that case I would say I never found a preamp I clicked with on the Cass D's owned, but had a very good hit rate on the A/B's. Quite a coincidence!

OK, but I’m a musician, not a scientist. Don’t have time for that.

Fair enough. I'd say my issues in general are more due to response than voicing, though.

When I was on the amp merry-go-round years ago, trying to work out what was missing from my sound, people weren't saying 'Oh, it's a Class D thing'. I had to work it out for myself - I wasn't listening with my eyes.

Of course you can't - hence my conclusions drawn from real-world experience and evaluation over many gigs. It's worth mentioning that I was an early adopter - my journey with Class D began about 20 years ago. At that time, there was no hype for me to get swept up in. Maybe there's a head with a different power module from the last few years that does the job? I dunno. I'm still seeing more and more people coming out to say class D isn't for them. It's a moot point for me anyway, I've found the perfect head for me, and it's not exactly big or heavy.

My own real-world experience is not ‘talking around the issue’.

Why would you want to do that? Who uses an amp in that environment? I prefer my own real-world experience gleaned from proper gigs. Bear in mind I have no axe to grind. Who wouldn’t want a tiny amp that does the job just just as well as a slightly bigger one? Wxperience tells me they’re not the same, and I’m afraid until I try one that ticks the boxes after I’ve gigged it in a number of scenarios (not once in a church hall with a blindfold on), you’re not going to be able to convince me otherwise. Same goes for a new bass. A blindfold test against the old one in a church hall will tell me nowt.

or maybe … Class D power amps don’t behave in a way people who prefer A/B find pleasing.’ I used a Demeter for a few gigs once. Liked the simple preamp, but at volume the sound was the usual blah that I’d experienced many times before with a micro. Tried the Handbox, which has a very similar pre bolted to an A/B power stage. Bingo. Never looked back.

By extension, your comments above apply to everyone in this thread who has said they find class-D lacking. I trust my own experience, and I'm sure the other posters have a bit of faith in theirs.

I dunno - 13 years later there still doesn't seem to be a gap in the market for it 😄 Nope... still struggling to see it (just like the target audience 13 years ago, I guess).

For that to be a strong selling hook, the combination of modules would have to offer something pretty much unique. Was that the case?

I had one of them. Kept cutting out. Sent it back.