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What's the best class D bass amp head you've used?


thebassist

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16 minutes ago, thebassist said:

Taking into account things like purity/cleanliness of sound, size, weight, power, etc., what's the best class D bass amp head you've used?

TechAmp Puma 500 (the 300 & 900 are pretty good too :) )

Everything you ask for and more. 

 

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36 minutes ago, chris_b said:

IMO they have all been good, but my current Aguilar AG700 is the best so far.

I'm possibly thinking about getting another D class at some point soon. Be very interested to hear what else you have had and why you feel the AG700 trumps them? I'm sure the OP will be interested too! 

Same query for you @MacDaddywith your TecAmp :) 

Edited by Al Krow
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11 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

I'm possibly thinking about getting another D class at some point soon. Be very interested to hear what else you have had and why you feel the AG700 trumps them? I'm sure the OP will be interested too! 

Same query for you @MacDaddywith your TecAmp :) 

Before I purchased mine, I tried/played/borrowed many heads. I knew I wanted SS and light, so class D seemed the way to go.

There was a GK I was impressed by, the Aguilar didn't do it for me, nor any Mark Bass, some were way out of my budget, and others bigger than 1u in height.

When I tried a TecAmp Puma, it ticked all my boxes plus it was easy to get a great sound straightaway with my bass. So when one became available on Basschat at a more than reasonable price I bought it :) 

If you want to have a fiddle with it on Saturday you are more than welcome?

 

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1 minute ago, bassfan said:

To date.... the TC RH750. Versatile, light, feature rich, what’s not to like 😃

The fact that every time you turn around it tells you what note you're playing in glowing LED in real time. What if the audience spots you're playing the wrong note? 😄 

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I was unlucky with the reliability of my Markbass head or I may well have said it was the best I've tried, its impossible to say. 

I've only had four class D heads, Bugera Veyron, MB 800,TCE 250 and Orange Terror 1000. 

The best, hands down was the Orange. Unbelievable power, clean as a whistle unless you cranked the gain (which you could hardly do unless playing Che Stadium) responsive tone controls. 

Awesome bit of kit. 

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1 minute ago, stewblack said:

I was unlucky with the reliability of my Markbass head or I may well have said it was the best I've tried, its impossible to say. 

I've only had four class D heads, Bugera Veyron, MB 800,TCE 250 and Orange Terror 1000. 

The best, hands down was the Orange. Unbelievable power, clean as a whistle unless you cranked the gain (which you could hardly do unless playing Che Stadium) responsive tone controls. 

Awesome bit of kit. 

It's such a shame they have discontinued the Terror 1000W at 4ohms; the current range is more "slightly scary" at half the power output than unbridled terror.

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I've used a few, going back several years (Acoustic Image, Euphonic Audio, Aguilar TH500) but my favourite has been the Ashdown Retroglide.  It's just a power amp with a graphic eq in front...no flavour of its own, just takes what you plug in and makes it louder...give or take the graphic settings.   I mostly stick a Sansamp in front, but that's from choice not necessity.

 

 

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16 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

The fact that every time you turn around it tells you what note you're playing in glowing LED in real time. What if the audience spots you're playing the wrong note? 😄 

I’d like them to tell me as I’m clearly not noticing 😂

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Bergantino B|Amp:  700w @4 Ohms, Programmable EQ points and Q width, Speaker profiles, in-built parallel compression, Overdrive, Distortion, Fuzz, HPF, LPF, tuner and all can be saved into three pre-sets than can be selected via the amp or an optional Bluetooth footswitch.

Honourable 2nd place:  Aguilar AG700

I've also owned class D amps by Markbass and TC Electronic.

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Mesa Boogie D800 as main amp and Fender Rumble 800HD as backup.

Mesa D800 a multi voiced powerhouse with built in HPF, great for a wide variety musical styles.

Fender Rumble 800HD powerful clean Fender tone with three distinct voicing presets offering a broad sim of some classic amps.  

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6 minutes ago, jrixn1 said:

@thebassist,  referencing your other recent thread , where you explain that you play in stereo: won't you need a stereo power amp - or are you planning to get two separate head units?  Apologies if I've mis-extrapolated and that is not relevant here, or I've misunderstood, etc.

Yes, I currently use two Trickfish Bullhead 1Ks. A stereo power bass amp would be cool - I must admit, I've not looked into that.

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For me its my Fender Rumble 800 HD head. Its not perfect overall, but it has more things i like and hardly anything ill never use.

I like it so much that i put it up for sale and then withdrew it.

I am torn between this and my MB800, which is noticeably smaller and has a punchier tone, but for now ill stick with the Fender.

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8 minutes ago, thebassist said:

Yes, I currently use two Trickfish Bullhead 1Ks. A stereo power bass amp would be cool - I must admit, I've not looked into that.

Something like: https://www.thomann.de/gb/crown_xls_2002.htm ?  That particular one is 2x650W @ 4 Ohm or 2x375W @ 8 Ohm - but they also have lower- and higher-powered models.

You might or might not need a pre-amp; depends what your effects setup currently is - from a pedalboard?
 

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I've had more than a dozen, from most of the Usual Suspects (MarkBass, Aguilar, Ashdown, GK, TC, etc, etc), the two best were the GB Streamliner, which was very warm and valvey, but the very best by a good way was the Magellan - tons of power and heft (I had the 800), two channels giving lots and lots of flexibility, will run down to 2.67 ohms, and it can sound quick and clean, or valvey without having any actual valves in it. A very musical amp...

Edit: I forgot; it has a very useful HPF built into it, and when I asked Genzler about it, I got a very nice and comprehensive answer from Jeff G himself...

Edited by Muzz
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Lightweight amps I've had are the Ashdown Mibass 500, the Markbass LMIII and the Aguilar TH500. I've ended up with the Ashdown RM500. It's got the most sensibly specified eq and does the 'slam' thing that not all lightweight amps do well.

 

Edited by stevie
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1 hour ago, jrixn1 said:

Something like: https://www.thomann.de/gb/crown_xls_2002.htm ?  That particular one is 2x650W @ 4 Ohm or 2x375W @ 8 Ohm - but they also have lower- and higher-powered models.

You might or might not need a pre-amp; depends what your effects setup currently is - from a pedalboard?
 

Hmm...this is very interesting! I think this is something I might pursue.

Yes - my pedalboard contains:

  1. Lehle volume pedal into...
  2. Darkglass Alpha Omega Distortion  into...
  3. Digitech Obscura Delay into...
  4. TC Electronic Flashback Delay into...
  5. Neunaber Immerse Reverb into...
  6. TC Electronic Flashback Delay into...
  7. TC Electronic Ditto X2 Looper into...
  8. TC Electronic Ditto Stereo Looper
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