KSR Orion 45w lunchbox amp

[budda]

I had no idea about the NFB thing until I got the axefx and played around with it. Then I wished everything had it .

 

[MetalDestroyer]

Technically most amps with presence and/or resonance controls have adjustable global negative feedback, just in select frequency bands. /pedantic

 

[ExMachina]

Technically most amps with presence and/or resonance controls have adjustable global negative feedback, just in select frequency bands. /pedantic

Not totally sure, but I think in this case the NFB is global, in a circuitry sense not frequency. So it will control the linearity of the power amp and increase the bandwidth.

 

[technomancer]

Not totally sure, but I think in this case the NFB is global, in a circuitry sense not frequency. So it will control the linearity of the power amp and increase the bandwidth.

It's probably just a pot in addition to the NFB resistor... several of the Friedman amps do that and a bunch of Camerons do that with a switch instead of a pot IIRC

 

[KnightBrolaire]

What's really impressive is the whole package itself. The adjustable NFB was an unexpected surprise. I mean that is usually something you can only alter modifying the amp itself, and definetely not something I'd expect on a modern hi-gain amp (because most folks worried about it are classic rockers trying to turn everything into a JCM800).

An 8kg "big bottle" multi-channel amp is a wet dream for me. Add a DV Mark 212 cab for peanuts at 12kg (or even their 412 at 22kg) and you've got a thunderous yet ridiculously light setup.

My Peters FSM and MI Beta have NFB knobs (though they call them damping/contour) and they're definitely modern high gain amps. I usually crank the the NFB to make them feel wayyy more percussive and tight ime. The Reactor NRG also has an NFB, and it sounds pretty modern from what I've heard in clips/from @BrutalRob

 

[Emperoff]

My Peters FSM and MI Beta have NFB knobs (though they call them damping/contour) and they're definitely modern high gain amps. I usually crank the the NFB to make them feel wayyy more percussive and tight ime. The Reactor NRG also has an NFB, and it sounds pretty modern from what I've heard in clips/from @BrutalRob

I didn't know about any of those amps but I figured it couldn't be the first one to implement it.

It's funny how old rockers have been modding their amps for ages trying to get them closer to older amps NFB values, yet the amps that are actually implementing adjustable NFB are modern sounding (and people are using it exactly the opposite way ).

If it's anything like the Ceres, I'll probably use the lowest possible setting. That thing is surgically tight already. I'm also happy to see the "feel" switches gone. None of those settings sounded good to me.

 

[MatrixClaw]

My Ampeg B25 was modded with an adjustable NFB control and it makes it sound epic. I'll be curious to hear this against the Ares. Not sure what the Ares gives you over this now.

 

[Emperoff]

Ok, so you bastards made me dust off my KSR Ceres to re-review my impressions. I stand by what I said. The different modes sound nearly identical when adjusting the gain between them. Drive channels are basically the same thing with a tweaked voicing aimed at solo stuff, and "feel" switches are useless.

Now, rythm drive channel on the Ceres sounds exactly the same as the blue channel in the video posted. The lead channel on the Orion doesn't seem as fat and compressed, so looks like they are very nicely balanced to use with a single EQ.

What I've always missed on the Ceres was a proper clean and crunch modes. Yeah, technically they're there, but the clean channel sucks donkey balls (no EQ) and the crunch forces you to sacrifice the rythm channel (since it's pretty much unuseable on the lead one), and you couldn't get classic tones out of it since the gain structure is designed for the higher gain settings. Having a dedicated "Clean + Crunch" channel solves all issues. The lack of proper MIDI is no issue, since there are only two settings to switch anyway and that can be done with a TRS.

Can't fucking wait for you guys start ordering these and telling me how awesome they are . Meanwhile I'd be on the hunt for one of them to hit Reverb (and hoping they hit European stores at some point).

 

[ExMachina]

Here's a comparison of the artemis with the sigx, to baseline the KSR sound.

 

[BrutalRob]

Nice to finally see the NFB knob in an KSR amp. Been hoping for ages that they would revision their amps and include these. Or at least an NFB switch.
The New Bogner uberschall has one as well though they call it density.
Mezzabarba has it, peters as @KnightBrolaire stated, my NRG amp has it, kaos amps been doing this for ages....
changing the NFB makes a hell lot of difference so i hoped for some time now they would become more common.

And yeah, it is like metal desteoyer said. Presence and depth work in the nfb, they are filters in the nfb.
The more you turn the nfb up or rather, reduce the signal been fed back, the less presence and depth will work

 

[Vostre Roy]

I feel like calling a 45w amp using 6L6GC/EL34 a "lunchbox" amp is stretching the therm a little bit ahaha

Other than that, nothing negative to say, looks like there's more tonal options than my Gemini in a smaller package, at that price its probably one of the best amp you can get for any modern metal tone, but the crunch and clean shouldn't be overlooked either as they are absolutely great.

I'll try to make a "NAD" thread for my Gemini at some point to get into more detail, but yeah KSR is the tits

 

[ExMachina]

I got permission to buy one under certain conditions are met, should know in a few weeks here. Will post up if I do.

 

[Emperoff]

Ok, straight from the horse's mouth:

"Since the Ceres is designed to sound like our amps, you could say this is like a Ceres in a tube head form, haha. The Ceres is all solid state, so there are some differences in how things react, this is all-tube".

"Ares simplicity and punch with Gemini level saturation possible"

"All channels are a similar basic voice that can be tweaked"

I reeeeally hope the clean channel is better than that abomination on the Ceres, though

 

[Vostre Roy]

I reeeeally hope the clean channel is better than that abomination on the Ceres, though

Coming from 2 years playing with a Ceres straight through a tube amp's effect return to an actual Gemini amp, the clean is definetly better on the amplifier, which makes sense given the Ceres is still all solid state with minimal EQ shaping options versus having an actual 3 bands EQ on an all tube amplifier.

That being said, adding an EQ pedal right after the Ceres did a wonder to improve its clean channel.

 

[Emperoff]

Coming from 2 years playing with a Ceres straight through a tube amp's effect return to an actual Gemini amp, the clean is definetly better on the amplifier, which makes sense given the Ceres is still all solid state with minimal EQ shaping options versus having an actual 3 bands EQ on an all tube amplifier.

Looks like this thing is an Ares-Ceres mashup.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

The Ceres' clean channel seemed like an afterthought. I don't think it'll be the case here

 

[protest]

KSR amps have much better cleans than the Ceres. I don't know if this amp has 2 "V1" tubes like the bigger amps though.

 

[technomancer]

KSR amps have much better cleans than the Ceres. I don't know if this amp has 2 "V1" tubes like the bigger amps though.

It's got 5 pre tubes so it wouldn't surprise me...

 

[Kosthrash]

So many tubes in such little space, grilles only on the back side?

 

[technomancer]

So many tubes in such little space, grilles only on the back side?

There are renders on the product page linked in the first post...