KSR Orion 45w lunchbox amp

[KnightBrolaire]

Reza has a demo of the Orion now. I don't know if it's just the alnico cream speakers or something but it feels very fucking bright

 

[Emperoff]

Reza has a demo of the Orion now. I don't know if it's just the alnico cream speakers or something but it feels very fucking bright

Brigth switch on, treble at 7, presence at 9, and NFB at zero. It’s dialed in fucking bright.

 

[technomancer]

Brigth switch on, treble at 7, presence at 9, and NFB at zero. It’s dialed in fucking bright.

Yeah that was painful... I also really don't care for the alnico creams for high gain so that made it even worse

 

[protest]

I don't know if this helps, but for some kind of tone reference these settings on the Gemini are basically a 1:1 with my Rev G, boosting them both...Treble and Presence are way lower than in Reza's video



Settings on the Rev G, Gain 1:00, Treble 12:30, Mids 12:00, Bass 10:30 , Presence 8:30.

Not super loud, low 90 dbs.

 

[MoistTowelette]

With the newer KSRs, I’ve noticed that you really have to dime the presence to give it some hair. It behaves noticeably different on the mk2s than the old mk1 heads I’ve owned. The new presence goes from like 10% to 100% the last 1/10th of a turn. I was thinking about replacing the presence pot on my Juno to something more linear.

 

[DestroyMankind]

I went down to KSR to get my cab I ordered from them and got a chance to try out the Orion head with the cab. It's definitely an awesome head, and I think I'll be getting one in the future.

 

[MatrixClaw]

Reza has a demo of the Orion now. I don't know if it's just the alnico cream speakers or something but it feels very fucking bright

Yeah, I generally prefer bright tones but that was way too bright. That's how I feel about most of his videos, though.

 

[owlexifry]

the lack of NFB is going to make the presence and depth controls a lot less effective.

maybe that's why the treble is dialled so high as well..

so with all that and the depth control doing fuck all due to 'zero' NFB, not surprised if it's bright.

 

[BrutalRob]

With the newer KSRs, I’ve noticed that you really have to dime the presence to give it some hair. It behaves noticeably different on the mk2s than the old mk1 heads I’ve owned. The new presence goes from like 10% to 100% the last 1/10th of a turn. I was thinking about replacing the presence pot on my Juno to something more linear.

That´s why I got Invert log potis on my amps these days, makes the useful range start a lot earlier. Works well for me.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Metalhead productions made a demo of the Orion. It does death metal with no issue from the sound of it. Little spikier sounding than other demos but I'm going to chalk that up to how he has it mic'd up.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Metalhead productions made a demo of the Orion. It does death metal with no issue from the sound of it. Little spikier sounding than other demos but I'm going to chalk that up to how he has it mic'd up.

That just seems to be how he dials in amps.

 

[MatrixClaw]

I had really high hopes for this thing at release, but I've still yet to hear a tone from it that remotely intrigued me

 

[Hollowway]

I had really high hopes for this thing at release, but I've still yet to hear a tone from it that remotely intrigued me

Yeah, same. I feel the same way about the IR-X, too. In both cases I hear a lot of saturation, but nothing else special. In contrast, the JEL-20 sounds godly in the demos. At this point I’m wondering how much of it is EQ choices and speakers. Because I can’t imagine this can’t get that high mid spike and clarity. I hear it in other KSR amps, so I gotta assume it’s just not great demos.

 

[MatrixClaw]

Yeah, same. I feel the same way about the IR-X, too. In both cases I hear a lot of saturation, but nothing else special. In contrast, the JEL-20 sounds godly in the demos. At this point I’m wondering how much of it is EQ choices and speakers. Because I can’t imagine this can’t get that high mid spike and clarity. I hear it in other KSR amps, so I gotta assume it’s just not great demos.

Yeah, The Axe Palace said the IR-X is awesome but the tones I've heard from it are meh, so I'm not sure on that one, either. FWIW, I recently tried an Orthos and wasn't impressed. Was ready to trade my Diezel for it, but the cleans were uninspiring and the gain channel didn't really do anything for me. It was a cool amp, but definitely not cool enough to give up my Einstein for it.

 

[Emperoff]

Youtube demos can only get you so far. I rarely like the tones I hear (specially on metal oriented gear). There's only one way to find out, so I take youtube vids as a demo of the features rather than the tones.

 

[MatrixClaw]

Youtube demos can only get you so far. I rarely like the tones I hear (specially on metal oriented gear). There's only one way to find out, so I take youtube vids as a demo of the features rather than the tones.

I usually have the opposite problem, though. Generally, newly released amps get a ton of high quality videos right off the bat that run through all their features. They usually pull out at least 2-3 good tones out of the amps and showcase their capabilities pretty well. Every video I've seen of the Orion either sounds like garbage or it's just some guy chugging for a few minutes and not going through any of the features I feel most people care about.

I've heard a few good recordings of the amp, but they've definitely been the outliers, whereas any other amp brand out there is going to have a ton of great demos, with little room to see the amp's downfalls. At least in the case of the good sounding reviews, I can hear the potential of the amp to sound great, but when there's a lack of good demos out there, it's hard for me to justify spending the cash to try it out. Since KSR isn't a brand that is in any shops, it's definitely a harder sell than others that might be and it's really too bad they don't seem to get as much coverage. Opinions on their amps seem to be all over the place, too. Kyle seems to be a really cool dude and everyone seems to love the build quality of their amps, though.

 

[technomancer]

I usually have the opposite problem, though. Generally, newly released amps get a ton of high quality videos right off the bat that run through all their features. They usually pull out at least 2-3 good tones out of the amps and showcase their capabilities pretty well. Every video I've seen of the Orion either sounds like garbage or it's just some guy chugging for a few minutes and not going through any of the features I feel most people care about.

I've heard a few good recordings of the amp, but they've definitely been the outliers, whereas any other amp brand out there is going to have a ton of great demos, with little room to see the amp's downfalls. At least in the case of the good sounding reviews, I can hear the potential of the amp to sound great, but when there's a lack of good demos out there, it's hard for me to justify spending the cash to try it out. Since KSR isn't a brand that is in any shops, it's definitely a harder sell than others that might be and it's really too bad they don't seem to get as much coverage. Opinions on their amps seem to be all over the place, too. Kyle seems to be a really cool dude and everyone seems to love the build quality of their amps, though.

Yeah it's harder to get good demos when you're not sending out 50 free amps to youtubers at launch.

 

[Emperoff]

Yeah it's harder to get good demos when you're not sending out 50 free amps to youtubers at launch.

This.

HOWEVER, KSR demos are usually pretty scarce and terrible. I mean, it's not that hard to get just one person to properly demo the stuff you sell, isn't it?

Stuff like this is pretty great, and it's done by just the dudes behind the company:

 

[ExMachina]

Hey look the ola demo

 

[protest]

That's what it looks like when Ola actually does a video for free I guess.