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Genzler, Mesa, Aguilar & GK - The public's votes on class D amps

Choose your favorite of these amps


  • Total voters
    287
I've played all but the Genzler. These are all great amps. They have different tonal goals. The Best depends on your needs.

I went with the Mesa. It is very similar to my old Thunderfunk 550b. Heft behind the notes. The Tonehammer can be cool but for me I just never really got along with it. The GKs sound like GKs. It's a great sound if it's in your ballpark. Frankly any of these would be a great choice.
 
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I've played through all of them except the
I haven't met a "class D" that does it for me yet, but that might just mean I haven't met the right one. :)
That's how I was. I tired a GK, an Ampeg, a Markbass, a Tecamp and lost hope. Then a friend let me borrow his Aguilar for a gig and I ordered one a few days later.
 
I have owned a TH500, loved it, except it is a very vintage voiced amp, and to my ears, I could never get anything except a vintage sound out of it so I let her go. Currently own a Mesa M6, until it gave up the ghost 2 weeks ago, it was one of the first gens and the MOSFETs shorted so I had to send it in for the "upgrade" which is now a repair, waiting for its return, loved this amp, but it too had its very own distinct voice, and again I could never get anything but THAT tone from it and she is going up for sale upon her "upgrade" and return to me. Currently also own a MESA Subway D-800 for my practice/backup rig, love it, nothing bad to say about it at all. I currently own a GK MBF800 which I bought to replace my down M6 as my main live rig amp, and let me tell you, it is awesome. Nothing like anything I've played through before. I have been playing for 35 years and I have finally found that tone I was looking for, besides; this thing is a HAMMER, it feels like it can punch through concrete, after 35 years I finally know what the highly subjective word PUNCH means...at least to me.
 
I have owned a TH500, loved it, except it is a very vintage voiced amp, and to my ears, I could never get anything except a vintage sound out of it so I let her go. Currently own a Mesa M6, until it gave up the ghost 2 weeks ago, it was one of the first gens and the MOSFETs shorted so I had to send it in for the "upgrade" which is now a repair, waiting for its return, loved this amp, but it too had its very own distinct voice, and again I could never get anything but THAT tone from it and she is going up for sale upon her "upgrade" and return to me. Currently also own a MESA Subway D-800 for my practice/backup rig, love it, nothing bad to say about it at all. I currently own a GK MBF800 which I bought to replace my down M6 as my main live rig amp, and let me tell you, it is awesome. Nothing like anything I've played through before. I have been playing for 35 years and I have finally found that tone I was looking for, besides; this thing is a HAMMER, it feels like it can punch through concrete, after 35 years I finally know what the highly subjective word PUNCH means...at least to me.

The Mesa Subway would make one hell of a practice amp.
 
I went through a MarkBass LMII, a Markbass F1, a Genz-Benz Shuttle 9, and a GK MB Fusion in a ~3 year period.

I settled on the MB Fusion, which is a little warmer than the others, and have kept it for about 4 years so far.

The F1 was a freak of nature though, amazingly loud for its size. Kind of wish I still had it.
 
I've played only the Magellan, and can't say enough good about it. Maybe because Jeff was standing next to me while I demo'd it. :D
I had a 6.0 Shuttle that I loved. When it was stolen I got a 9.2 Streamliner, but at 900 watts, too big for this discussion, I take it.
 
The genzler probably is the overall for me on that list but, I think the peavey mini mega is better. They all need a variable high pass filter. There just is something bloated about the bottom on all of them that could be reigned in. Some have the filtering but, the lows seem hyped somehow. But that may just be me.

Interesting. What's the tone profile of the Peavey like? Bright? Clean? Warm?
 
Interesting. What's the tone profile of the Peavey like? Bright? Clean? Warm?
Clean, with what sounds like a pretty flat response with the EQ knobs at noon. EQ is very, very, flexible and useful, and sounds great.

It does have a switch to dirty things up, though that's not my thing. Has a decent compressor in it, plus lots of bells and whistles I've not been using.

This amp is also ABSURDLY powerful. I'm sure there's a clean headroom limit in there somewhere, but I've not managed to hit it yet. :)
 
Played the GK. If one of my Markbass heads ever bite the dust, I surely will be getting one. Wish I'd listened to them BEFORE getting my Mark heads, but oh well. It's not exactly like I have anything to complain about.

Hey, question for you Peavey guys. Just where is that thing made? I gotta try one because I am all about the clean, and that thing's got the power to deliver the goods.