Let me cut to the chase, I love Hartke and I wanted to love this amp...
Well, my reference is the Hartke LH1000 (simple, high powered, dripping with tone, perfection)
Well, almost perfect - it is on the heavy side. I was looking for a 2nd amp to keep in my studio and potentially drag out for sit-ins where I wanted to go with a lighter setup. The relatively new Hartke LX8500 seemed like it could be a great option if it kept with the Hartke heritage. I knew there would be some tonal tradeoffs with a Class D amp, but, as a light weight option that would be fine. When I first turned on the 8500 I was pleasantly surprised. It sounded really good. A/B-ing against my LH I was able to boost the low and and high end and tune out the Class D mids. In no time I had a very good sound going. It wasn't as open and organic as the LH but definitely Hartke quality. So far so good. The built in compression would definitely pass for an onboard option. The drive feature was nice. All in all the quality of the knobs, lighting and onboard mute switch were all nice. And for a Class D it really had power on tap. And then the fan came on. It was like a little hair dryer was running and much louder than my LH. It ran for a few mins and then turned off. So nice when it turned off. I played a bit more at a fairly low volume and then on came the hair dryer again. So, I must say whoever at Hartke heard that fan and thought that it was a good cooling option whiffed on that one. I'm not about to listen to that fan come off and on for the next several years just for playing at living room levels. Nope, not gonna do it. Surely, a higher quality fan, or two of them, or something could have been done to bring it back to typical levels. So, I would say the LX8500 came really close to being my light weight option. And, for louder environments it's probably a fine option. But it seems, for me at least, the fan could be intrusive for gigs on the quiet side and for playing at home. I will definitely try a future variant of this amp to see if they address the fan volume.
Sound = great.
Weight = great.
Quality = great.
Fan = too loud for me :-(
Well, my reference is the Hartke LH1000 (simple, high powered, dripping with tone, perfection)
Well, almost perfect - it is on the heavy side. I was looking for a 2nd amp to keep in my studio and potentially drag out for sit-ins where I wanted to go with a lighter setup. The relatively new Hartke LX8500 seemed like it could be a great option if it kept with the Hartke heritage. I knew there would be some tonal tradeoffs with a Class D amp, but, as a light weight option that would be fine. When I first turned on the 8500 I was pleasantly surprised. It sounded really good. A/B-ing against my LH I was able to boost the low and and high end and tune out the Class D mids. In no time I had a very good sound going. It wasn't as open and organic as the LH but definitely Hartke quality. So far so good. The built in compression would definitely pass for an onboard option. The drive feature was nice. All in all the quality of the knobs, lighting and onboard mute switch were all nice. And for a Class D it really had power on tap. And then the fan came on. It was like a little hair dryer was running and much louder than my LH. It ran for a few mins and then turned off. So nice when it turned off. I played a bit more at a fairly low volume and then on came the hair dryer again. So, I must say whoever at Hartke heard that fan and thought that it was a good cooling option whiffed on that one. I'm not about to listen to that fan come off and on for the next several years just for playing at living room levels. Nope, not gonna do it. Surely, a higher quality fan, or two of them, or something could have been done to bring it back to typical levels. So, I would say the LX8500 came really close to being my light weight option. And, for louder environments it's probably a fine option. But it seems, for me at least, the fan could be intrusive for gigs on the quiet side and for playing at home. I will definitely try a future variant of this amp to see if they address the fan volume.
Sound = great.
Weight = great.
Quality = great.
Fan = too loud for me :-(
Last edited:
