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Mesa M9 Carbine Power Reduced?

Fawkesguy

Fawkesguy

The sea refuses no river.
Mar 5, 2005
121
136
NJ
#1
Read a comment online about Mesa possibly reducing the power output of the M9 to deal with heat and reliability issues:

".........The tone is great, but the headroom just isn't there by any stretch and I can't set the gain higher than 9 o'clock without everything turning to mush...I'd always heard M9's are crazy loud and super clean, but on their latest revision that just isn't the case. From what I was told, in order to deal with heat and reliability issues, they cut the power WAY back, though it doesn't get mentioned in any spec sheets...so, amazing sounding amp, but not enough amp for me...waiting to hear back from them for a possible solution."

I used to own an M9 and it was EXTREMELY powerful, so I was very surprised to read this. Has anyone else heard this? Is it possible Mesa has dialed the power back THAT much to deal with heat issues?
 
#2
It wouldnt surprise me if they did dial it back. The M9 has been plauged with issues, and this might have been the most realistic fix.

That said, URB player's needs are not common. In loud slap upgright he needs a LOT of head room. Like multi-kilowatt power amp kind of head room. So it could be a mixture of them dialing back the amp, and him pushing it much harder than most would dream.
 
#3
Interesting. But I'm wondering if anyone knows for sure if Mesa made a power change, or if anyone has tried an older and also a more recent M9 and noticed a difference in power.
 
#5
That's interesting. A few months ago I was purchasing a used Mesa Powerhouse 4x12 cabinet from a Long-McQuade (toronto area) to go with a M9 carbine I had very recently bought brand new. I paired it with the M9 carbine in the store. I turned up.. I honestly thought something was wrong with the cab as it seemed to lack volume and punch at settings that should blow me off my chair. I tried an M6 at that store instead of that M9 and it was easily louder. I've not ever taken my own M9 and compared to an M6. My M9 seems to be clean and mean and loud.
 
#11
Even if they reduced the output power several hundreds of watts the amp should still be ridiculously loud and all in all most noticeable differences would occur in headroom, not so much in perceived loudness.

I wager someone is just dissapointed because his 900W amp didn't (for whatever reason) seem as loud as 900W should be.

....although output power rating has practically nothing to do with perceived loudness.

That said, I'm having a deja vu about certain threads about certain Ampeg or t.c. electronic amps. If I'd have to guess, the issue is really a user error.

I have not heard of Mesa reducing the quoted output power ratings. I don't say they didn't but I seriously doubt the claim before its proven accurate. For sure it's not something that could be easily perceived by ear at least.

Then again, Mesa's really poor in specs. e.g. specs about number of MOSFETS used by their hybrid amps doesn't match actual technical literature and who needs specs like "power: 250 Watts (sounds like 500!)" ? ...Seriously...? :rollno:
 
#17
Okay, I know that an official response from Mesa is coming, but in the meantime, let me tell y'all what I know.

We had asked to receive an M9 for review right about the time it first hit the market, and Mesa sent us one of the early ones for review in BGM issue #5. However, shortly after they sent it off, they realized that the first units off the line were having some thermal issues. This was right about the time that Mesa/Boogie was going through their global UL certification efforts, so they were definitely very sensitive to thermal issues. I think about a dozen or so amps had been shipped out at this point in time (our test unit being one of them). Mesa/Boogie made the decision to recall the M9's and to scale back the power a bit from where it was on these initial units. To the best of my knowledge, this addressed the overheating issue.

FWIW, I had been able to gig with the tester M9, and it worked great, with no issues whatsoever. It had way more power than I needed, though, so I admittedly wasn't pushing it too hard (though I was filling a medium-sized hall with no PA support). Prior to putting the M9 through our technical review bench tests, Mesa notified us of the problem and asked if we would send the review unit back to them. They then sent us an M3 to review in its stead (and Link Removed).

Since then, I know that they have made further tweaks to the ventilation and thermal handling (fans?), but I would think that these changes would be beneficial.

I don't have test results or numbers for the M9's of past or present, but I'm guessing that most of you who have played the M9 and found it to have plenty of output probably heard it after this initial power reduction. In fact, I'm not sure if any of the original dozen or so M9's are out there in an unmodified form.

Once again, I do know that Mesa/Boogie is working on an official response to this thread, so they will be able to tell you far more than I.
 
#19
Interesting. However, I had an M9 go wonky on me and I have read of at least a half-dozen other TBers with issues ( Baird had 2 M9s fail on him), so I suspect whatever issues
there may have been may have gone beyond the 1st few units. I'm looking forward to hearing from Mesa.
 
#20
I was watching a show last weekend and the Bass player had the M9 on a 2x15 Boogie diesel with a 2x10 Boogie diesel top..and an hour into the show it blew up--fried- smoking out the front. Don't know what the cabs were rated ohms wise (neither did he after asking). Guessing that was the issue.. Serious Bummer!
 

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