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NAD: Peavey MiniMega 1000!

#181
CL400Peavey said:
This reflects my findings exactly. The amp feels/sounds very high quality. I dont sense much of a baked in tone, but there is some warmth that is added with the gain set low, and the crunch turned on. The eq is flexible, and works as you would expect a parametric mid to work. The narrow Q's are a nice touch.
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The narrow Q is what I'm excited about most actually. Very cool that they have that feature.
 
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#187
CL400Peavey said:
Tried it out and loved it! More to come...

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Ok finally some time to do a full write up!

First and foremost I have to say @BbbyBld did an amazing job with this amp. I know it has been a long time in the works, but it was worth the wait.

The first thing you notice with this amp is it is not tiny like a lot of micros on the market, similarly it is not a large amp. It also is middle of the pack in therms of weight. I would say this is partly to do with the fact that the amp feels SOLIDLY constructed in hand. The entire outer case is metal/aluminum, the loops on the front are once again solid. The knobs have a solid feel, everything on this amp "feels" high quality, nothing feels like an afterthought.

With out the crunch engaged the gain does exactly what you expect, increases your signal to the amp. There may be a little warmth added tonally as you bring it up, but it is more of a "quickness". With the crunch engaged it is a different story. There is a nice warmth that comes in with the gain set low, as you bring it up there is some overdrive that is very pleasing. So much so that this is the first on board distortion that comes close to what my JGR does.

The compressor is super simple and effective, and sounds great. If you dial it all the way up, it will squash your hard hits way down. Back towards noon it is where I prefer it. Very musical, and lets your inflection through, but still levels out your signal if you are using dynamic playing. Are there better examples of compressors out there? Absolutely. Are they on 1,000 watt, $500 micros? Fugg no.

All in all, I would say that the gain, crunch, and compression are the most important pieces to getting the most tonally out of this amp. It can go from warm and smooth, to percussive and grunty, you can dial it up to gnarly if you want. This is all really important because...

The EQ is fantastic, and fairly transparent. It is powerful in shaping your tone, but doesnt seem to cloud over the tone you are sending the amp. The "low" knob isnt set/centered too low as I find most amps, and the highs are lower than most as well. IMHO this is more useful as it actually changes the real meat of of your tone, not just the glossy air above what you are playing. The mid knobs with parametric controls are super easy use. I find that maxing or minimizing the the level and then sweeping to find the frequency you want to get at, then dial in the level. The narrow Q lets you dial this in even easier.

The Kosmos system is pretty interesting. There are two functions. One is actually adding sub lows to your signal. The other, and more useful IMHO is the "psyco" addition. With a cab that doesnt have a lot of capability, I can see this really rounding out your tone. With a cab that is capable, you can add just a touch of low end and really get some booty shaking going on.

I will try and get some clips of the amp recorded and posted!
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CL400Peavey said:
Uptated OP!
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Much appreciate the writeup, thank you. Sounds good. A few questions for you - the treble EQ, you said, is placed lower than in some amps and shapes more of the meat of the tone than the "air" up top. How about the tone itself - does it have that air up top? You mentioned earlier that you didn't notice any big dips in the voicing - anything you notice in general about it? Slightly scooped? Rising mids? Bumped in the lower mids? Does it recall any other amps or pres to you - or does it seem pretty flat? Lastly, would you characterize the sound as harmonically complex/interesting? (@tombowlus, feel free to comment if so inclined!)

Again, cheers for the writeup, and will watch for your clips.
 
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#188
I ordered one on a lark, partly because I was curious, but mostly because of the MF discount coupon.
Now, after reading Julian's comments, I'm really looking forward to it showing up. Hopefully it really will only be a couple of weeks.

Do I understand correctly that this amp doesn't use an "off the shelf" amp module like the Hypex or B&O ICE modules? Did Peavey (Bobby?) actually design their own from scratch? Could getting all the alphabet agency approvals for that have been the cause of the delay to market? That would make sense to me, as there were fully functional and cosmetically identical units demo'd at least a year ago.
 
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#191
MarkA said:
Much appreciate the writeup, thank you. Sounds good. A few questions for you - the treble EQ, you said, is placed lower than in some amps and shapes more of the meat of the tone than the "air" up top. How about the tone itself - does it have that air up top? You mentioned earlier that you didn't notice any big dips in the voicing - anything you notice in general about it? Slightly scooped? Rising mids? Bumped in the lower mids? Does it recall any other amps or pres to you - or does it seem pretty flat? Lastly, would you characterize the sound as harmonically complex/interesting? (@tombowlus, feel free to comment if so inclined!)

Again, cheers for the writeup, and will watch for your clips.
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Yes if you have the upper frequency content and the cab to produce it, the amp will have everything you want. I would say the response is reasonably flat, and it does get some good harmonic content as you raise the gain.

popgadget said:
I ordered one on a lark, partly because I was curious, but mostly because of the MF discount coupon.
Now, after reading Julian's comments, I'm really looking forward to it showing up. Hopefully it really will only be a couple of weeks.

Do I understand correctly that this amp doesn't use an "off the shelf" amp module like the Hypex or B&O ICE modules? Did Peavey (Bobby?) actually design their own from scratch? Could getting all the alphabet agency approvals for that have been the cause of the delay to market? That would make sense to me, as there were fully functional and cosmetically identical units demo'd at least a year ago.
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Yep this is an in-house peavey power section.
 
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#193
BbbyBld said:
The power section was designed specifically for the mM.

Yes, getting world wide certifications is very challenging with class D amps, especially dealing with RFI/EMI emissions issues without choking performance, so that was a factor in the delays to market. I think it was worth the trouble though.
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My day job is in regulatory compliance, so I painfully understand the challenges you speak of with certification.
 
#194
BbbyBld said:
The power section was designed specifically for the mM.

Yes, getting world wide certifications is very challenging with class D amps, especially dealing with RFI/EMI emissions issues without choking performance, so that was a factor in the delays to market. I think it was worth the trouble though.
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That explains a lot. My hats off to you for getting it done, I'm no stranger to getting government approvals, although in a different arena, so I fully appreciate the dogged determination it takes to cross all the hurdles.
Is Peavey the only manufacturer to "roll their own" power section?
What class of power amp does Walter Woods use?

At any rate, I'm really looking forward to having a MiniMega of my own.
 
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#195
CL400Peavey said:
Yes if you have the upper frequency content and the cab to produce it, the amp will have everything you want. I would say the response is reasonably flat, and it does get some good harmonic content as you raise the gain.
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That jives with what I am hearing. With the Crunch turned off, and the Gain set on the lower side, it mainly strikes you as "clear and balanced." The Crunch circuit certainly adds some harmonic excitement, as do the two Kosmos options, albeit in very different manners.
 
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#196
tombowlus said:
That jives with what I am hearing. With the Crunch turned off, and the Gain set on the lower side, it mainly strikes you as "clear and balanced." The Crunch circuit certainly adds some harmonic excitement, as do the two Kosmos options, albeit in very different manners.
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Thanks, Tom. How about with Crunch off and gain up? Does the amp maintain dynamic range and articulation as gain is dialed up and/or crunch added?
 
#198
MarkA said:
Thanks, Tom. How about with Crunch off and gain up? Does the amp maintain dynamic range and articulation as gain is dialed up and/or crunch added?
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To be honest, I haven't been able to use much of the gain knob's sweep, so far. It gets really loud, really fast! I will try to play around with turning the master volume down, though.
 
#200
BbbyBld said:
The power section was designed specifically for the mM.

Yes, getting world wide certifications is very challenging with class D amps, especially dealing with RFI/EMI emissions issues without choking performance, so that was a factor in the delays to market. I think it was worth the trouble though.
Click to expand...

Hi, is the arrival in europe and/or Italy already scheduled or predictable?
I have no need for a new amp, but I may simply decide to sell something to make room for this one. It just seems too good to pass, and Peavey does make some great stuff. Still dig my trusty tour 700
 

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