As someone who has designed products with both parts, there are some really significant performance advantages with the newer 250ASX2 part that makes it a no brainier (if you understand the evolution in the technology).
I can not go into the details for IP reasons, but IME the 250ASX module is a more robust performer all around and has better audio performance as well.
My experience is the opposite. And my experience is going back and forth between only the power amps sections being changed on MANY gigs. The 1000 blows away the 250 on every level. Except size and price. I've learned that--at least to me---the most important functional part of our sound is the note envelope. How the note starts and stops and the headroom as part of that. That can best be judged
in context. As a bassist our ability to drive a band, have good pitch definition, and a bass drum like "thump" at the beginning of a note and a clear stop when a note is muted is the proof of the pudding. Next is tonal balance and distortion. You can best judge the function at volume on a gig.
The 250 sounds great. I've played many amps that use it. A very nice thump at note beginning. If I wasn't comparing it to the 1000 I'd say it's at the top of the class D food chain. But even at medium volumes the 1000 has this beautiful power at note beginning---a noticeable difference. And as volume increases the 250 gets a bit buzzy and distorted. In comparison. Companies are rating the 250 at 800 to 900 watts. The 1000 is rated at 1000. Shouldn't be an appreciable difference. There is. The 1000 stays cleaner, reaches MUCH deeper and exerts more control over the speaker. And the 1000 is stable into 2.67 ohms. The 250 is not designed to do 4 ohms bridged. It can do it with proper heat management but will still be susceptible to crash and burn pounding a 4 ohm load.
Oh---and the fidelity and tonal balance---the 1000 blows the 250 away. This is after playing many gigs with various amps using the 250 and using a separate 250 as just an amp module.
A little bird told me that the 700ASC sounds better than both.....
I also have a year of experience with the 700 module. Boy did I have high hopes as this should be the same architecture as the upcoming 1200. The 700 SOUNDS magnificent. Fabulous tonal balance. It doesn't blow away the 1000 but there is a small difference. But in terms of envelope and headroom---I was disappointed. I've gone back and forth on many gigs. All the members of the bands noticed a difference. Especially drummers. All the drummers care about is note envelope. That's where the hookup occurs. It just doesn't have the visceral punch of the 1000. Or the 250.
I just had an experience with a customer that came over on Saturday. We went through many amps and cabs. Too many! We compared one of the new amps based on the 700. Sounded really nice. We compared it to the 1000 and it sounded like there was a dynamic blanket over the rig. No surprises---this has been my experience with the 700. We then hooked up my EA Doubler that I hotrodded with a 250AXL2 module. The Doubler runs very conservatively--its output to the amp section doesn't push it into 10% distortion like most competitors. So it's likely no more than 700 into 4. It sounded way punchier and powerful at different volumes. And the fidelity was closer than I had thought. The EA folks don't get everything right but they make a clean, good sounding preamp section. We both greatly preferred the Doubler. He's sending back the new amp. (and he's looking for a used Doubler to modify). Now the features on the new amp were really nice---well thought out. The eq flexibilty on the Doubler is so-so. But it functions better.I was surpried to see that on some of these 700 based amps the power ratings were based on 10% and 12% distortion. The 1000 is based on .01%. At 1% it puts out 1200 watts. If one were to push it to 10% it would likely do 1400.
I hate disagreeing with Andy---he's WAYYY smarter than me!!! But---I have the opportunity to try all of the gear that I assess in context. All different types of contexts. That's where the rubber meets the road!
