NAD Traded for a Quad Cortex. Yay or nay? (Added clip of high gain channel, woah Nelly!)

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nightlight

nightlight

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I had to put in about US$400 as well on top of the Quad Cortex.

What do you think? It's relatively clean and well maintained. Floorboard is screwed on to the back.

I really wanted one because I've heard it's the most brutal Mesa high gain tone. With the Quad, I now have a IIC, III and IV sounds, so it's like having a V, I guess haha
 
nightlight said:
View attachment 407253

I had to put in about US$400 as well on top of the Quad Cortex.

What do you think? It's relatively clean and well maintained. Floorboard is screwed on to the back.

I really wanted one because I've heard it's the most brutal Mesa high gain tone. With the Quad, I now have a IIC, III and IV sounds, so it's like having a V, I guess haha
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You can always rebuy a Quad Cortex but older Marks are going up in price and becoming harder to find. Sounds like a steal.
 
Thanks, that's exactly what I thought!

The Quad Cortex will be superseded in some years by a QC2, just like the original Kemper has now been surpassed by a Kemper 2, which I intend to try out at some point of time.

But amps you can keep for decades, and the sounds they make will never be replicated.

At least, that's from the perspective of a non-gigging and non-professional musician. Having owned a Kemper, an Axe FXIII and a Quad Cortex, I just have more fun playing my tube amps.

I hooked it up and played for a while. The high gain channel is amazing! But even the clean channel is good! I shot this video with the amp running into a PS-2 and then direct into my DAW. There's no IR.



I thought it sounds really nice! The third section is from a Dream Theater song.
 
nightlight said:
But amps you can keep for decades, and the sounds they make will never be replicated.
Click to expand...
Well said. And that clean sound good. I was surprised of my IIC+ RI too, you can dial some good clean sounds out of it.

Enjoy the amp!
 
Countdown to the guy who traded away that Mark IV making a post on some forum somewhere years from now mentioning it in a “the one that got away / kicking myself / sellers regret” lists.

Congrats on the new amp! :D They are incredible. Don’t forget about the presence push / pull switch. It can make a huge difference. I go back and fourth about which way I like more all the time.
 
nightlight said:
View attachment 407253

I had to put in about US$400 as well on top of the Quad Cortex.

What do you think? It's relatively clean and well maintained. Floorboard is screwed on to the back.

I really wanted one because I've heard it's the most brutal Mesa high gain tone. With the Quad, I now have a IIC, III and IV sounds, so it's like having a V, I guess haha
Click to expand...
All "yay" zero ""nay".
 
Good trade. Disappointed with the quad cortex lately because it really doesn’t capture direct signals all that well. A full mic setup it’s okayish
 
nightlight said:
Thanks, that's exactly what I thought!

The Quad Cortex will be superseded in some years by a QC2, just like the original Kemper has now been surpassed by a Kemper 2, which I intend to try out at some point of time.

But amps you can keep for decades, and the sounds they make will never be replicated.

At least, that's from the perspective of a non-gigging and non-professional musician. Having owned a Kemper, an Axe FXIII and a Quad Cortex, I just have more fun playing my tube amps.

I hooked it up and played for a while. The high gain channel is amazing! But even the clean channel is good! I shot this video with the amp running into a PS-2 and then direct into my DAW. There's no IR.



I thought it sounds really nice! The third section is from a Dream Theater song.
Click to expand...

No offense dude but this is Rig Talk. Occasional clean channel is ok, but we really wanna hear detuned death metal riffage with the gain maxed out. 😁
 
Dan Gleesak said:
Keep the mesa, get a Kemper later
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Yup, kind of thinking about a Kemper 2 down the line. Will wait to see what their new profiling algorithm is like, I found the Quad Cortex did better captures, but it came almost 10 years later. Curious to see what Christoph does that improves a formula he once claimed could not be improved upon.
 
chumbucket said:
No offense dude but this is Rig Talk. Occasional clean channel is ok, but we really wanna hear detuned death metal riffage with the gain maxed out. 😁
Click to expand...

You're absolutely right. Here's Channel 3 hooked into an Orange 2x12 and a Mesa 2x12. Orange is miced up with a Sennheiser E906 and there's a Townsend Labs Sphere on room mic duty.

 
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