Fryette Power Load IR vs Suhr Reactive Load IR vs Friedman IR-Load

[Sixstringflannel]

I own the Suhr RLIR and have played through the PowerStation, though not in my own setup — but I was paying attention to the load's effects. Tough to tell in the moment, but undeniably both are great tools for going direct into your DAW.

I started out with the OX and was happy as a clam until I got a plexi and felt like a smidge was missing. Bathtub curve, limited cab selection, yada yada. No wifi issues on my end, but UA pisses me off that they've only pushed one big update with new cabs since inception. The cabs and FX in it were awesome though — perfectly fine for what I needed at the time.

Moved it for the Suhr. Stock IRs were lackluster but you can load your own. Mirror Profiles makes compensated IRs for both the Suhr and the St. Rock if you want to push past the stock GB curve closer to a V30.

The Friedman is incredibly interesting — I believe the load itself is a fixed analog 3-stage reactive circuit and the machine learning piece is on the power amp side, not the load. If so, it'd be the first 3-stage on the market. The U-curve loads like the OX and Captor appear to use simpler networks, while units like the Fryette, Suhr, St. Rock, RedSeven, and Fractal use more complex multi-stage designs — though exact stage counts are hard to confirm. "Better" here is subjective. If you hear clips of your amps through a particular load and dig the sound, it's probably a safe bet.

St. Rock seems to have the closest Mesa OS 4x12 curve, plus another mode that measures close to the Suhr — and tons of onboard features if your computer can't handle heavy IR processing. RedSeven is rumored to be a GB/V30 hybrid curve (can't confirm), but well regarded.

Default recommendation is the Suhr. Priced right, great, simple, gets out of the way. 8-ohm only though, so if you need variable impedance your list narrows. Lots of great info on rig-talk to dig through, and i agree with all of the rec's everyone has given you so far. Take the suggestions here then let your ears guide the last mile.

Hybrid solution Suhr or Fryette + OX stomp if you REALLY want those UA cabs. Genome is a good alternative and extremely flexible.

 

[Jccobb2]

I like the st rock for all the reasons above plus it has a passive attenuator which is a huge plus.

 

[stratjacket]

Are you favoring the RedSeven because you’re using it to load the actual L and R IRs? Could you go mono out from the Suhr into the Axe and load two IR blocks on the grid?

I did that with the Suhr for years and it works great. I think the Red Seven sounds better to me. It is a hair darker and fuller sounding than the Suhr to me. Nothing EQ can’t compensate for though. Both are great units which is why a still have my Suhr and don’t plan to sell it.

 

[mermer]

I own the Suhr RLIR and have played through the PowerStation, though not in my own setup — but I was paying attention to the load's effects. Tough to tell in the moment, but undeniably both are great tools for going direct into your DAW.

I started out with the OX and was happy as a clam until I got a plexi and felt like a smidge was missing. Bathtub curve, limited cab selection, yada yada. No wifi issues on my end, but UA pisses me off that they've only pushed one big update with new cabs since inception. The cabs and FX in it were awesome though — perfectly fine for what I needed at the time.

Moved it for the Suhr. Stock IRs were lackluster but you can load your own. Mirror Profiles makes compensated IRs for both the Suhr and the St. Rock if you want to push past the stock GB curve closer to a V30.

The Friedman is incredibly interesting — I believe the load itself is a fixed analog 3-stage reactive circuit and the machine learning piece is on the power amp side, not the load. If so, it'd be the first 3-stage on the market. The U-curve loads like the OX and Captor appear to use simpler networks, while units like the Fryette, Suhr, St. Rock, RedSeven, and Fractal use more complex multi-stage designs — though exact stage counts are hard to confirm. "Better" here is subjective. If you hear clips of your amps through a particular load and dig the sound, it's probably a safe bet.

St. Rock seems to have the closest Mesa OS 4x12 curve, plus another mode that measures close to the Suhr — and tons of onboard features if your computer can't handle heavy IR processing. RedSeven is rumored to be a GB/V30 hybrid curve (can't confirm), but well regarded.

Default recommendation is the Suhr. Priced right, great, simple, gets out of the way. 8-ohm only though, so if you need variable impedance your list narrows. Lots of great info on rig-talk to dig through, and i agree with all of the rec's everyone has given you so far. Take the suggestions here then let your ears guide the last mile.

Hybrid solution Suhr or Fryette + OX stomp if you REALLY want those UA cabs. Genome is a good alternative and extremely flexible.

Thanks for the response! I had not considered St. Rock or Red Seven before, both sound legit. Let me do some research about them.

 

[mermer]

I did that with the Suhr for years and it works great. I think the Red Seven sounds better to me. It is a hair darker and fuller sounding than the Suhr to me. Nothing EQ can’t compensate for though. Both are great units which is why a still have my Suhr and don’t plan to sell it.

Red Seven sounds very good in online demos. Not sure why it's not as popular.

 

[Sixstringflannel]

Red Seven sounds very good in online demos. Not sure why it's not as popular.

Redseven is an Italian company and St. Rock is Ukrainian. Fryette, Suhr, Friedman, axe fx are American. Most of the influencer market is already locked in with two notes more than Redseven or st. Rock. Sonic Drive is the only reason I know about Redseven, and he’s extremely comprehensive (and sounds good doing it).

 

[ilikehats]

My first load box was a two notes Captor. I thought it was fantastic until my buddy showed up with his Suhr Reactive Load and casually ruined my life by making it much better.

We A/B'd the two boxes back to back with a couple of amps, and let's just say the Captor X did not survive that audition with its dignity intact. I'm not saying it sounded bad. I'm saying as the night ended, i listed it immediately, and woke up the next morning with a Suhr on the way and zero regrets.

The difference? Clarity. Responsiveness. That "feel" that makes you forget you're not pumping air through a 4x12 in a room that smells like cigarettes and broken dreams. Everything just felt better and sounded better through the Suhr. Night and day.

the Captor X is fine. It's perfectly competent gear and it will not hurt your feelings. It does what it says it does. But there's a reason the Suhr Reactive Load is the "standard".

Sure, there's plenty of new fancy machine learning wizardry boxes that can probably file your taxes. But for my money, the "dumb" Suhr does exactly one thing, and it does that one thing and does it very well. Sometimes the boring answer is the right answer.


... That said, i very much like the st.rock react II. its super cool.

 

[Sixstringflannel]

My first load box was a two notes Captor. I thought it was fantastic until my buddy showed up with his Suhr Reactive Load and casually ruined my life by making it much better.

We A/B'd the two boxes back to back with a couple of amps, and let's just say the Captor X did not survive that audition with its dignity intact. I'm not saying it sounded bad. I'm saying as the night ended, i listed it immediately, and woke up the next morning with a Suhr on the way and zero regrets.

The difference? Clarity. Responsiveness. That "feel" that makes you forget you're not pumping air through a 4x12 in a room that smells like cigarettes and broken dreams. Everything just felt better and sounded better through the Suhr. Night and day.

the Captor X is fine. It's perfectly competent gear and it will not hurt your feelings. It does what it says it does. But there's a reason the Suhr Reactive Load is the "standard".

Sure, there's plenty of new fancy machine learning wizardry boxes that can probably file your taxes. But for my money, the "dumb" Suhr does exactly one thing, and it does that one thing and does it very well. Sometimes the boring answer is the right answer.


... That said, i very much like the st.rock react II. its super cool.

Spoiler…. I’m the buddy

 

[ilikehats]

Spoiler…. I’m the buddy

IVE BEEN OUTED.

yeah, its true. we've been tag teaming you.

 

[mermer]

Redseven is an Italian company and St. Rock is Ukrainian. Fryette, Suhr, Friedman, axe fx are American. Most of the influencer market is already locked in with two notes more than Redseven or st. Rock. Sonic Drive is the only reason I know about Redseven, and he’s extremely comprehensive (and sounds good doing it).

Yes I know they are drom Europe. Being in Europe I was already considering the USA brands, which tells a lot about the market as well. I will check St. Rock, it seems very promising. In a video I watched it was mentioned that Red Seven can be a bit more noisy in high gain applications, which is where I stay 90% of the times. So it’s a big con for me

 

[mermer]

Oh man what a cool group of people from Texas. Thanks all for contributing and sharing your experiences / opinions

 

[Sixstringflannel]

Oh man what a cool group of people from Texas. Thanks all for contributing and sharing your experiences / opinions

Hell yeah! You’re on the right track man. I think whatever you land on from this point should serve you well. As long as it gets you up and running and gets out of the way so you can play that’s all that’s matters.

 

[ilikehats]

Oh man what a cool group of people from Texas. Thanks all for contributing and sharing your experiences / opinions

ehhh, dial it back. i can count the times ive been accused of being "cool" on one hand.

 

[errrrrl]

Does anyone know when the Friedman IR Load comes out? I'm pretty happy with what I got (Suhr IR, Waza TAE, PS100) but at the same time, super curious on Dave's take on a reactive load.

 

[Sixstringflannel]

Does anyone know when the Friedman IR Load comes out? I'm pretty happy with what I got (Suhr IR, Waza TAE, PS100) but at the same time, super curious on Dave's take on a reactive load.

Think last I heard was Q4 26. Who knows at this point. That machine learning piece is using some chip that only SpaceX is using according to Dave on a recent tone talk.

 

[mermer]

I tried the Fryette. Well, I did not like their IRs with my Friedman, The Ownhammer's Oversized Mesa IR's sounds better to my ears. The unit is very sturdy. But I am not planning to use the Analog cab sim side, besides the included IR's are not very interesting to me. Now I am curious on St Rock React IR 2, online it sounds very good and there are many good comments about it. It has may onboard functions (effects, attenuator, 2 impedance curves etc.) which I'm interested. So I am on the edge of ordering it and comparing with the Fryette. Not sure about the return policy though if I would not be satisfied.

 

[Sixstringflannel]

I tried the Fryette. Well, I did not like their IRs with my Friedman, The Ownhammer's Oversized Mesa IR's sounds better to my ears. The unit is very sturdy. But I am not planning to use the Analog cab sim side, besides the included IR's are not very interesting to me. Now I am curious on St Rock React IR 2, online it sounds very good and there are many good comments about it. It has may onboard functions (effects, attenuator, 2 impedance curves etc.) which I'm interested. So I am on the edge of ordering it and comparing with the Fryette. Not sure about the return policy though if I would not be satisfied.

Return policy I would assume would be slim since it’s international. You wouldn’t have a problem selling it second hand. I always take some cash off that I consider my “rental fee” if I didn’t like something and can’t return it.

To be honest I didn’t love the Suhr IR’s but I rarely use the IR loader in mine. I’m always going into the DAW and putting up some variant of a Mesa OS cab in genome. I believe the Fryette and Suhr load 20ms and to me if I’m just jamming, I prefer 500ms. 20ms doesn’t make a huge deal in a mix. 500ms and a touch of room reverb (I can’t recommend Valhalla enough) and I’m good to go.

On the Fryette, do you mess with the switches much for the load curve? I’ve liked it well enough when I have tried it. Honestly curves are splitting hairs and I just went through a vast amount of research on them. If you would use all of the features of the St. Rock II then thats a good option, but with the attenuation keep in mind that there are no other features to tune the attenuation like a Power Station has through a cab. I opted out of the St. Rock simply because I don’t think I would use the rest of the features that it has because I accomplish most of that in my DAW already, but damn do I want something rackable!

Sometimes you need to buy the thing to see if it settles the gear bug or not, sometimes you just need to sleep on it. Regardless, the Fryette, Suhr, and St. Rock are great units and it depends on your use case at the end. Godspeed!

 

[mermer]

Return policy I would assume would be slim since it’s international. You wouldn’t have a problem selling it second hand. I always take some cash off that I consider my “rental fee” if I didn’t like something and can’t return it.

To be honest I didn’t love the Suhr IR’s but I rarely use the IR loader in mine. I’m always going into the DAW and putting up some variant of a Mesa OS cab in genome. I believe the Fryette and Suhr load 20ms and to me if I’m just jamming, I prefer 500ms. 20ms doesn’t make a huge deal in a mix. 500ms and a touch of room reverb (I can’t recommend Valhalla enough) and I’m good to go.

On the Fryette, do you mess with the switches much for the load curve? I’ve liked it well enough when I have tried it. Honestly curves are splitting hairs and I just went through a vast amount of research on them. If you would use all of the features of the St. Rock II then thats a good option, but with the attenuation keep in mind that there are no other features to tune the attenuation like a Power Station has through a cab. I opted out of the St. Rock simply because I don’t think I would use the rest of the features that it has because I accomplish most of that in my DAW already, but damn do I want something rackable!

Sometimes you need to buy the thing to see if it settles the gear bug or not, sometimes you just need to sleep on it. Regardless, the Fryette, Suhr, and St. Rock are great units and it depends on your use case at the end. Godspeed!

I did not check the switches in the front, they can be useful though. The OwnHammer OS Mesa just sounds killer in my DAW, maybe a greenback or any other type of speaker to accompany it would be necessary but for now it keep me rolling.

Even if I only use the reactive load and direct out of the St Rock, still Fryette is more expensive and some cash remains for other expenses. My only concern is, if St Rock is on the same tier with Fryette qualitywise. The Fryette is a top notch unit but the added features are not for me.

 

[Sixstringflannel]

I did not check the switches in the front, they can be useful though. The OwnHammer OS Mesa just sounds killer in my DAW, maybe a greenback or any other type of speaker to accompany it would be necessary but for now it keep me rolling.

Even if I only use the reactive load and direct out of the St Rock, still Fryette is more expensive and some cash remains for other expenses. My only concern is, if St Rock is on the same tier with Fryette qualitywise. The Fryette is a top notch unit but the added features are not for me.

St Rock is definitely a good one. I mostly see people switching from it to the Fryette PS-100 for its specific features if they need that tool - or they have both.

On the Fryette switches, just make sure you aren’t running both of them on the flat setting. You technically have 9 different combinations between the two switches to curve the load which is a lot of options.great for catering to different amps.

 

[mermer]

St Rock is definitely a good one. I mostly see people switching from it to the Fryette PS-100 for its specific features if they need that tool - or they have both.

On the Fryette switches, just make sure you aren’t running both of them on the flat setting. You technically have 9 different combinations between the two switches to curve the load which is a lot of options.great for catering to different amps.

I will check the switches out thank you for mentioning! Attenuator is not very important for me but if I would like to have a non-master volume amp in the future that would be handy