NAD...The Archon has landed!!!

GuitarGuyLP

GuitarGuyLP

Active member
Once UPS Delivers

this_thread_delivers_ups_chick_amazon.jpg


I hate the waiting game
 
I only had about an hour to play it so far, everything stayed pretty close to noon, I mainly played with the gain, and the mids a bit. I am surprised how good this amp sounds with the gain low, like around noon. It has a really cool vibe to it, and then when the gain is cranked it comes alive, and really starts to roar!!! What amazes me the most is how even with quite high gain you can hear every note in a chord. The clarity is what I was hoping for, but it does it while still being fat, and awesome. I have never had an amp with such a big fat sound, but still super clear, there must be some magic hidden in there somewhere!!!

I am going to really dig into it this weekend, and I will need to bump the bias up a bit, it is a little low at about 27mV.

Mailman - Do you have any recommended settings, like how you got the Diezel sound??
 
I think I ran everything near noon. But had the mids backed off to 11. Bass was at about 1 and same as treble.
Gain was always noon or less. Presence was pretty high same with resonance. Its been awhile so sorta fuzzy.

Run a graphic EQ in the loop. Really really opens this amp up.
Anyone. Boss GE 7 or MXR 10 band. Danelectro Fish and chips.
It really brings that amp to life.

Congrats!! :rock:
 
I generally keep everything at noon, however I'll drop the bass to 11 o'clock when o play the tremonti. Gain is always from 9-11 o'clock as well, I'll boost with an od808 if needed. The amp really responds well to the effects loop, I keep my DL6 corona chorus and HoF reverb in there.

I run the amp on 50w on the 4 ohm setting intoy 2x12 mesa cab.
 
And of course, here is the amp porn.
I like it when an amp sounds best with the settings at, or near noon. I think I am a bit OCD about seeing crazy settings. I have actually been bumping the mids up a bit to around 1, treble at 1, bass at 11.
 
So after a few days with it, and a bunch of tube swapping I have found that the Archon is pretty dark overall. If I adjust it to get the cut, and brightness that I like it ends up sounding kind of funky. I put EL34s in it which helped a lot, so did lowering the resonance down to about 9:00, and boosting the presence up to about 3:00.

I am going to give it a bit more time, but I am thinking it is not the amp for me. Which sucks, I had very high hopes for it. It is a cool amp, and the clean channel is one of the best ones I have heard. I just need to figure out where to go next. Something somewhere between the Archon, and 5150 III.
 
Hmm..strange that you find it too dark. Perhaps it is picky about the cab? I run my resonance and bass both around 1 or 2 o'clock and with the bright switch engaged it is a very bright sound. I have run mine through a Diezel front loaded 4x12 and a Bogner Uberkab and if anything would say it has a tendency to be too bright vs. too dark.

That said, if you are running the stock JJ preamp tubes, you might consider rolling some other brands to find out what sounds best. I wasn't crazy about the tone until I played around with the preamp tube selection. I settled on this cocktail after much trial and error:

V1: Tung Sol
V2: Ruby AC7 HG
V3: Ruby 7025SS
V4: JJ
V5: Sovtek LPS (balanced)
V6: Tung Sol

You certainly wouldn't need to do an overhaul like I did to get an idea of what kind of changes it would make. The Tung-Sol in V1 made the most difference and should add some brightness.
 
I had a 5150 iii 50w and there is not much in common between the two IMO. I found the 5150 iii to be sterile and lifeless in comparison to the Archon. It is harsher and fizzier than the Archon. The cleans on the Archon are WAY better than the 5153, and I much prefer the character of the lead channel of the Archon to the 5153.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top