I'd say the Ceres is about 90-95% to having a real KSR amp in front of you. It depends of course on how you use it as well. It will sound better into a proper power amp of some sort, but also sounds amazing used in front of a clean amp. I recently sold my KSR Orthos and got a Ceres to fill the void and I'd say it's definitely closer than one would expect.
Wish I had known about the mods to the Trinity. I owned one briefly and the clean channel was amazing. I could dial in great lead tones as well but I could never dial out this weird mid to low hump in the eq for rhythms. Tried everything including eq in front and in the loop, no go.
After spending some time with the Mezzabarba Nirvana and having the Ceres I’ve decided I hate running cables to/from various Returns in amps.
Always loved the PS1 I had. Found one of these guys in stock so figured I may as well grab one.
2 channels, 6550 for power tubes and reactive load to boot.
Got my sights on a Kartakou Colossus 5150 preamp and likely an Engl 670 preamp.
UPDATE:
Got everything in the rack finally! Wiring it up and hope to get some vids ASAP!
The Mezzabarba has some mods done by Pierangelo. A bit of a Bass reduction on the Crunch/Lead channels and more aggressive gain structure mod on the Lead channel. This mod will be available on orders going forward as well as on the Trinity.
I’ll definitely get some clips up very soon. I’m really happy with the preamp and it feels/sounds different from everything else in the current stable. The Mezzabarba guys I’ve dealt with are also super cool so that’s a plus.
This was the first thing I’d tried from them. Had heard for some time that the build quality was fantastic and I’ve lived most of the clips I’ve heard. Glad this worked out. They sent it to me for some demos and I liked it so much (like fucking instantly) I decided to buy it!
Word. I’ll be making vids for all these ore’s this week.
It really gets gnarly! I am enjoying it a good bit.
