Here's a quick review of the 101B vs. Anniversary that I posted on the Bogner forum. I've played the Classic but don't have one. Check here for more info;
http://bognerampforum.informe.com/index.php
Sorry... no pics or clips. It was kind of a last minute thing.
Chris “CALI68” brought his 20th Anniversary XTC over this afternoon and we had a chance to do a side by side with my 101B for about an hour or so. We were running the amps through a Bogner OS2x12 loaded with 65w Scumback M75’s and a Bogner 4x12 with 25w Greenbacks. FWIW, both Chris and I like the mids way up on our amps- he dimes his and I run mine around 3:00. And we were using Chris’ R9 (nice guitar btw!). First, my 101B isn’t stock- I’m running KT88’s instead of EL34’s and I recently added the Marvel mod- so comparisons are only relevant in that framework.
Let me first say that the new XTC is the shit! Awesome new version of the XTC line. Rheinhold really did it right. Somewhere between the Classic and 101B in a lot of ways, but unique with it’s own voice. I particularly like the addition of vintage/modern voicing option on the front of the amp. It’s more open and less compressed than the 101B and has more of an upper mid presence. As a result, it has more relative gain. Definitely much more aggressive with more bite than the 101B. More noticeable in plexi mode which gets much better singing high gain tones than the 101B. The 20th anni is also more dynamic and touch sensitive than the 101B- maybe the result of the upper mids.
While the improvements to the 20th Anniversary cleans are highly touted, I think that the big bottles in my 101B offer the same depth, complexity and clarity as the new XTC. There was not a significantly noticeable difference between the two. Meaning that both are great improvements over the standard 101B and similar to the cleans on the Shiva in a lot of ways. And with the boost engaged, both amps get a killer AC/DC Malcom tone.
With 101B’s red channel in Cameron mode, both amps were very similar. A lot of top end bite and aggressive amounts gain. The blue channels were significantly different in that I had set my gain at 3:00 to get near the tone that Chris’ 20th Anni got at 12:00.
The biggest difference was that the 101B has more prominent chest thumping mid range than the 20th Anniversary. It really hits you right up front where it’s more subtle and a tad in the background on the 20th Anni. Is that the KT88’s vs the EL34’s? Maybe- I don’t really know. I’ve always felt that the XTC (& Bogners in general) had their own unique tonal quality that I’ve never heard in other amps. Woody, organic, chewy, liquid (add your favorite adjective here). The 20th Anniversary XTC seems to have moved just a bit towards a Marshall-esque tone while still keeping that Bogner signature sound.
What we concluded after our brief demo is that both are awesome amps, but different. I could easily see having both without feeling like I’m duplicating tones too much. And yes I'm totally GAS'ing for one now! (damn you Chris!) About the only thing we concluded was that Chris is going to reload the Scumbacks in his 2x12! Both amps sounded freaking awesome through the M75’s!!
