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I finally got my hands on an ENGL Fireball 25! I already own the Fireball 100 and Ironball amps and those are stellar! A lot of people asked me if I had tried the Fireball 25 and until now I had to say no.... But I finally got one and I am super excited to say the least! 
I have a lot of small amps, most of them have EL84's in the power-sections, which is fine, I think they sound cool! It's a matter of headroom mostly and I'm mostly a studio player. Anyway, so then the MT15 came from PRS and that was one of the first mini-amps to feature 6L6 tubes in the power-section. This does give the amp more headroom and 'oomph'. I think the latter mostly has to do with headroom because in my experience the small EL84 can have more than enough low-end, it's just that they start to break up earlier than 6L6's for example. I do like the MT15 a lot though and I have to admit that it sounds quite 'big' for a 'small' amp...
Then the Fireball 25 came around and I got very excited because both the Fireball 100 and Ironball are excellent amps. I love that typical edgy ENGL tone, great cleans, clear crunch tones and crushing high-gain. I already was pretty sure that the Fireball 25 would deliver on all those fronts.
So I got the amp and I have to say it absolutely lives up to my expectations! The cleans are gorgeous although I do miss the bright-switch a little bit. It still sounds great without it though. Just like my other ENGLs, the clean channel can be pushed to a nice crunch, sounds great! Could be even better with a good boost. The Lead channel is where the magic happens! Plenty of gain and a lot of edgy (but not harsh!) presence and cut. Heavy but tight low-end and nicely balanced mids. It really does sound like a larger amp indeed! I still need to compare it directly to my FB100 and IB but I will do that soon enough...
Until then, here's a short demo/review-ish video of the amp. I think it sounded just perfect in the mix.... I'm blown away by the amp!:
I have a lot of small amps, most of them have EL84's in the power-sections, which is fine, I think they sound cool! It's a matter of headroom mostly and I'm mostly a studio player. Anyway, so then the MT15 came from PRS and that was one of the first mini-amps to feature 6L6 tubes in the power-section. This does give the amp more headroom and 'oomph'. I think the latter mostly has to do with headroom because in my experience the small EL84 can have more than enough low-end, it's just that they start to break up earlier than 6L6's for example. I do like the MT15 a lot though and I have to admit that it sounds quite 'big' for a 'small' amp...
Then the Fireball 25 came around and I got very excited because both the Fireball 100 and Ironball are excellent amps. I love that typical edgy ENGL tone, great cleans, clear crunch tones and crushing high-gain. I already was pretty sure that the Fireball 25 would deliver on all those fronts.
So I got the amp and I have to say it absolutely lives up to my expectations! The cleans are gorgeous although I do miss the bright-switch a little bit. It still sounds great without it though. Just like my other ENGLs, the clean channel can be pushed to a nice crunch, sounds great! Could be even better with a good boost. The Lead channel is where the magic happens! Plenty of gain and a lot of edgy (but not harsh!) presence and cut. Heavy but tight low-end and nicely balanced mids. It really does sound like a larger amp indeed! I still need to compare it directly to my FB100 and IB but I will do that soon enough...
Until then, here's a short demo/review-ish video of the amp. I think it sounded just perfect in the mix.... I'm blown away by the amp!: