I bought one of these to satiate my lust for Optigon vibes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKmNghZAgrU

I already have Sonicwares weird granular sampler (Texture Lab) and it is a lot of fun. The series is like a Korg Volca but a whole lot better. These things are like $250 and a ton of fun to just lock to a mono synth or run a sequence on while smashing drums. I don't mind the terrible key bed, and they have to do something to make the cost low. I just use a midi controller with them anyway.

I was looking for a light-weight 300w power amp and came across this solid state amp called Strait Ahead, made by a single guy in upstate NY. I chatted with him a bit and got some questions answered. Anyway, after a few months of back and forth and catching up on orders, I've got mine on the way. Looking forward to it!

cakes wrote: Tue May 14, 2024 12:06 pm I was looking for a light-weight 300w power amp and came across this solid state amp called Strait Ahead, made by a single guy in upstate NY. I chatted with him a bit and got some questions answered. Anyway, after a few months of back and forth and catching up on orders, I've got mine on the way. Looking forward to it!

That thing looks cool.
Especially since there are so many amp mod pedals out there I'm shocked at how few dead simple but high watt little Class D amps in a pedal form factor there are out there. I just want a volume knob... no eq, Quilter amp bull shit and like... 200-300 watts, but I want it to fit in the space the size of a 1590bb case. I see all the little 22 watt and stuff and they are all made to distort and "sound good" when driven. I don't want that. I want a really lout tiny, light poweramp with zero features that will fit on my pedal board. I know it can fit because I have one of those itty bitty TC Electronics bass amps that are tiny and 200 wats. I just dont want ANY preamp section at all. I'm still trucking my Peavey Classic 60/60 Tube Power amp around and its pretty stupid heavy. Love that thing though. You can still get those and the 120/120 pretty cheap.

cakes wrote: Tue May 14, 2024 12:06 pm I was looking for a light-weight 300w power amp and came across this solid state amp called Strait Ahead, made by a single guy in upstate NY. I chatted with him a bit and got some questions answered. Anyway, after a few months of back and forth and catching up on orders, I've got mine on the way. Looking forward to it!

This looks perfect for something I've been trying to work on. Sending an email to the dude today!

four_oclocker_2.2 wrote: This looks perfect for something I've been trying to work on. Sending an email to the dude today!

My plan is to have a 300w power amp ready to put any amp sim pedal into and use it with either my bass or guitar cab, which are both 8ohms.

I noticed on the bill he sent was a modification for bass. I asked him what it was and this was his response:

The bass version has a couple large capacitors added to handle the extra current required for the low bass frequencies.

I didn't even think about it. Actually, I had come across the amp specifically after seeing a couple of videos on it from guitar players, but I was looking for something that could handle bass as well. So, if you contact him, let him know how you intend to use it and he may need to include the mod.

Yeah, I'm definitely curious about that little buddy as well!

I wonder if he’d build it into a 1U rackmount chassis. Not seeing anyone mention pricing other than someone paid $300 Canadian with my quick google search.

Kniferide wrote: Tue May 14, 2024 1:43 pm I want a really lout tiny, light poweramp with zero features that will fit on my pedal board

Like this?

MoreSpaceEcho wrote: Tue May 14, 2024 3:04 pm

Kniferide wrote: Tue May 14, 2024 1:43 pm I want a really lout tiny, light poweramp with zero features that will fit on my pedal board

Like this?

I keep seeing stuff from Monoprice. Any good? At any rate, I never feel that 200w is enough for bass, but that's just me. And that really is the issue I have come across with the small class D power amps that I've seen. All the bass ones are 200w and every comment or review on them concludes that class D 200w is just not enough headroom. The bass amps at least are often rated at 8ohms. There's a lot of misunderstanding on the output of class D amps. I have a 200 class D guitar power amp, but in actuality I get about 40-45 watts at 8ohms. It's not bad for guitar, but it def doesn't have much headroom before clipping.

EDIT: Looking at the Monoprice, it's two channels, each 100w @ 8ohms. Assuming the bridge is combining both 100w channels? That kind of brings up another thing: sometimes they just state total wattage, but do not always include channels, and they don't always have a bridge. It's a bunch of marketing mumbo-jumbo. I have a feeling the reality of this is probably more like 85w per channel, maybe you get something like 150w total bridged. This is why I was looking for a solid state amp. A great example of all this is the Seymour Duncan Power Stage 700. 700w watts of power seems like a lot, but I think when you plug it into an 8ohm bass cabinet, it's been reported that its somewhere between 300-350w.

'80 MXR Line Driver from Estonia, ha!



My old Klon Centaur clone that a friend of mine found by accident in one random music shop locally.



Palmer Cab Merger, 20€ used from a friend. Need it as I have two 8 ohm cabs that go into one 16 ohm amp.