Friedman IR-X. According to 'what's my duty' at NZ customs it should pass customs without any charges. I got sick of waiting for the two authorized NZ dealers to get around to bringing one in, so I imported direct from BAD myself.
I do not expect it to sound like a BE Deluxe, or any other 100 watt amp when running direct to DAW and my little 8" monitors. It has no power amp. No big power valves, big output transformer, no currents big enough to kill you, or big speakers in a big 4x12, so why would I even expect it to? I do expect to get some good preamp sounds thru DAW from it though.
Being outboard of DAW, it will handle being hit by hot pedals better than my Audient interface's DI. Currently I have to pad hot pedal levels down to not clip the interface's input and then set levels in DAW to boost amp sims -- it's a pain in the butt.
I have a Freyette PS-2A Power Station to use as a reactive load for my JMP 50 clone amp, but for practice and noodling I find myself playing amp sims thru DAW more than using the real thing. The amp is way more honest than any model or capture of one I have tried, but I do not like putting all that strain on the valves and components cranking it into the Power Station. I get nervous cranking the amp, so only do it for short runs. I have killed a few amps myself, plus I saw the Angus Rig Rundown and how many JMP amps he kills running them hard. The IR-X seems like a good middle ground to me. A valve preamp is much harder to kill, as is an IR.
https://friedmanamplification.com/shop/ ... dman-ir-x/
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