NAD Bugera Veyron BV1001M

[Chienmortbb]

So at just over £200, I could not resist the Bugera Veyron BV1001M. I suppose it is discontinued as it is not available anywhere new now. Despite my reservations about the Bugera's power rating, it is a reasonable powr and has almost everything you need from an amp. It gets good reviews on the "Other Place" so as there was only 1 in stock at Gear4 Music, I went ahead.

The unit was in stock at Gear4Music's Swedish warehouse and I had ro pay almost £10 postage but that still left me change from £220. I was mucked about by DHL a bit but it did arrive when promised so I won't bore you with that.

I opened it this morning and found that the power lead is a fitted with a  continental Shuko plug. I phoned G4M and they are putting a UK lead in the post. So far almost so good.

First impression, from the outside the amp is as solid as a rock. 3Kg/6.6lbs so not super lightweight but the built in hande is a nice touch.  I think the mids option is a bit high (I like something in the 100-200 range) but I use my amps flat as often as not.

I will report back after I have tried it live tomorrow (Thursday night).

[RichardH]

Very TC RH450-ish in looks.

[Chienmortbb]

Ironic as ThevMusic Group ( Bugera, Behringer etc) bought TC last year.

 

Some say it is more like the Genz Benz Streamliner

 

 

 

Edited October 3, 2018 by Chienmortbb

[TheGreek]

Discontinued??

Aren't they are a relatively new amp - 4 years old? I remember trying to buy one new and a number of "stockists" took my details and would contact me when they became available. Didn't happen!! 

I think that I was really trying to buy the name - visions of them somehow resembling the Bugatti of the same name. I'm led to believe that they didn't live up to the hype and use the same parts as a Genz  Benz.

Don't mind being wrong on this though. Hope it exceeds my expectations.

[Chienmortbb]

Once I have fired it up at home I will look inside but they have no saved money on the outside. It wil be interesting to see if it is all proprietary technology or whether the have OEM'd the power sections.

Edited October 3, 2018 by Chienmortbb

[Beer of the Bass]

I've not seen inside these, but AFAIK, keeping as much as possible in-house is their usual way of working.  So I reckon it'll be a proprietary power module in there.

[Painy]

6 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

Ironic as ThevMusic Group ( Bugera, Behringer etc) bought TC last year.

 

Some say it is more like the Genz Benz Streamliner

 

 

 

 

[Chienmortbb]

I did not get a chance to try the amp last night as our guitarist was ill. It will have to wait until next week now. However I will give a rundown of how it is at home later.

[stewblack]

10 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

I did not get a chance to try the amp last night as our guitarist was ill. It will have to wait until next week now. However I will give a rundown of how it is at home later.

Following with interest...

[Chienmortbb]

First impressions at home using a borrowed cab. My Basschat 1x12 Mk2 is having an upgrade at the moment and Stevie has lent me his heavily modified Roland in the meantime. The Roland does not go quite as low as my cab so I am losing a little bottom end at the moment, I will post again about this once I have my cab back.

Cosmetically  this is a great looking amp. The chassis is solid feeling and everything fits well together. The enclosure seems to be a mixture of steel and aluminium.  

The debate over the power output of this and TC amps have been had on othe threads but thereseems to be plenty of power on tap. 2000 watts it is not but it is much louder than I can stand in my front room and seems effortless. The fan can just be heard at low volume and is on all the time( I thought that it was temperature dependant, I will check that later).

The gain control does not seem to affect the clipping level and whatever level I use the clip light comes on when I dig in, however I cannot hear any distortion. The compressor seems to work well but can squash dynamics if turned up too high. I will probably continue to  use my Modified Marshall ED1 instead.

The EQ/Tone section is fairly standard with, Bass, Treble and Semi-Parametric Mids.    I said earlier that I would prefer the lowest frequency to be lower (220hz is the lowest and I like something in the 100-150Hz region). Saying that the 220 setting does give some punch and I might use a tad at some point. 

Pictures later but I do love the illuminated Master Volume control. I should also say that all the controls seem positive. I like controls to give some resistance to turning and these do. The Master Volume has little clicks as it turns but they are not defined enough to feel, unless you concentrate. I doubt you would feel them if adjusting live. Finally there is a Ultra Low and Ultra High switch. 

I was quite impressed with the Ultra Low as it added some low end authority without wooliness. I suspect there is an inbuilt HPF on the amp but I will check that later. The Ultra High switch seemed to add some noise along with the highs and I suspect that one of the higher frequencies of the Mid control would give better results.

I usually like to be able to switch off the EQ and this is not an option with this amp. However I fed the output of my Marshall ED1 compressor into the EFX return and it worked very well. I could hear very little difference between that and using the preamp/EQ with all controls at  12  o'clock and all switches off. The main drawback of using the EFX return as an input is that it is after the Mute circuit. I use the Tuner on the Pedal Board as a mute so that is not a problem for me.

I have not had a chance to use it in anger ( hopefully next Thursday) so I have not tried the DI. Of course I have used the speakons to connect to the speaker cab and they are 45 degrees clockwise compared to real Neutriks. Not a problem but if you are used to real Speakons, just a bit strange. There is no mention of theses being Combo connectors, again I will check soon but I suspect not. This is not an issue for me as I always use Speakons

The handle is excellent. The pictures do not show it but the inside is moulded to be comfortable in the hand and it feels really light. It weighs in at 3Kg or 6.6lbs. Not ultralight but by no means heavy. 

I will have a look inside soon. 

[stewblack]

Excellent review thank you.

[Chienmortbb]

I finally gigged the amp at open mic night on Thursday. We are the house band and do do half hour stints at the beginning of the night.  Firstly someone told me that they could hear my bass clearly for the first time. This may have been that we had a really good overall sound but although I was no louder that normal (to me anyway) it just seemed effort less. I think therextra headroom I had seemed to help me punch through better that I had before. Of course their is always a honeymoon period with a new piece of kit, and time will tell. but so far I am happy with the purchase.

 

A few other things. The line level output from the DI is very hot. Luckily it can be switched to line level and the sound person was happy with that. The master volume control has multiple clicks as you turn it. Very helpful but at one point there is a noticeable jump. Not a big deal but one to be aware of when doing quiet acoustic work. Al;though the position of the volume control  is no indication of power, it was on the t8 o'clock position all night once I found my level. As . with nearly all user manuals these days, there was almost no information and the operation of the Clip light  is strange. It seems to be independent of the Gain control. I am starting to think that the pickups on my Aerodyne* are very hot as the peak as high as my active Greg Bennet when the Pad is not engaged. I am still nut sure about the onboard compressor. It seems more of a limiter to me and I did use my Marshall ED1 (modified for bass) in front of it.

I don't no if there is an HPF in the amp but the low end was tight and controlled all night and I really enjoyed playing a lot. I was using a borrowed 1x12 with tweeter cab, kindly loaned to me by Stevie of this Parish while miy1x12 is having some work done to it. There is more low end on my cab so I will report back once I have tried the amp and cab together. Nest week I will try a few more things and report  back.

 

*A set of Di Marzio's DP126 (DP122 and DP123) recently purchased from DOOD will soon be going in there.

[stewblack]

I couldn't resist. The Amazon price was so low. Only played at home for an hour though at a reasonable volume and I like what I hear so far. Agree about the clip light. The on board compression is interesting. If you play hard to activate it and hold the note it comes back up as it sustains. A fast run of notes and this wouldn't notice but otherwise it seems a little bit of a blunt tool.

I played an active, zingy bass through it and it produced a very tight, modern, lively sound. I had to hang on tight at times! Looking forward to trying some warmer old school tones next time.

[Jack]

The GK clip light is also before the gain control, so it's not unheard of.

[Chienmortbb]

I am getting used to the clip light now.  Here are some pictures of the inside. It is well built and the power module is physically bigger and more substantial than many OEM designs. The Heatsink goes from the top to the bottom, also acting as a Faraday cage and a channel for the airflow from the inlet (a grille under the handle) to the fan. As the inlet is under that handle, it almost ensures that the inlet can never be blocked or covered.

 

 

 

Edited October 22, 2018 by Chienmortbb
Added text

[naxos10]

That does look well made/designed for the money.

Edited October 22, 2018 by naxos10
Addition

[stewblack]

Given mine a good run over the last couple of days. Sounds and looks great. Gigging it on Friday.

[emilibass]

Hi. I've seen there's a similar model 1001T. It features 3 valves in the preamp. Has any of you had the chance to try them? Do you think it's worthwhile over the 1001M?

[Chienmortbb]

There is a separate thread on that one

 

[Passinwind]

On 06/10/2018 at 04:03, Chienmortbb said:

The debate over the power output of this and TC amps have been had on other threads but there seems to be plenty of power on tap. 2000 watts it is not but it is much louder than I can stand in my front room and seems effortless.

 

No need for debate, independent techs have tested it at around 750 watts RMS and Behringer tech support have mentioned that they don't rate by that method, which is often the case these days. Plenty to melt a single 12 no matter how you slice it. I played through one at NAMM briefly a few years ago and was favorably impressed.

Whatever became of your DIY amp build BTW?

 

[Chienmortbb]

17 hours ago, Passinwind said:

No need for debate, independent techs have tested it at around 750 watts RMS and Behringer tech support have mentioned that they don't rate by that method, which is often the case these days. Plenty to melt a single 12 no matter how you slice it. I played through one at NAMM briefly a few years ago and was favorably impressed.

Whatever became of your DIY amp build BTW?

 

The DIY build is almost complete but I blew the power amp when testing it. If I cannot get it fixed, I will have to redesign mechanically to take a new power module. My own stupid fault. I bought the Bugera on a whim and I am glad I did so far.

[stewblack]

Gigged the Bugera last night. Very pleased.

[Passinwind]

6 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

The DIY build is almost complete but I blew the power amp when testing it. If I cannot get it fixed, I will have to redesign mechanically to take a new power module. My own stupid fault. I bought the Bugera on a whim and I am glad I did so far.

Bench testing Class D amps is often pretty tricky. I really need to pick up a big isolation transformer for that myself. Best of luck, and email me if I might be of assistance.

[bloodandtearsuk]

Great reading... thanks @Chienmortbb . Please keep us posted on your progress with your own cabs and findings..  I'm definitely interested in grabbing one of these.

[Chienmortbb]

Right now my cab is in bits as the latest iteration of the crossover  plus lightweight compression driver is incorporated. I will report back when the cab is reassembled and I have gigged with it.