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Peavey bargain from Thomann


machinehead

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I just spotted the Peavey miniMax selling on Thomann for £165.99.

I have one of these - bought as a cheap backup amp (bought for over £100 more!!) but often used as my gigging amp.

It's loud, flexible, well built, lightweight and compact.  I highly recommend one.  Especially at this price.  There is a new model out but the difference isn't worth the extra cash to me.

https://www.thomann.de/gb/peavey_minimax.htm#bewertung

Frank.

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500W at 4 ohms, so going to be around 300W at 8 ohms.

I do have a slight hesitation on the EQ centre points, but I reckon these could be finessed with a bit of care:

  • Initial reaction was that bass centre point was just too low at 50Hz and that would be a deal breaker for me, but I think the way I would work it is by cutting a touch at 50 Hz and engaging the PUNCH switch which boosts by 6dB at 100Hz;
  • Semi para mids with a choice of 250Hz (which would be my default) or 600Hz via the MID SHIFT, gets am unqualified tick from me;
  • Treble centre frequency is 8KHz (which is very high) but compensated for by the BRIGHT SWITCH which  provides a 10 dB boost to frequencies above 1KHz. 

Like the fact it has aux in, head phone out AND a tuner on the amp (yeah!). And DI gives pre/post EQ options.

Currently £239 elsewhere. But at around £175 posted (allowing for forex costs) from Thomann - this does look like great value. And as a back-up amp (or indeed a main amp) should give the Bugera heads a run for their money.

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10 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

500W at 4 ohms, so going to be around 300W at 8 ohms.

I do have a slight hesitation on the EQ centre points, but I reckon these could be finessed with a bit of care:

  • Initial reaction was that bass centre point was just too low at 50Hz and that would be a deal breaker for me, but I think the way I would work it is by cutting a touch at 50 Hz and engaging the PUNCH switch which boosts by 6dB at 100Hz;
  • Semi para mids with a choice of 250Hz (which would be my default) or 600Hz via the MID SHIFT, gets am unqualified tick from me;
  • Treble centre frequency is 8KHz (which is very high) but compensated for by the BRIGHT SWITCH which  provides a 10 dB boost to frequencies above 1KHz. 

Like the fact it has aux in, head phone out AND a tuner on the amp (yeah!). And DI gives pre/post EQ options.

Currently £239 elsewhere. But at around £175 posted (allowing for forex costs) from Thomann - this does look like great value. And as a back-up amp (or indeed a main amp) should give the Bugera heads a run for their money.

I agree. It's excellent value in my opinion Al Krow.

I'll probably get corrected here, (or more likely, shot down :) ), but sometimes I find it difficult to see the value in some class D amps.  There are a few on the market now that are £1000 or so, MORE than this Peavey.

I understand that the Bergantino ones have lots of clever features, and some have higher quality components and design, but there are others in that price range that are simply a custom preamp and a bought-in power amp that lots of other makers use.

It's all well and good, but for my pub/hotel/club and the odd festival gig, when the drummer's hammering it out, the guitarist is belting it out, maybe keys wailing, sometimes brass, and then the singer and two BVs, the subtleties of that £800 to £1200 amp is beyond lost, on me anyway.

Marketing is a well honed and powerful tool, but I honestly don't think an amp costing ten times the price of another offers ten times the performance and utility in the real, gigging world that I live in.

But that's just me. :)  And I'm sure most people will disagree.  I'd be surprised if they don't, because I'm a grumpy aul fecker...

Frank.

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23 minutes ago, machinehead said:

It's all well and good, but for my pub/hotel/club and the odd festival gig, when the drummer's hammering it out, the guitarist is belting it out, maybe keys wailing, sometimes brass, and then the singer and two BVs, the subtleties of that £800 to £1200 amp is beyond lost, on me anyway.

Amen to that. And don't even think about getting me started on the subtleties of compressors 😂

Can you hold down a groove and play with a bit of flair? 

If you can cut through the mix, whilst you're doing that

You'll be 90% of the way there.

The punters will love you, and your band mates...

Well - they will keep out of your hair.

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Mine will be for back up and practicing, and perhaps taking on those scary, dodgy gigs where the normal gear stays at home.

Great reviews, small, lightweight, fx loop, tuner, headphone socket - and around 300w into 8ohm, and £50 less than a trace elf (which I've previously had) cant really go wrong.

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That's seriously cheap with some very well thought out features, if I hadn't purchased a different rehearsal head recently I would have bought myself one for Christmas!

 

The tuner/mute function is something which should be on every micro head IMO as are aux/headphone jacks. Also great to see dual speakon combo sockets when some micro heads opt for a single speakon only or even worse just 1/4" jacks. 

 

7 hours ago, Al Krow said:
  • Initial reaction was that bass centre point was just too low at 50Hz and that would be a deal breaker for me, but I think the way I would work it is by cutting a touch at 50 Hz and engaging the PUNCH switch which boosts by 6dB at 100Hz;

 

I'd like to see more manufacturers doing clever stuff with the tone controls like on some TC amps where the bass cuts at 80hz but boosts around 100-110hz. In fact I'd like a phone app where you could just draw an eq curve across the screen and your amp would implement it!

Edited by lemmywinks
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52 minutes ago, Deedee said:

These are great little amps and at this price truly a steal. Just a word of warning if you're planning on using it for home practice, the fan is very, very loud.

Ah I wonder if that is what has been improved on from Mk1 --> Mk2?

That's a really useful tip-off btw thanks! 

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