Exponent / Alpha Omega 500

[Tripehound]

I'm on the cusp of buying a new amp after several years of playing DI and could do with some advice.

 

I've got what I want down to these Darkglass products (pretty sure 500 watts will do it) and have just landed a pair of DG112 cabs so nearly ready for liftoff. Up to now I've been using a Helix (which I sold), a Zoom B6 (which again I sold) and a bunch of preamp pedals, currently an Atomic Bassbox. I have an attraction to techno bells and whistles but the reality is that I use a clean tone much of the time with the odd use of overdrive in one band, and a more driven sound in another that I play with.

 

It seems that any of these three will capably do what I'm after and my inclination is towards the Exponent although I've read some concerning things about it e.g. not wowed at the idea of having to use the phone, where is the promised foot pedal, is this likely to be well supported by DG etc?  There are loads of articles from the launch but not much on the actual experience of using one.

 

I'd greatly welcome and value people's thoughts and particularly what are I suppose are my key questions - are the basic clean sounds the same on both amps and is there anything the AO does that the e500 can't?