Sounds interesting. So the signal goes in, gets SS boosted a little, sent to some SS "voicing", then to a tube stage for clipping, then to more "voicing", the back to the second tube stage, then through the PI onto the power section? Crazy! I will honestly reserve judgement until I try one in person. But wtf is wrong with just a basic tube driven preamp section? Amps have been doing that for decades and sound great doing it. I certainly don't know anything about amp design, but I have learned that juggling a few caps and resistors have a massive impact on the gain and sound. And it's simple.
Honestly, a lot of amps sound mediocre or just plain bad these days, and I don't think it's coincidence that they've also become a billion times more complicated than they need to be.
Right! Going to go on a bit now! First off, "juggling a few caps...Is simple" Sure, IN ISOLATION! But in a commercial amplifier the circuitry is synergenic, i.e. change a C or R in a voicing circuit and it changes the load on the previous stage and the level sent to the next . That changes the (mild) distortion characteristics, not often for the better OR/and you find you have buggered up the range of the treble/bass/mid control or all three! And once you have spent days maybe a weeks getting an overall, working voicing that has to be specified and kept on specc for 1000s of samples.
"Complication" is what some people want Greg. Look at that .pdf attached. Yes, you COULD do all that with valves but not in the same sized cab and the extra heat and power required would mean the S1 104 would weigh as much as the S1 200 because of the bigger power transformer!
Then for all that a valved 104 would be a buzzy, hissy beast prone to instability.
B's use op amps for what they do best. Very low noise amplification, no heater hum, no microphony, virtually no heat and it does not hurt that they cost cents! They also almost never go wrong!
Valves of course "have a sound" 'swhy they are there. But an ECC83 does not even start to distort until you hit it with about a volt peak signal and the triode does not give flying fck WHERE that clean volt comes from.
The company also knows that valves are expensive and it is getting ever harder to buy good ones (I used to get 5 83s quiet enough for an A30 front end from a box of 50 new stock) The circuits do everything within reason to protect them and extend their life. Preamps are DC heated and regulated. Support components are overengineered so if an OP valve blows it is very unlikely to damage other circuitry and cost the customer more cash. All the S1 range an most of the HT range have "no load" protection.
Sorry if that all sounds like an ad puff but it really isn't. Blackstar do not think they make the "best" amps in the world. They know plenty of people just don't like them (some on principle having heard just one on The Toob on PC speakers!) . But they also know that it does not matter HOW great an amp sounds if it does not fekking work on the night!
Dave.