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I received my Hotone Eagle's Heart and Vulcan today. These are 5w nano heads with an impedance matching transformer so they can power 4, 8, or 16-ohm speakers. There are also outputs for headphones and an effects loop. So why would someone want a Hotone nano amp? Because sometimes you want a little head.
First impressions: These things are tiny but sturdily built. At first, I plugged them into one of my cabs that have a mix of speakers and I didn't get any output at all and only weak output through the headphone jack. I have a cabinet mixed with two 8 ohm speakers in series + two 16 ohm speakers in series for a combined parallel impedance of around 8/9 ohms. I think the matching transformer doesn't like anything that isn't exactly 4, 8, or 16 ohms and refuses to play if it doesn't get it? Once plugged into a 4, 8, or 16-ohm cabinet it works fine although it isn't real loud. Another oddity is that when first testing them I wasn't getting as much volume as I expected from the demos I had seen. So I plugged my BBE into the effects loop and that was a game-changer. So I suspect the demos have an effects processor in the loop of these amps that are bringing up the signal trength. Both of these amps have really effective tone controls and you can get a wide variation in tones. They also have plenty of distortion so you don't need to run a pedal in front of them. The downside is that they are a bit noisy.
Eagle's Heart:
This amp is supposed to emulate an Engl Savage. The bass and treble response of this amp are really unique and work well for doom, stoner, and thrash. It's very dry, resonant, and growls menacingly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7VITwAEWP8
Vulcan:
This amp is supposed to emulate a Peavey 5150. It has a lot of gain and is more midrange and treble-heavy. It has that taut and fluid character that many modern high gain amps have. It would do well with Swedish Death Metal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5hhSKSVrOQ
The Verdict:
If you're looking for something to play through a cab without waking the entire neighborhood they are worth looking into. However, you need to experiment a bit with them and they take a while to dial in with each guitar. For $50 each, you get a very distinctive sounding amp which really loves a 4x12 cab and you can easily record without killing your neighbor's lawn.
The Future:
If I can find the Freeze B on sale I will probably buy one. That is supposed to sound like a Friedman amp which is a modified Marshall. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ozXaaGASDoI also liked the sound of the demo's for the Captain Sunset which is supposed to be a Soldano SLO clone but I think it probably covers the same ground as the Vulcan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu8JyhKXqEQ&t=76s The Heart Attack is also interesting because it's supposed to emulate a Mesa rectifier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZbFX_Aa_H8&t=305s
First impressions: These things are tiny but sturdily built. At first, I plugged them into one of my cabs that have a mix of speakers and I didn't get any output at all and only weak output through the headphone jack. I have a cabinet mixed with two 8 ohm speakers in series + two 16 ohm speakers in series for a combined parallel impedance of around 8/9 ohms. I think the matching transformer doesn't like anything that isn't exactly 4, 8, or 16 ohms and refuses to play if it doesn't get it? Once plugged into a 4, 8, or 16-ohm cabinet it works fine although it isn't real loud. Another oddity is that when first testing them I wasn't getting as much volume as I expected from the demos I had seen. So I plugged my BBE into the effects loop and that was a game-changer. So I suspect the demos have an effects processor in the loop of these amps that are bringing up the signal trength. Both of these amps have really effective tone controls and you can get a wide variation in tones. They also have plenty of distortion so you don't need to run a pedal in front of them. The downside is that they are a bit noisy.
Eagle's Heart:
This amp is supposed to emulate an Engl Savage. The bass and treble response of this amp are really unique and work well for doom, stoner, and thrash. It's very dry, resonant, and growls menacingly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7VITwAEWP8
Vulcan:
This amp is supposed to emulate a Peavey 5150. It has a lot of gain and is more midrange and treble-heavy. It has that taut and fluid character that many modern high gain amps have. It would do well with Swedish Death Metal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5hhSKSVrOQ
The Verdict:
If you're looking for something to play through a cab without waking the entire neighborhood they are worth looking into. However, you need to experiment a bit with them and they take a while to dial in with each guitar. For $50 each, you get a very distinctive sounding amp which really loves a 4x12 cab and you can easily record without killing your neighbor's lawn.
The Future:
If I can find the Freeze B on sale I will probably buy one. That is supposed to sound like a Friedman amp which is a modified Marshall. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ozXaaGASDoI also liked the sound of the demo's for the Captain Sunset which is supposed to be a Soldano SLO clone but I think it probably covers the same ground as the Vulcan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu8JyhKXqEQ&t=76s The Heart Attack is also interesting because it's supposed to emulate a Mesa rectifier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZbFX_Aa_H8&t=305s
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