Boss Katana MKll Head

IMENATOR said:
Something really confuses me. I have watched demos of people changing speakers in Katana combos and in the end they claim it sounded the best with the stock speaker, maybe the amp is fined tuned for Boss's speaker? But then there are also people doing AB shootouts of the Katana head vs some high gain Marshall and sounds so damn close :o To make it worse I tried once a Katana 100 combo in a store and to me it was like it sounds better than their old cube but I did not fall in love with it. Is there something different with the head model? It is the only amp head I have ever felt tempted to try because of features, lightweight and I don't wanna deal with swaping/biasing power tubes.
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I swapped the speaker in my Katana 50w for an Eminence GB128 and re-house it in a closed back cabinet (as I didn't want to go head+cab). It's working better for me for the sounds I want. One thing for sure, the Katana combos are tuned for the speaker they have in, it wouldn't make sense otherwise.

I didn't fall in love at the first listening, and still not in love after the speaker swap and the recab but it's way better than the Micro-Cube it replaces and the global EQ has pushed it to a level that I don't think can be achieved demoing in a store.
 
UnderTheFlame83 said:
I wonder if a MKlll is in the works from Boss? If so, there isn't any news about it. I see Boss continuing the Katana models for a long time, if not new models, just more updates for the MKll.
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If they go with a MKIII, I hope they add an head like the DV Mark Micro format, no builtin speaker to reduce size & weight. A small amp like this can fit in my gigbag, I can carry a closed back cab in one hand and still have another hand free to open the doors :D
 
UnderTheFlame83 said:
Yeah compared to the Peavey I recently got the Katana looks tiny next to it. Peavey is 3x heavier, too.
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Does the old Peavy solid state tone and amplification stand up to the modern Katana?

The peavey is likely a Class AB amplifier, and the Katana a Class D.

For a long while, AB amps were more highly regarded than class D; don't know if that is still true. AB amps are much larger and heavier.
 
Top-L said:
Does the old Peavy solid state tone and amplification stand up to the modern Katana?

The peavey is likely a Class AB amplifier, and the Katana a Class D.

For a long while, AB amps were more highly regarded than class D; don't know if that is still true. AB amps are much larger and heavier.
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The Peavey came out in 2003 but still sounds just as good as the Katana. I would say the Brown channel
on the Katana is still my favorite to use, even without boost. On the Peavey I like all the channels pretty much the same. I think the Peavey cleans are better and sound better using pedals than the Katana. Both amps feature a lot of the same including damping and wattage selection. You can running a cab on the Peavey at 4, 8, and 16 ohms. Katana only 8. As for the effects I think the Katana out performs the Peavey and is slightly more versatile. Acoustic channel is pretty amazing and Crunch. I do like both amps and happy with the tones.
 
Little Pigbacon said:
Is the Katana definitely a Class D amplifier? Someone (I can’t remember who) told me not long ago that it was A/B. I just looked in the manual and on Boss’s site but couldn’t find anything. If it’s Class D, it surprises me that it’s not rated for speaker loads below 8 ohms. Well designed Class D amps usually have low output impedance and can increase their power pretty substantially into lower-impedance loads. By the way, Boss says 8 ohms minimum for the Katana head; you can run it into higher impedances, but it will probably not deliver 100W into such a load. I am using into a 16-ohm nominal load, albeit at pretty low volumes.

The sound differences between Class D and other types of amplifiers aren’t what they used to be. It really comes down to the individual amps. In the hi-fi world, I have a rather old Class A/B stereo amp that sounds very good for its price, a first-generation Class D home theater amp that sounds about as good, and a newer Class D stereo amp that sounds notably worse than either of them. So it depends.
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What it comes down to, my belief is that Class D are cost/space/weight savings that recently have been able to provide reasonably similar quality. (That wasn't always the case.) The Alpine amp in my truck is Class D and pretty small, in fact when I was putting together the system, I bought a well-regarded, equivalent AB amp that was easily 5x as large and didn't fit anywhere.

What this means for guitar amps, and why I asked the question, is that its very possible that Class AB amps from 20-30 years ago sound as good or better than current day Class D. That is why those old transtube amps are intriguing to me. It doesn't bother me that the head is full size if it sounds better.
 
Some of the class D amp's out there sound phenomenal. I have a few of the little chinese hi-fi ones that I use as small practice rigs through a pair of 8" cabs. When I hook them up to my modelers they sound great in stereo.

Then there's my Class D Crown XLS 2002 power amp which when driven by a decent preamp lacks nothing compared to class A/B hifi amps (which I have a bunch of). It has a great warm beefy punchy detailed sound. Class D has come a long way in recent years with none of the shortcomings they used to be associated with..

Still have'nt played through a Katana though..

They often sound great in demo's though...
 
Little Pigbacon said:
That could be a handy form factor for a lot of people, a little Class D micro head with some of the Katana magic. Do you have a particular closed-back cabinet in mind? How would you feel about another modified or rehoused Katana 50 with a smaller cabinet? Still on the heavy side for carrying around?
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I have a 4x12 Peavey cab that sounds particularly good with my Rocktron Voodu Valve preamp and Peavey 60/60 power amp (I tried my Katana 50w with that cab but they are not at the same level, but that are not the same price either). But I would buy any 1x12 or 2x12 in a pinch if they sounds good.
Rehousing is nice but it was to achieve a specific rock sound, at the expense of some other sounds (and because it was Covid and had nothing to do LOL). And I'm happy with what I achieve but we are still talking "Katana sound" and not "boutique amp sound". Anyway I like my Katana for what it is but I would still like to try a Waza 75w head.
 
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Little Pigbacon - Since you have owned this amp awhile now what's your favorite channel and the settings you use? What about wattage and the cab resonance?
 
Plugged the Katana up to my laptop today because it's been awhile since I been into the Studio and I wanted to replace a boost. For some reason it is saying I don't have the latest update installed. I know I am up to date. It's not letting me do anything. This sucks.
 
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