Sometime in the near future I am looking to purchase a half stack for an all out metal assault. What do you guys think about the Peavey TripleX head? I am looking for something with an etreme saturation but with some clarity in notes, not too noisy and very brutal(does that exist?). I have gotten over the nu-metal stigma of the tripleX, and it is strong consideration. Does anyone else have any other suggestions
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I will not buy a marshall or mesa boogie - too expensive and I was not impressed with either of the heads. I have played most all the Marshall Heads, and the Mesa Boogie Dual rectifier.

if u didnt like the mesa than i dont really kno what to tell u to get. i thought the mesa was one of the best amps ive ever played and i play thrash metal to. but ive also played the tripple x and i think its the best peavy amp period. when i played it it was the triple x head running through a 5150 4x12 cab and it sounded awesome

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Not very well known but, I just got a B-52 Stealth half-stack and it is by far the loudest 100-watt solid state I've ever heard. Metal-wise the gain channel has got a shit load of gain, not really bad but also not supremely impressive on the contour of the gain, it's about average I guess. It also has a an "SW" button which works just like the mode four's "scoop" button, scoops mids for you. The thing is built like a fuckin tank, the grill is 16 gauge steel along with the corners of the head and cab. It's also closed back, and they also have an optional 200-watt head for $600. I got mine for 650$, 100-watt half-stack.

If i could just go buy a new stack right now. I would get the Crate Red Voodoo head. Which is like the blue voodoo but with the option of more gain and has more tubes for a better tone. For cabs i would use mesaboogie because they seem to be the most solid cabs out there. I would run a furman 31 band eq and a bbe sonic maximizer of some sort. Crate didnt really impress me til i eqed it and maximized it. Then it sounded awesome, it cleaned up the frequences a bit with the eq so theres not too much extra noise and the maximizer took down the hashness caused by all the treble i use. It sounded awes.

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awes

First off, B-52 doesn't have the scoop switch, I meant something else. Anyways, not to bash Mesa or anything but, I've played on Mesa's and Marshall's ,etc. big names in cabs and heads and honestly I would have to say that it would truly be a blessing to your checkbook if you went with the B-52. They can very evenly compete with the bigger guys and the price is a lot lower than it should be. Again, there's nothing wrong with the others but for best price and quality I would say the B-52 is the way to go.

If you're also interested, go to www.harmonycentral.com and look at their gear reviews, great source of everything

Also in the way of not noisy, yet brutal, on the Hi-Gain channel w/ lows and highs to 10 and mids at zero you can turn the channel volume to 8 or 9 and the master to about 8 before you get any feedback and this is in a 8x8 room. More than enough though, you won't have to go past 4.

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I like the XXX. great distortion and heaps of power, its a big fucker to drag around though hehe, and be sure to use the right cabs, I think the 5150 and 5150II are crap compared to the XXX!

I dunno, I never liked the 5150's distortion much but the XXX sounded really different to me, much more powerfull and tight... I suggest you try it out for yourself!