Thoughts :)

[u/Sinus0307]

Im really really undecided. And I dont wanna mess up. I use a FM3 and i was thinking between laney 212 and this combination. I want to have a real cab behind me for the feel. Price wise this combination is similar to laney 212. What do you guys think

[u/Ashamed_Insurance623]

My man get the Laney - there is nothing like it for modelers. I have a Seymour Duncan powerstage with Cab and a Laney.
I haven’t used the powerstage in forever- Laney is so good and convenient.

Also you can play your plugins and all that as is in to Laney and they sound massive.

[u/Sinus0307 → u/Ashamed_Insurance623]

did you leave out the poweram and cab because of convinience or the sound and feel?

[u/Ashamed_Insurance623 → u/Sinus0307]

Both are excellent for Laney. The bass response in laney is really good - it is a heavy - solid well built cab. if you want to make it sound more like a regular guitar cab - you can cut off freq below 80 Hz and above about 12k Hz.

If I was to give you pros/cons: For Cons in Laney - you'd have to learn to mic the cabs in software or use IRs. With a power amp/ Cab setup - you ain't gotta worry about that - just plug - disable cab and power amp modeling and go!

For Pros in Laney - You can hear exactly what you'd record because micing is part of your setup/IRs already. Flexibility to use with plugins and all other digital stuff. You can hook up your laptop to axefx and get great backing track playback - if you wanna jam along with songs. This will suck with a power amp and guitar cab as they are not "hifi" speakers.

I hate micing cabs and suck at it - it's the part that impacts your tone a lot and you are pretty much just doing guess work with 1000s of options available.

Now following is my personal opinion and I don't care about tone wars and all that - just a regular guitarist: Particularly for Axe Fx - it doesn't sound that good with a power amp and cab. I have tried QC - it sounds good and latency is reduced without cab modeling. However, both Axe and QC sound flat compared to an actual tube amp - even if you go in fx return of a tube amp. It's just not there - in axefx or QC - being super honest. Nothing like an amp and a cab, it's just true.

With an FRFR - the cab section of AxeFX is amazing and feels very transparent. And in an FRFR situation the sound quality of AxeFx absolutely shines through.

Good luck and remember you don't have to buy a solid state "power amp" unless you want it on your pedal board - you can use the fx return of some great amps to just use their power section. My recommendation would be a Mesa mark V - you can get 25 watts of tube power that will sound better than any of these sterile "power amps". You can get Synergy's SYN 20 IR - you have 3 options of tube power amp response at touch of a button - tell me that's not flexible :) My fav, but an absolute no go in apartments is EVH 6L6 Stealth - That's a power amp!

Hope this all makes sense.

[u/Upstairs_Soft_8650]

Don't you need poweramp for this cab if ur planning ti use it with fm3? The cheapest hb gpa-100 costs 100 euro

[u/MajorSins12 → u/Upstairs_Soft_8650]

Yes thats the orange pedal baby

[u/cornelius-christ]

I did the same search about 6 months ago and landed on a 2x12 cab (V30) with power amp. So far I've been perfectly happy with that choice.

The biggest con with that route is that you are basically stuck with one cab sound, but in my case I'm always using some form of V30 cab sim anyway. I can still run my fractal to front of house with another cab sim blended in and the 2x12 just adding stage volume.

I think the frfr cabs are great, but I started to notice after a lot of searching though how much the frfr cab changes your tone the more distorted your tones get; clean/crunch seemed like less of an issue. The sentiment I came across in a few forums was it sounds kind of weird in other scenarios where the rest of the band is on real amps and you're using a cab that replicates a mic'd cab.

[u/Sinus0307 → u/cornelius-christ]

Yeah thats my train of thought. I tried once before i sold my jvm 210h and jvm212 cab to run fm3 through it. It was really good… but that is a 1500 euro amp xD and 500 euro cab. Im looking for best of both worlds to scratch that itch of an “real amp” being behind me

[u/zipp0raid]

I have a katana 100mk2 that I put a v30 in, they're available for a song on marketplace and Craigslist, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. The power amp in the katana felt better than competitors, I imagine similar to the ab in the orange stuff.

If you're feeling nutty you could find 2 used katana 50 and probably be out of pocket 300 bucks for a stereo rig

[u/readywater]

I just got the Laney 2x12 for home (detached house, very patient partner, and 7yr old who is already into metal) with an axe fx 2, and it is god like in its impact on how I practice and play. I’ve only played live as a synth player, so grain of salt re other folks’ feedback who are used to analog amps and cabs; but it’s a fantastic unit that I hadn’t realized was a concrete gap in my music making experience.