Engl E606 Ironball Head 20 SE

I have ENGL fireball 100, modellers (POD’s) , Kemper profiler, Marshall DSL, huge pedalboard with Friedman pedals, Origin Effects Revivaldrive (compact and hotrod), OD’s (TS9/Precision drive), Strymons for the reverb and delays.

With the ENGL Ironball SE, I managed to downsize my rig and now I only use my Boss MS3 as midi controller and additional effects. The built in IR’s also sounds good with my FRFR (Headrush). Really worth every penny for the sound and build quality.
I can finally concentrate on playing with minimal tweaking required just to get a good sound. Still it didn’t make me a better player but that’s on me. LOL.

Metal sounds are of the expected Engl quality, and clean sounds surprisingly go from crystal clear, through glassy, to a lovely edge of breakup, through crunch, to a good heavy rock tone with lots of separation of the sound of the individual strings.

Build quality is the best I have seen of Marshall, Orange, Engl, or anyone else. Built like a tank but weighs very little indeed.

On board effects are just a bonus, but I find I flip them on more often than not, especially when playing clean. When using outboard effects, the amp seems to respond well without crank and in the 20 w mode. The metal tones need nothing added at all.

The 1w mode really does give a pretty good sound - better than anything else I've heard at that volume. Obviously 5 w is better, and at 20 w, this thing come alive!

I like this amp. a lot! I play mainly Metal, Hard Rock, Soft Rock, Blues, and I do achieve that types of sounds. I am all for home use, and I did combine with a Orange PPC112 cab sounds excellent. Noise Gate is pretty good, Reverb, Delay are very pleasant to use. I wasn't planning to use any pedals with this, that's why I got the SE over Ironball. Another good thing to mention is it's got built-in DI Output, you won't need a DI Box, to directly record into a DAW, thanks to DI XLR Output. Had ordered from another country than Germany, and packaging was solid. I recommend this product.

This amp doesn't leave anything out and provides all the options you could possibly need as a modern musician.

It's capable of really nice clean and lightly distorted/crunch sounds, but obviously that's not why you buy an Engl- the lead channel roars and provides all the gain you can shake a stick at, and more besides. Running my usual boost in front, I rarely feel the need to push the lead gain past 10 o'clock and it's still flying, and that's even without the internal gain boost engaged.

Turning the gain up gives massive saturation (in a really good way), which is accompanied by excellent note clarity and articulation - whether you're laying complex chords or shredding at light speed, this thing delivers without hesitating.

In terms of build quality it's an absolute tank, with nice aesthetic touches like the brushed metal logo and grille. It's built to last for sure, and you'd have no worries in just about any conceivable situation.

I'm running this into an Orange 1x12 and it sounds killer, but it's capable of a lot more and has a lot of connection possibilities.

Size-wise it's not so small to feel underwhelming but definitely portable and not overbearing at all. I honestly don't know how they crammed so much into this one.

Conclusion- come for the features, stay for the amazing tube tones. This one's a definite winner.