The H&K products are excellent based on my experience. I won't look at Boogie even though they are really popular and I have no Blackstar experience so, no opinion.
 
H&K even made a solid state amp I liked, it was called a Tour Reverb.

ampfixer
The H&K products are excellent based on my experience. I won't look at Boogie even though they are really popular and I have no Blackstar experience so, no opinion. H&K even made a solid state amp I liked, it was called a Tour Reverb.

Good to know ampfixer. Thx for input.
I had never heard of them before a couple weeks so when I saw them at Gear Fest at Sweetwater.
The blue glow is a real eye catcher. The sound today was a real ear catcher.

Really, are these amps worth the cost considering they are good for practice? They are really useless when it comes to live performances unless you are playing solo, any drummer will drown you out. You could always mike them but then they are nothing but a pre-amp at that point. You would be better off just getting some nice amp simulator software. But then you would be missing the blue glow. However nothing beats the warm blue and orange glow of rows and rows of GL6L6s.

One of the guitar players on our Churches sound stage was playing a little 15w Blues Jr. on Sunday and I could hear the drummer just fine over his amp.

Not sure he would have had enough room for a row of 5-6 Marshall stacks.

pistolpete
Really, are these amps worth the cost considering they are good for practice? They are really useless when it comes to live performances unless you are playing solo, any drummer will drown you out. You could always mike them but then they are nothing but a pre-amp at that point. You would be better off just getting some nice amp simulator software. But then you would be missing the blue glow. However nothing beats the warm blue and orange glow of rows and rows of GL6L6s.

At 18 watts I did not even have the H&K half way up and it was LOUD.
There is no doubt I could stand with a drummer and be heard.
I'm not in a band and my world of music is in my studio or with a couple other musicians every now and then.
I am getting away from loud. I want tone and quality of sound without my ears bleeding.

I've got good amp sim software and it has its place, but nothing beats that warm tube sound.
Piistolpete you should go play one of these small amps and see just how loud they really are.
Granted if you are on stage with guys with marshalls you got no shot...

Check out Jet City Amplification (Mike Soldano is one of the owners).
I recently got a JCA20H and was blown away with the build quality and sound quality (great price didn't hurt).
 

i have tried all three of these amps, at different times...
 
i liked the distortion of the blackstar, but did not care for the clean side at all. the distortion kinda of sounded the same no matter what level of saturation was dialed in... in other words, it had one sonic fingerprint.
 
i liked the layout and sound of the H&K, and thought the touch sensibility of the 18 was really nice, but i found the distortion side of it very two dimensional..
this was the same effect i found from a similar model made by Egnator.
 
 i found the boogie to be head and shoulders above both of these amps, both in quality of distortion, three dimensionality, flexibility of multiple sounds out of one amp (perfect for recording)
plus
the top boost setting (clean channel, top boost switch, 25 watt power amp setting, pull master on the CUT) was my favorite setting...
 
and the 15 watt class a setting on HI 2 for the classic boogie thing was sorta in the neighborhood of my old Mark 2b, but only sorta.
it's a good lead tone, that's for sure.
 
 
just MHO

oh yea, demo'd thru a closed back mesa cab with a vintage 30, most of my rig is single closed back 1x12's, so i was familiar with this sound..
 
 
i think the ta-15 thru a 2x12 would be that much better, choice thru a 4x12.
 
but i'm thinking of an amp like this more as a recording tool....
 
you could gig at 25 watts for sure
 

batsbrew
i have tried all three of these amps, at different times...
 
i liked the distortion of the blackstar, but did not care for the clean side at all. the distortion kinda of sounded the same no matter what level of saturation was dialed in... in other words, it had one sonic fingerprint.
 
i liked the layout and sound of the H&K, and thought the touch sensibility of the 18 was really nice, but i found the distortion side of it very two dimensional..
this was the same effect i found from a similar model made by Egnator.
 
 i found the boogie to be head and shoulders above both of these amps, both in quality of distortion, three dimensionality, flexibility of multiple sounds out of one amp (perfect for recording)
plus
the top boost setting (clean channel, top boost switch, 25 watt power amp setting, pull master on the CUT) was my favorite setting...
 
and the 15 watt class a setting on HI 2 for the classic boogie thing was sorta in the neighborhood of my old Mark 2b, but only sorta.
it's a good lead tone, that's for sure.
 
 
just MHO

thanks for this input Bat. very helpful and it backs up a lot of what I discovered yesterday.
I am looking forward to giving the Mesa another shot.
I went into this adventure with my sights set on it as the prize.
The H&K has certainly made me rethink that, but after playing the Mesa again later this week we will see how it shakes out.
I have always wanted a Mesa amp.... like forever.
That's a difficult thing to break thru, you know?
 
Dave
 
 
 
 
 
 

drawback of the ta-15, is that it does not have the loop...
 
 
that said, the sound is just meaty, girthy, organic and 3d compared to the other ones, at least the way i heard it...
 
so, if it's a 'recording' tool, it's kinda like having a few real choice amps: vox ac, fender bandmaster, boogie, other...
whereas the blackstar sounded like a 'blackstar', and the h&K pretty much the same.
which is fine if you like those sounds...
 
 
if i were going to buy a 'gigging' amp, that could also do studio work, right now, i'd go for a Transatlantic TA-30.
 
loop, gigging watts, lightweight, but double the cost.