NAD! 2024 Hot Rod Deluxe!

Wound_Up

Wound_Up

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Picked this up around 6 weeks ago while it was on sale at AMS. I knew my bday was coming up and I wanted a new amp so I took a chance on this one without even playing through one first. šŸ˜®šŸ¤£

So its been put up for the last 6 weeks. My bday is in 4 hours(central time) so I figured it's finally time to get it out for good. I'm stoked! Been waiting on this day. It's sitting on what used to be my bedside table. My trusty Monoprice 15w is sitting on the other bedside table lol!

I didn't really have room for them in this room so it just sort of worked out that way. I had my Fender Mustang II V1 on the table before the Hot Rod.

Obligatory pics... Let me resize them.

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A couple from when I originally got it. It has a blue amp jewel, now. Pics below.

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The first Pic is with just the blue jewel and the stock white bulb. After seeing this, I also put a blue silicone bulb cover over the bulb because it was too washed out. There was almost no visible blue. Now it's actually blue and not white.

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Thanks, all!

Well, that didn't last long. I've already removed the blue amp jewel and blue silicone bulb cover that I installed previously. It seems that I inadvertently left the amp on Standby for around 4 hours in a DARK room and never even noticed it. From like 1 - 5am. So thats the end of that.

I had a feeling this might happen when I installed it. It was a little difficult to see unless you were looking directly at the jewel. So I told myself if I ever left the amp on due to not seeing the light on that I'd remove it immediately. Seems it only took 2 days of me having it for it to happen. The red jewel lights up half the room almost lol.

One thing I did notice is that my Monoprice amp has forward-facing light and controls vs top-mounted controls and light on the Hot Rod. So it's quite a bit easier to see the Monoprice light. Probably why I've never left it on like that. And it doesn't have standby. Just a power switch.

Anyway. The red jewel is back on and will be staying on. I also rearranged the amp and put the Hot Rod on the left, where the Monoprice has been. I'm just so used to my amp being there. So I swapped.



- I have run into a weird issue while trying to run these through a couple of stereo pedals. The volume on Amp 2 becomes interactive with Amp 1. If I turn down amp #1, it turns down #2. And amp 2 wont get very loud unless I turn amp 1 up loud.

It does this on all of my stereo pedals. 2 or 3 Behringer pedals and a Donner True Stereo Delay pedal that has 2 delay pedals in 1 enclosure that are separate from 1 another. Called "White Tape Delay" IIRC.

I have the 1st "out" jack running through the fx loop of amp 1 and the 2nd "out" jack on the pedal goes to the front end of amp 2. I'm guessing that has something to do with it but haven't looked into it yet.
 
So I think the issue with my stereo pedals has something to do with how they're hooked up - with one jack going to the fx loop of amp #1 and the other going to the front of amp #2.

If I run them both to the front of each amp, they operate correctly. The volumes aren't interactive. I can turn down 1 amp and it doesn't affect the other one. I didn't try them both through their corresponding fx loops but I suspect it would work correctly there, also.

Though I'm not exactly sure how I'd run it to the 2nd fx loop. That would only be run to the power amp in jack for the 2nd amp so it wouldn't sound right. I'd have to figure out how to run the other side of the fx loop for it to work right. Except there's nowhere to run it to except on the pedals that have 2 input jacks as well as 2 output jacks.

I'll figure something out if it means running a Y cable into the fx loop pedals so each amp has the proper connections.
 
Wound_Up said:
One thing I did notice is that my Monoprice amp has forward-facing light and controls vs top-mounted controls and light on the Hot Rod. So it's quite a bit easier to see the Monoprice light. Probably why I've never left it on like that. And it doesn't have standby. Just a power switch.
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Yup, Iā€™ve left more than one of my top facing control amps on for extended periodsā€¦doesnā€™t seem to hurt anything. I put the little R2D2 looking nightlights (with the daylight sensor taped over) on my power strips so I get an indication that power is on even when the lights are onā€¦very apparent when I douse the lights. YMMV
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stormsedge said:
Yup, Iā€™ve left more than one of my top facing control amps on for extended periodsā€¦doesnā€™t seem to hurt anything. I put the little R2D2 looking nightlights (with the daylight sensor taped over) on my power strips so I get an indication that power is on even when the lights are onā€¦very apparent when I douse the lights. YMMV
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That's a good idea. One thing I did as a solution to me leaving my house and thinking I left the amp on was to use a wifi smart plug in the wall and them I plug my surge protector into that.

This way, if I ever leave and wonder if I left my amp on, I can just cut power to the smart plug and it kills the entire surge protector, cutting power to any amps or pedals that are on.

This is something I've done multiple times: thinking I may have left it on after I went somewhere. I remembered I had that plug in my drawer so I put it to use.
 
A month later and I've really grown to like this amp in it's current form with a 12AY7 in V1 and a 12AT7 in V3. It really is a totally different amp. So much more usable. I rarely play my Monoprice amp these days. If I do, it's only for a few minutes while the Hot Rod warms up. Or it's in stereo with the Hot Rod.
 
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