OK so it's my first blackstar and I've always seen the Stage HT's at GC but never plugged into one and this thing is pretty cool.
At $999, it seems like it has a ton of cool features. 3 really usable channels, no load box needed to run DI, balanced and 1/4" line out, dual voicings for all 3 channels and companion software you can use with a usb connection to the amp to build 3 virtual cab settings you can store in the amp.
I think for as good of a value it is, I was constantly butting heads with the voicing of the amp. I like a more upper midrange marshall type sound and this amp doesn't really do marshall or mesa. It's got it's own thing going on and my brain struggled to be okay with that. I don't fault the amp.
While the modern voicing gets a nice percussive and tight attack, I feel like the voicing just isn't there for really high gain metal... at least I couldn't get a super high gain tight modern metal sound and Ola struggled in his video as well (if the comments section is to be trusted). Accepting that and pulling back a bit, the amp really comes into it's own as a great high gain modern rock and 80's metal type thing with an extremely impressive clean channel. The OD1 channel has some great low gain classic rock sounds too. I used it for a couple of Skynnyrd songs, some Tom Petty and some modern country songs.
I didn't mess with the cab builder software but the 3 default virtual cabs were way above average vs lots of other devices I've tried with cab sim. It was about on par with the sound quality of my Captor X virtual cabs and Waza TAE with some good IR's but not as good as the OX Stomp. The other cool thing about using this amp USB into your DAW is that it sends several tracks. A stereo track, normal mono, DI bypassing the whole amp if you want to re-amp, etc
I gigged with it this weekend and it had good power and sat nicely in the mix. I used my Waza TAE to send a DI signal out to my OX Stomp then to the PA and it worked out pretty well.
But for the $1K price tag in a market swamped with much more expensive amps, for a 3 channel amp with a decent amount of flexibility in the voicings, not needing a load box or IR loader to gig cab-less or record DI at home, it's a pretty compelling package if you're not after a marshall or mesa sounding amp.
