I put 7 / 10 because of three things:
- An effects loop carrment unusable in distortion, it dnature compltement the sound by adding the gain is weird ... trs We work around this problem by plaant modulation effects on APRS Piranha (delay, chorus, flanger, rverbe) before Poweramp has trs works well (provided it is good with good stuff including bypass). As it can be used against BOOST! You n'insrez no effect, but you engage the loop, pushing the volume on your preset (can be useful to boost clean).
- The useless to the "global" (which can change the EQ presets on all ...); Yeah ... it seems they were looking for a fit eighth button in F ade, then shoo! The "global"! Ms. button "mute" t would be more useful ...
- Missing a SETTING THE prsence, o sounds a bit shrill at times lead (it has to be corrected with an external eq).

Otherwise, the rest is very well: two 12AX7 REALLY food (hot!), MIDI controls with 99 presets, mids Settings, two distos (a distortion "marshallesque" and a more distal nag more "greenhouse", "V" to boost the bass & treble), reliable construction "made in US" (it will be aperoit when you open the machine to switch lamps).

UTILIZATION

Using very easy, as a head amp with the mids paramtriques more. aa t a real pleasure for me APRS m'tre shit for two years on rglages monstrously complex Voodu Valve (which changes every time you play depending on the mood of days ...).

10/10 So, this impeccable ct l.

Note: the "mids paramtriques" can be as utiliss:
- As a rglage supplmentaire low (they go down until 250Hz, so convenient to boost the bass on the clean sounds or distos fat);
- SETTING THE prsence as in the rglant frquence above 5kHz; ct practice to remove a bit "showy" in the modern distortion, especially for leads, but suddenly we can not act on the mids.
-> So much more than SETTING THE mids!

For use with Poweramp LAMPS for the Piranha can be expressed.

SOUNDS

So a little update on the piranha lamps: it is the only home prampli Rocktron be really quip lamp power (the Voodu & Prophesy have a 12AX7 9V supplies only, and before the DSP, and it therefore has no rle in distortion but only on the sound compression):
- Gre a 12AX7 that the signal before distortion (say, clear sound for short)-that 's the second when looking at the face of Piranha.
- 12AX7 one who "participates" distortion (but empty, to reach such levels of gain with a single lamp, there are some clipping diodes)-that 's the 1st preamp when looking at the front .

The sound comes from the Piranha so true of those two lights, at least in part (I would say 10-15%) was then cleans out these "hot" (I love the cleans Piranha!) And these distortions crpitent that, as the amp lights. You can feel the diffrence trs significantly with Voodu for example, which sounds more "numrique" (especially when you push the input lvl) while having the same grain: the grain "Rocktron" (this lightweight "DZZZ" in the treble, like the Mesa Recto). I had fun improvising with Voodu while a friend played a rhythm on the Piranha (with pedals chorus / delay H2O), the heat is amazing diffrence! Piranha is the hottest, most Voodu numrique & artificial (but hey, the effects Intgr can make up for everything, including lead).

Now, note that even when the Piranha is not a 100% TRUE preamp as lamps or Peavey RockMaster Triaxis (which are far more lamps and a well suprieure impdance output: 150 ohms for the Piranha, 20kohm for Peavey, 47kohm for TriAxis). This includes the distortion "modern" (flashing LED): a sounds much less "tubes" that THE FIRST, with a somewhat garish ct and its "square corners" (as if its silent concentrated in the center of the spectrum, and ... well ... hh square corners. THE FIRST distortion, however, sounds more "tube" and is similar this can be achieved with a Marshall JCM hormones to boost TS9 (thanks to the INPUT LEVEL faade of Piranha acts as a boost).

Please note: sounds much better high-volume (output level at least half) and a high level of (input level between 2 and 3h). Prcisons: I read in other reviews here that the Piranha was not a large reserve of gain ... Warning: you must see that there are two gains in the Piranha!
- A "pre-gain" in between (the knob "Input level" in faade, which acts as a boost, as if they used a TS9 on the channel distortion of a tube amp full);
- A "gain" in the normal menu (the knob "gain").
This dpend output level of your guitar pickups, but I like to get the personal input level until 2-3am, you win the normment in gain & fat (and compression also ...).
Sound clear: 9 / 10 (nobody's perfect!)
Disto 1: 8.5/10
Disto 2: 7 / 10 (APRS I use may be the wrong track ... rglages)
______________________________
Average rating: 8 / 10
** EDIT: I put 9 / 10 as I found out how to get excellent distos with Piranha, including distortion with modern pedals to need a external eq. Take a 10-band pedals (as plutt 7) to act on the low (80-300Hz) & treble (around 2-3kHz). And The sound is yours! **

OVERALL OPINION

I've had a month to I t dboussol dpart by ct a bit "dry" & dynamics, but I left two years with the Voodu Valve (the preamp had accustomed me a groooose compression and lots of effects), but in the end, it comes back to basics: a good basic sound, with dynamics, like a head amp. For it is in fact: The Piranha is and sounds like a kind of "mini-head hybrid".

A little Drout therefore beginners, I am increasingly won over by this preamp is not as "plug & play" it looks (well more than the dj Voodu!). It takes a little time to find what works, especially on the mids frquence: for large rhythmic lgrement I cut the mids (yes, unlike what you read here or on the the net distortion in the mids must be cut from the Piranha, between 500 and 800Hz I would say).

Report quality price: I got about 300, it's okay, I think such a device should be around 250 now (the sounds are a little older, including two disto and then the effects loop unusable ...).
** EDIT 03/03/2009: I finally found what was missing ... the Piranha is a external EQ pedals! PDAL With 10 bands (I took a MXR KRK) and some rglages purposes (especially on the presence and sub-bass), sounds pramp become more subtle, more polished pros & more. L I can say with suitable hardware prampli this is a killer !!!!**

PS = and do not forget: this needs a Piranha amplification lamps. No transos.