Atomic Amps Reactor 112 Combo

Favorite Features:

PODxt can be mounted in the Amp. Having the PODxt installed in the amp means no carrying, connecting, or breaking down the PODxt, PODxt power supply, or the POD-to-amp cable. This reduces setup time, cleans up the stage area, and eliminates a power supply and cable from the list of items to break.

The ported/tuned cabinet. This cabinet provides a relatively flat response (something your Celestian greenbacks are not designed to do). which means more bass, less mid-range honk.

Not so good features:

The handle is awkward. Picking up the amp by the side is not natural. I would like two handles.

The top of the amp needs more protection for the PODxt. It's too vulnerable to accidents--spills, etc. Of course, the PODxt sitting on top of another amp has the same problems.

Using a PODxt mainly with Fender Twin, Vox AC-30TB, and Plexi 45 models and a Gibson Les Paul this amp is loud and provides a very warm tone. No hiss or buzz.

Note that the amp has more natural distortion than a direct connection to a PA, a solid-state amp, or recording panel. Duh...the Atomic has hot tubes. So you will have to readjust the drive settings on the PODxt if there is too much distortion for your taste.

Don't know yet. I've only had the amp for 1 week.

One problem which I haven't fully resolved--a ground loop. When I connect the Atomic Reactor to a mixer or my Peavey Effect Return there is a 60 Hz/120 Hz buzz. There is no buzz coming from the Atomic, but I am concerned that the Atomic might be the cause of the loop. But I'm not an electrician. As noted below, Mr. King is helping me resolve this problem, but note the buzz is not bad for live work, but if recording I'm either going to run direct from the PODxt or mic the Atomic.

Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! I emailed a question to the company and the president of Atomic Amps, Tom King, called me, twice. He worked with me for 15 minutes to resolve my ground loop problem, making suggestions and soliciting my thoughts on how to improve the amp in future models. He asked that I keep in contact to let him know how the amp worked out for me.

In 35 years of playing and buying gear, I've never had such support. Does Fender, Marshall, Gibson, Vox, or anyone else do that?

I would not go back to using a Peavey Classic/Celestion 1x12 (which I used for probably 100+ gigs with a POD). Nor would I go direct to the PA (always a frustrating experience). The Atomic is fuller sounding and just right for my style. I use Les Paul, Stratocaster, Telecaster, and Line 6 MM4. Mic the cabinet running into the PA back into 2 monitor sends. Have been studio guitarist, assistant jazz director at local university (I have a composition degree), played bars and proms to pay for college. Became a Christian, became tired of playing bars, began playing rockin churches, state/national fair, festivals.

I look forward to working with Atomic Amps--there's nothing like it.

you know the feature by now !

i brought the atomic reactor on the strenghts of the reviews posted here , and also because Guitarist magazine (UK) gave it their highest rating 5 star gold award .
the first unit i had was faulty - it made the modeller sound like you had placed a wah in front of it - cocked all the way back - and then after 10 minutes of use it cut out and refused to work again .
the second unit sounded and performed much better , but i do not think that this amp is the answer to the great digital/tube debate .
i use a Vox Tonelab SE - which is easily the best and most authentic sounding modeller available ( ive owned em all ) .
i use mainly the high gain models , and recorded direct and also for practice through a simple hi-fi amp , this unit sounds frighteningly like a real marshall amp .
however , these sounds do not translate well at all through the atomic ( which may of course be the fault of the Vox tonelab ) .
i extensively tested these models thru the atomic at high volume and the result , especially when compared directly to a real marshall tube amp - which i did - at the same volume with the same guitars, was very dissapointing .
little prescence or punch available - just an annoying "rattling and fizzing" sound underlying the tones . sounded pretty bad .
very "boxy" sound - not at all clear and noisy too .
i'm not saying that the amp itself is inherently bad - its just not suited to the high gain models of the tonelab .
it certainly sounds better than plugging a modeller into a guitar amp , and for that reason i'll give it a 5 .

see above - not a good start for a reliability rating !

emailed atomic and never had a reply .

been playing for 25 years and have lots of guitars and lots of gear , all of which i know like the back of my hand .
i rarely put pen to paper and write reviews because equipment and tone are such subjective things that most gear reviews are pretty pointless beyond build quality and reliability issues anyway .
but given the almost exclusively glowing reviews across the net for this amp , i felt that i had to chip in my two pennies worth .
my problem with this amp is not because i hooked it up wrong or dont know how to tweak my gear for the best available sounds (which i'm sure to be accused of by later reviewers ) .
and of course , as i said before , the shortcomings may indeed be related to the tonelab rather than the atomic .
but i do know that the tonelab is an awesome piece of gear and sounds wonderful when recorded direct and even at high volumes through a regular hi-fi amp with a pair of tannoy speakers .
so why does it sound so bad thru the atomic ?
my conclusion has to be that the atomic is the weak link in this particular setup .
also , i am referring exclusively to the marshall and mesa models here - i did not test the atomic with any other amp models from the tonelab ( im a rocker , right ?!? ) .
i'm sorry if youre reading this and it isnt what you want to hear - but if you play the high gain models and hope that this amp will make your modeller sound as good as it does thru your headphones , but louder - forget it .
it wont .
go buy a real marshall and keep your modeller for practice and recording .

Very straight forward. The online manual has enough information to make it easy to use.

When it worked, it was a bit more "hummy" that I would have expected.

I had it in my house for about 4 months. Here is where it gets ugly. I had the opportunity to use it for about a half dozen times in my living romm. Never had the occasion to take it to jam, or gig with it.

It failed to power on the last time it was used. No sign of a blown fuse, or adverse smell- any of the tell-tale signs of a problem. It just stopped powering on. Never had the opportunity to see anything but my living room environment.

I had been in contact with Tom via phone and email, and though tI was going to receive a replacement chassis. I have since attempted to contact the company and Tom via phone and email. Totalling about 20 attempts at contact so for. No reply, no replacement unit.

Thus far, the dead chassis has been sitting on my desk for about a month now. No returned calls or emails. No replacement unit. Nothing.

I would call this extremely substandard service. I am forgiving to a point, but 30 days have passed since I have last heard from them, and no resolution has been reached, or even been set in motion.

I have been playing guitar for over 30 years. I own a myriad of other gear, mostly boutique / high end stuff ( original AC 30, Marshall 1974X, Mesa maverick, Mesa Mark 1 reissue, 9 guitars of differing makes, also nice stuff.

If this were stolen, I would want to thank whoever took it,then collect it as a loss on my homeowners insurance. I would never consider recommending this to anyone else after this experience.

Made in 2005. Too few to mention - that's the point! I'd like a standby switch - even though turning down the volume on my Pod has the same result. I'd also like a headphone socket, too.

Negatives: The vinyl covering marks easily - not really tough enough for a gigging amp, I'd suggest. The cloth grill covering the speaker is not tight enough and slightly misaligned. The plug-in cartridge that my Pod sits in isn't a good fit into the cabinet, either, although all the connections work fine. There is only one handle on the side. I'd like to see one on each side, possibly recessed (like 4x12 cabinets are) to make it easier to move around.

So, in summary, this was built in China down to a price and looks like it. Not a complaint, coz it isn't expensive, just a comment.

Positives: Does what it says it should do very well indeed. I'm very happy with it so far (3 months in)- just slightly worried about how reliable it will be after a year or so of being moved around a lot for gigs, rehearsals, etc.

Playing with a hard-hitting drummer packing just 18W means I'm very close to using full volume a lot of the time - but that's OK - we play small venues that don't require the drums to be miked up, so I can still be heard at the back of the room. If that changed, I'd probably just slave into the PA. Maybe I'll buy another amp for a stereo setup!

Does a great job of amplifying the Pod. Doesn't seem to colour the sound too much. An earlier post was critical of the sounds they got out of it compared to their Pod on headphones - I'm not. I think they might have had a product fault somewhere. I have found that the amplified sounds don't quite match up with the straight Pod sounds through headphones, but that's understandable - comparing headphone speakers in a controlled environment (your head) with a live room sound through the amplifier speaker setup is not comparing like with like. I've always been able to get good sounds out of it - just not with quite the same settings as the Pod through headphones. Experiment! I get great results continuing to use the Pods 'AIR' settings (emulating speakers/rooms). Also, the speaker is VERY directional. The sound you hear 'off axis' is nothing like as bright as the sound you get in front of the cone.

It's the Pod that scores here, not the amp, but so what?

I've got some long term concerns about build quality, but so far 100% reliable.

I emailed the company to find out who the UK dealers were. They replied within 24 hours. That's fine by me.

Been playing for far too many years. I've owned all sorts of amps and guitars, but this is now my only 'giggable' amp. I need the Pod for the various tones we use in the band, and this is the only solution that has worked. Using really good 'one tone' amps to amplify the Pod didn't work - you get too much of their own sound colouring yours.

All you need, loud enough. mic it if you want more

exellent with the metal grind to neo classical. previous reviewer musnt have known how to set up the POD XT with metal. This amp allows me to now hear these models as they were meant to be, loud clear and fulley tubesweet!.

havent needed it

havent needed it

Feature wise, this amp is as basic as you can get. There is a single input and an off-on switch. The tubes are clearly visible through small grated surrounding the power amp and there is a fan for cooling. There is an effects loop and line out for connection to another amplifier for stereo-amp applications.

Using a PodXT and POD 2.0 with a 2002 Gibson Les Paul yielded nearly unusable tone for any amp model featuring distortion. There was virtually no high end and none of the closed cabinet thump that most other users have reported. The sound was akin to having a vox wah in the heel-back position. Switching the CAB models to off made the sound levels drop with less bass and a little more treble. Switching off the CAB emulation (on the POD) usually results in huge tonal changes through headphones, PA's, and power amps fed into speaker cabs but no so when plugged into this Atomic amp. Playing chords above the 12th fret resulted in an indistingishable mush in which appegiated notes completely disappeared when the other strings were allowed to ring. When using clean tones, the sound was acceptable though lifeless with very little difference noticed between even the polar extremes of the Roland and Match models. My experience was so drastically different that most of the review here that I feel I must have purchased a defective unit.

Receiving what I believe to be a defective product as new results in a very low reliability rating.

I emailed the company through their website (before I purchased the amp) and never received a reply to my questions. Perhaps they simply don't communicate with people that are not yet customers. Atomic amps also has a very small distribution network that, for some reason, is not aligned with authorized Line 6 distributors. This is a very basic flaw in their business model. Also, calls to authorized Atomic Amp distributors in Washington state reaveled that there was only one unit in the entire region. One store, listed as an authorized distributor, had never heard of of an Atomic Reactor amp. I did not attempt to have the amp repaired as there were no remaining units in the store to use as a loaner.

I purchased this amp based, in part, on the excellent reviews here at Harmony-Central. The descriptions led me to believe that this amp would fit my needs perfectly as an in-home practice amp and as a suitably portable amp for band practice. I don't need roof-raising volume, just the great tones offered by the PODs to be amplified to moderate levels. I have to say that construction quality appeared to very good to excellent with two exceptions. The vinyl covering was starting to draw away from the amp structure on the seems between the back panel and the side of the amp. Also, the front grill cloth was a bit loose and almost floppy. I could not audition this amp in the store as they are (ironically) not a Line 6 dealer. I had to wait until I brought the amp home to test the product. I spent several days of troubleshooting with the hopes that the amp was not at the root of the tone problems. In the end, the only culprit for the very poor tone was the amp itelf. I returned the Atomic amp to the authorized distributor (from whom I had made the purchase) shortly thereafter. My overall score is based on the high quality of contruction with the very poor tonal characteristics of this unit.

Purchased new in November 2005 from Musictoyz.com in an attempt to find a live solution for my PODxt. The amp is very straight forward and basic...all the features come from the modeler. Been playing it for a month and no additional features needed thus far except maybe access to the headphone jack. I might get an amp stand or Ampwedge but don't really feel a need right now. I mainly play at home and haven't had a jam session with it so I can't comment on how it sounds with a drummer and bass but it is as loud or louder than my Peavey Bandit 112. It is a very loud 18 watts. Being a slave amp it does what it is supposed to but the modeler drives it so I'm not sure how to rate this category.

I am playing a Music Man John Petrucci 6 string w/ piezo and play a wide variety of music styles leaning more towards progressive and metal. At first I was blown away by the clean and semi-dirty tones and effects. The tubes really brought to life a lot of the pre-sets that only sounded great thru headphones. But I found the high gain models to be a little sterile. I started to doubt this was the solution when I couldn't dial in a rhythm tone that really did justice to heavy high gain riffing. I kept researching what others were doing and I finally discovered that the tones I wanted were in there...I just had to keep tweaking. Combine every amp model with every cabinet model and mic model and eventually you will find it. I finally dialed in a heavy rhythm and separate lead tone that just sounds awesome. You have to back off the bass some as the amp has a really low end thump and reduce the AIR simulation for a tighter sound. Sounds great when palm muting and gives you a nice chunk to your riff. Now I have it all...beautiful clean piezo to soaring high gain leads. Beautiful.

The amp is built very solid and once your modeler is docked it is locked and ready to go. The look is very clean and classic. I don't know how difficult it will be to replace the tubes but I will let the music store who does my guitar set up help me with that the first go round. I've only had it a month but it seems very dependable. I'm not currently gigging but I would like a second to run in stereo and to have a back up if one goes down.

Never dealt with the company but I have read nothing but good things about their customer service. Hopefully that holds up as Atomic grows. Warranty is for 5 years.

I have been playing 20 years and in addition to my Music Man I own a Yamaha RGX electric, a Yamaha acoustic electric, Peavey Bandit 112 (for sale). I have been a fan of Line 6 and my PODxt has been great for playing at home but now with the Atomic I can open it up live. I would definitely replace the Atomic if something happened to it. I love how good the pod sounds thru it and at bedroom levels it sounds wonderful but it has the ability to really crank out the volume as well. This is a great setup for $500 (if you have a modeler) and I wasn't interested in spending over a grand for a combo to get the tones I can get with this. For now, this is really the best of both worlds.

Everything mentioned before. Equipped with EL-84 from JJ.
As mentioned by someone else before, handles on both sides would be extremely helpful when moving it around a lot.
No possibilityto connect a headphone to the PodXT (see below).

Just plain brilliant. i have a PodXT, an Epi LP with Gobson PUs, a strat, a Variax.
No matter which model you use, the reactor makes it just so much more that model. For instance when using the JCM800 model, the reactor makes it feel like you get the crunch from the power amp of exactly the real amp.
When using a VOX-model, the reactor makes ist just so much more "spongy" and jumping out of the box.
The best feel is when the PodXT-master is between 9 and 1o'clock. In between those two points it just grabs you with a very direct sound. Below it does (as any amp) not really move the air and above, the output tubes start overdriving. The latter is something very smooth and loveable though.

At the very start, some high-gain models (like the soldano) were giving an odd feedback when turned up. No normal feedback from speaker to pickup, something let's call it "internal vibrations". After some trying I figured out that it is only present when i use the reactor's input that is routed to the PodXT's input. What I did then is to install a socket on the template (that is just the "cover-plate" fitting to the modeler) that I connected to the PodXT-input. So now I am not using the reactor's input but go almost directly into the modeler. That compeletely solved all skeack-problems.

I did the same thing then for the headphones by installing a stereo-socket into the left lower corner of the template and connecting a stereo-plug that goes into the Pod's headphone-socket.

And now I have the best soundmachine possible!! And its very portable! For live-use I mic it with a Shure S-57 and get the same brilliant tones via the PA.

Only thing that bugs me here is that the JJ-tubes rattle whenever I play something on the lower strings. Getting to the tubes is a bit of fiddling-work, and bias needs to be readjusted. Never mind, the vent is very quiet.
Design looks reliable, nothing that will (at least obvioulsy) fall apart soon.

As others described before: You sent an email to info@atomicamps.com and no matter what time of year, I always had an answer in less than 24h. Brilliant!

Been playing 20years, had all sorts of equipment and for the serious gigging musician (wihout own roadie) this is the all-in-one no worries package. Complete setup set up and torn down within 10 minutes. No more last second troubleshooting (all you have is guitar, floorboard and amp), and if you are tired of the JCM800 one day you just go for the JCM900.
Even without it getting stolen I will buy y second one for stereo use.

Doesn't really need any. It does the job it's meant too.

I didn't get the all important manual. But cust. service fixed this.

Maybe a standyby; and i agree; a headphone socket. (You can use the pod etc.; but then you need to pull it all out.)
I would also suggest a couple of handles at each end in the top. The single handle at the 'end' mkes it awkward to get in and out of a car etc. (as you don't transport it on its end) and I feel a little uneasy that the pod could fall out when I'm carryi g it.

Great. Now that I know how to use it.

Same story as you've heard before. A phone call from Tom King (and I'm in Australia) within the hour to clarify my problem. The fact that I didn't get the 18 page manual meant I hadn't set the pod (not the amp) to direct studio mode. This meant it still sounded tinny and weak; nothing like the one in the shop.

Now that the problem is sorted, its great. But I am a little frustrated that I've had it for 3 months literally not using it as it sounded so bad. The shop didn't have a manual for me (didn't know to ask for one; and they have since said they don't get them) and didn't know enough about the product to fix the problem for me - even over the phone as Tom was able to.

Does exactly what I wanted it too....... warm up a digital modeller. A little pricey; considering you have to buy a pod (aud $600) and shortboard (Also 600) You can buy a 'real' fender valve combo for 2/3 of all this.

But now that i have fixed the problems; I am happy with it. I just feel it owes me 3 months - then I'll get my monies worth.

With the uprise of Amp modelers, Musicians like myself would get these amazing authentic tones while recording to the board- but was unable to duplicate the tones through an amplifier because amps have thier own coloration; so this would leave the modelers sounding terrible- I tried everything to give me the true sound and nothing could deliver- Until Atomic Amp entered the scene!
The Atomic Reactor is a tube driven power amp in an enclosed 1 X 12 cabinet. It has a cut out that is termed a Docking station- which houses the popular modelers out there. It is very solid, with black tolex and a checker board grill cloth. An effect loop with a line out

I use a variety of guitars, Mainly Gibson Les Pauls
The Atomic is the only amp that can deliver the tones that I have coming from my Pod XT.
The amp delivers the tones as true as they can be- Clean, distorted- it is all great- there is no amp coloration- well I can't actually say there is no coloration- it is a closed cabinet and tube driven- so it doesn't color, it enhances

I have had no problems as of yet

If the amp alone isn't a selling point- the Customer service is- I had a few typical questions when I first got the amp, and I emailed them. The same day I had answers- by not a tech but by Tom King the president of Atomic amps! I had another question just yesterday, and not only did I get a quick response- Tom called me on the phone to answer my questions- You do not get customer support like that anymore- Awesome!

I have been playing music for twenty some years, and I can not rave enough about this creation! I own several amps (Marshall, Fenders, Peavey's...) and since I got this amp, I have a wall full of amps that serve as decorations, because they are not being used! If it were stolen I would definately go out and buy another one- I am saving now to buy a second one! Anybody that has discovered the true tones of Amp modelers, but are frustrated because thier Pod, Vamp... Just doesn't sound good running through your marshall or whichever amp you use- You have to check this thing out! It is the solution- Period!