IR-200 Amp and IR Cabinet Pedal Review

Beats the Strymon

I love this pedal. The presets are ease to modify and they sound slick. I use it with my HX Stomp XL and it frees up processor space to add other effects. Great pedal.

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Versatile and Sounds Great!

About two years ago, after 15 long years with a digitech gnx3000 multi fx processor with amp and cab sim, I decided to put an emphasis on tone and started purchasing pedals to create a board. What I learned in my time was that the amp has a significant impact on tone. The Boss IR200 is the real deal. The IR200 has 8 guitar amps and endless IRs. The presets are great, but there… read more are so many IRs that you can adjust to almost any amp sound. I looked at other amp and ir pedals, but ultimately landed on this one because it offers an effects loop. It also has great built in high gain settings and takes gain pedals very well. The sound quality is amazing. It does take some time (30 minutes or so flipping through the menus) to memorize where all of the settings are, but when you do it is an incredible tool and easy to dial in a great sound. I typically use it with headphones for quiet playing, but have also run it into the fx loop of my 100w combo. Couldn't recommend this more.

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Couldn't Be Happier

It was time to look for a new amp, but my church was looking to move away from the amp boxes behind stage. I thought about the Line 6 and Fractal all-in-ones, but didn't want to get away from my pedal collection that I love. So, I looked at the Strymon and Wampler amp modelers, since the IR-200 wasn't out yet. They sound great, but had some limitations I didn't like- no screen,… read more limited memory, etc. I waited for the IR-200 to release and I'm glad I did. I have used it for a few months now and am thrilled with all the flexibility. It sits last in my signal chain, like an actual amp would, and goes directly to a Radial direct box to the mixer. Does it sound like an actual amp in my home studio, no. From what I have read and heard, neither do any of the others for that matter. But it sounds REALLY good. When it runs through the mains in the church, it sounds outstanding, absolutley HUGE. If you run a midi rig, implementation couldn't be easier. There is only one program change to worry about. I have read a number of people who say that all of the tone shaping options will never be used, that you are paying for stuff that will never be used. For me, most church worship bands right now are essentially cover bands, and having the ability to really dial in a tone is what I was looking for. I have multiple song specific amps that are dialed in for the way we do things. I can actually see myself using a lot of the available memory slots over time. I'm a bit of a tone tweaker, so this is heaven for me. Having a screen to see what you are doing is awesome. Making changes on the fly at rehearsal is really easy, and the controls are really easy to use. Because of the complexity of my setup, I like to use the computer editors for other pedals (DD-500, RV-500, ES8). The IR-200 is just plain easy to use, which is a nice change when I have 3 software programs open in front of me already. The included amp models sound really good. There are people who say that "pick your brand" sounds way better, and get in fights with eachother when you disagree. The IR-200 sounds really really good. The factory impulse responses sound great too. I have used mostly those to this point. I have found a couple cab models that I really like from different places, but for the most part it is the factory IR's that I use. You can really get some great sounds with the different IR's. I could go on and on why I love this pedal. But in summary, if you are looking for a ton of flexibility, great sounding amp models, IR flexibility, and the ability to tweak tone like an addict, this thing is great.

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The game has clearly change

You know I fully expected to hook my rig up into it and be impressed, but I didn't expect to be blown away. 2022 is the year Brian started to get seriously fooled by DSP. When I plugged it into my powered monitor I held my expectations back because while Strymon and some other companies have done really well with DSP I wasn't ready to even try it...until I heard the demos of this… read more bad boy on YouTube. It's clear that BOSS entered the space like a fricking Kaiju. You are NOT making a mistake going all digital with this pedal. They nailed like 98% of it. You lose the atmosphere and some of the dynamics when you literally remove the amp from the stage, but the level of sacrifice is small enough that you can absolutely live with it. Go hear one of these in person for yourself. BOSS is gonna sell a lot of these.

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Best IR at this price point.

I have had the Podgo, line6 spider 5, Yamahaa THRll and the boss IR200 blows them away! It is not very hard to quickly dial a great tone. If you have enough patience to menu dive and learn the interface it is truly awarding. Boss instructions are not very easy to follow however this could just be my inpatient habit to quickly learn on my own. It took me while to setup my custom… read more settings for running my other pedals through the effects loop and enable stereo mode however once I figured it out it became so easy to have a full integrated pedal board with Boss IR as the brains of your rig. I have it setup to quickly hook up my board to both my amp and DAW since you can run 2 separate IRs at the same time. The amps and cabs on here are not only extremely believable they feel good too.. I almost convinced myself to believe I have made several purchas of vintage amps and them sitting in my studio for selection. This in comparisons to the Strymon Irridium I think they are both great, however the Boss IR is so much more.. did I mention it has noise gate 3 separate eqs and awesome reverb! Good job BOSS you nailed this one! Thank you Sweetwater for getting this over to me so quickly after it became available . I just might be the first batch of this release.

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