Orange Dark Terror Head

I got a Dark Terror amp about a month ago. I was looking for something small (no more than 20W) to play at home (primarily) and the band practices. I was considering many options, incl. Orange, Mesa, Blackstar, Marshall. I needed an amp to be able to do old school Bay Area thrash (think Metallica, Slayer) and finally decided to just dive in and got the Dark Terror. And boy, does this amp deliver. It packs a good set of features: 100% tube single channel with 12ax7 preamp and a duet of EL84 in the power amp section. Two power modes: 15 and 7 watts, volume, gain and shape control, which control the amount of mid frequencies you have in the sound as well as some highs. For example, turning the shape know all the way clockwise scoops out the mids while brings lows and highs up. It also delivers an insane amount of gain, way more than the original Tiny Terror has and I use gain at about 2 o'clock for thrash (straight to the amp, no boost, no tubescreamer, etc) at which setting it is nice and tight. Also, unlike the Tiny Terror, it offers a tube driven effects loop to connect your time and mod effects. Despite being a single channel hi-gain amp, it cleans up quite nicely, especially if you can work your guitar volume knob and split the humbuckers. At first I wished this amp had a full 3 band eq, but the shape control works quite nicely and I plugged my eq pedal in the loop but have taken it out since. The amp is pretty loud too, but even at low volumes (volume at about 8 o'clock) it sound really really good. Some of the youtube videos make this amp sound really fizzy, and it can sound like that if you dime the gain. But at that moment the gain is just crushing and I personally don't see myself ever needing that much gain. I have not tried it with other styles of music, as my primary focus right now is old school thrash, but this amp is just meant for that kind of music.

I love this head. It has huge amounts of versatility with its tones spreading from the deepest depths of metal tones through to beautifully crafted cleans that really show off the warm character of valve amps (never had an experience like the one in the bottom review).

The 7watt mode is great for bedroom playing but it is still a very loud 7 watts that is coupled with my need for a smaller cab than a 4x12. In my experience the 15 watt mode would be loud enough for the majority of shows, provided the cabs are miked of course so a range of applications are available with this amp.

A great feature about this terror head over the others is the FX loop, allowing those of us with pedals to expand on the array of sounds this amp can produce. This made me give features a 4 instead of 3 cause tone, volume and gain isn't very much to go off so its a really sensible inclusion on an amp of this size.

Sounds great, looks great and functions incredibly well. Highly recommended

I got this amp because I craved the deep, crunchy tone of Orange amps and wanted to play mostly metal at home and jam with friends. The Dark Terror certainly delivers, it has TONS of gain but sadly this gain gets a little fizzy when played at very low volumes, eg. less than 8:00. At this setting and even on 7 watt mode it's loud and playable only during the day if you live in an apartment. This amp shines with the volume past 9:00 but that is extremely loud for an urban setting, even through a 1x12 cab.
I think the Dark Terror is an excellent choice for playing at home *IF* you can get away with very loud volumes, and obviously great for jamming and small gigs. Otherwise the tone is very distinct and the distortion gets too fuzzy. I personally like the fuzz and cranked up this amp is great, but you won't get much more than fuzz, even with an overdrive pedal, unless you play it LOUD.
This is a wonderful head but sadly it didn't match my low volume needs. I would absolutely buy it again otherwise.