I too like the 5:25 and was less happy with the 5:50 tone but I do prefer a 12" speaker.
Me too. I figure if it becomes an issue, I could always hook it up to an extension cab. For home playing & friendly jams, the 10" on the 5:25 holds its own.
In the mean time, the big tone for the small & portable size, coupled with the versatility (from clean to NWOBHM tones) & 5/25 Watt switching made it the amp for me.
Since you asked, here are some more comments I have re: the amp. It may just confirm things you already know, but who knows?
I use the 5:25 through a budget guitar (Yamaha Pacifica 112 fat strat) because I decided to upgrade to a nicer amp prior to upgrading my guitar. I know it is really no contest, but I'm still amazed at the (wholly positive) differences between playing the Express and the Vox DA15 digital modeller it replaced -- it is so much more dynamic and articulate, yet warm.
I use the cleans for old Beatles tunes. Low-gain settings on the crunch channel can yield a Voxy vintage crunch. The 5W Class A setting works particularly well for both of these uses. The spring reverb is also really nice.
Higher gain settings on the crunch channel get you rock & hard rock crunch tones, up to moderate-gain metal rhythm tones. I haven't used the blues setting much, but it does sound nice. I use the burn setting on channel two a lot for NWOBHM tones. The low end is tighter on the 25W class a/b setting.
The eq & the contour control is very powerful, where small adjustments make a big difference in tone. The ability to eq the pre-amp and dial in the contour eq later is useful -- I often do not scoop the mids on the pre-amp, but wait to eq them out with the contour function later in the signal chain.
Admittedly, I've spent the last month twiddling knobs & getting acquainted with the amp more than proper practicing. :roll: The last week I dialed in my tones with a different trick I read about on-line: set your Master Volume to the level you want, then dial in gain & treble to taste. Then dial in the rest. This method taught me some counter-intuitive settings that I otherwise wouldn't have considered, in which I overdrove the power amp a bit with low gain settings at apartment volumes. This worked well on channel 1, but channel 2 was too loud for me to do it in the apartment.
I haven't tried any effects with the amp yet, but would be interested in what other 5:25 owners have tried.
I do find it interesting how Mesa came to the number of "25" for the higher wattage setting. The two EL84 tubes it uses typically produce ~15W of power, but the "dyna-watt" circuitry of the 5:25 provides a burst of clean headroom on the attack to make it much louder than a typical 2xEL84 amp. The dyna-watt kicks in on the 25W setting only. I don't really notice it outside of the louder volume on the smaller amp. Also, the switch on the back used to flip between the 5 & 25 Watt settings reads "5W" & "Dyna Watt 30W" watts, rather than 5 & 25.
If you know what you are getting into with this amp, I don't think you will be disappointed. It is a great, little, portable, loud, versatile, moderate-gain-for-Mesa amp.
