u/RabidTeapot

Still debating whether or not to splurge for a Fender FR-10/12 or buy a cheap solid state amp for occasional jams with friends. Anyone here have any experience with the Orange O Tone 40 and Helix effects? It's a very clean and loud solid state amp (no drive channel) that apparently takes pedals very well. $200 cheaper than the FR-10, and currently comes with a $50 Loan & Persuade gift card here in the Great White North.

I'd build presets specifically for the amp and use my HX Stomp basically like a HX FX, no amp sims necessarily. If I use any amp sims, I'd obviously forego the cab block.

I know Orange high gain tones are a love 'em or hate 'em sort of situation, but this amp is completely clean and sounds really nice in the demos I've watched. A little Princeton-y, just with more mids. A lot of the stuff I play is clean/EOB anyway. Occasionally do a bit of 80s hair rock/thrash metal or 90s punk, but I can sort of approximate those tones on my Stomp without needing any Mesa/Boogie sims in the chain.

As much as I love the tones I can get from my Helix, I do really miss the simplicity of a physical amp sometimes. When I'm playing through my studio monitors, I have to be very careful with my positioning since the sound from the monitors is so directional, which just sucks. Can't stand up without the sound changing drastically. This amp would fix that problem. Also, since the O Tone 40 is a solid state amp, I should be able to get it quiet enough when practicing at home without sacrificing tone (also v. important to me).

After getting a PS5 Pro, I went back and forth for a few weeks on what monitor I wanted to upgrade to (from a Dell S2721DGF 1440p IPS). I was initially leaning towards getting one of the recent 4K dual-mode miniLEDs, like the AOC U27G4XM or the KTC M27P6, but extremely mixed Reddit reviews on that panel had me considering cheap 1440p OLEDs instead, exclusively for gaming on the PS5 Pro and on my gaming laptop.

The AW2726DM went on sale at Best Buy this past week for CAD $450, which is kind of nuts, considering that it's so much cheaper than what I spent on my Dell IPS several years back when it was still a relatively new monitor. I saw lots of comments on Reddit about how the AW2726DM is "too dim" and "not real HDR" but I decided to pull the trigger on it anyway, because I could always just return it to Best Buy if it wasn't good. Really happy that I did! So far, I think it's a very good gaming monitor for the price, when compared to standard IPS.

Pros:

Black levels and overall contrast are great. Games that actually utilize HDR well are a joy to look at now, compared to my old IPS. And because I'm using the monitor in a naturally dim north-facing room, I don't have any issues with raised blacks or purple tint during the day -- even with the blinds open. Contrast was the biggest reason why I wanted to upgrade my monitor, so I'm very happy with how the AW2726DM performs in that regard.

The HDR is obviously not jaw-dropping like it is on the massive ultra-expensive 4K OLED TVs, but it's waaaaaaaay better than the HDR on my old IPS (which has DisplayHDR 400 certification). SDR is better too. Given that I'm using the monitor in such a dim room, the overall brightness of the panel actually feels a little overwhelming at times. Any brighter, and I think I'd be experiencing some eye strain in that environment.

I'm not experiencing any reflection issues whatsoever with the glossy screen. That being said, the monitor is quite some distance away from the window in the room. There also isn't any light source directly behind me on the opposite wall.

Overall QC out of the box was great. Easy to set up, no dead pixels, no uniformity issues, no flicker issues. One thing worth mentioning: the product specs do not mention the audio input port, but it does have a port that can accept a standard 3.5mm audio jack. I have Edifier MR4 speakers, and was able to connect them to the monitor with no issues. Headphones would work fine as well.

Cons:

Text fringing on Windows and on MacOS is bad. I would not be able to use this monitor for coding or writing documents. I could probably force myself to get used to it if I absolutely had to, but I really don't think a budget 1440p OLED is what you want if you do any text-based work. If your use case for the monitor is mainly gaming with a little bit of web browsing on the side, it's fine.

Corners were definitely cut with the included stand, which feels cheap and isn't the easiest to adjust. I haven't tried the monitor at a desk, though I expect it would wobble a bit while typing. I could be wrong, but I'd be willing to test it out if someone wants me to. Non-issue, of course, if you're using a separate monitor arm.

Settings are a bit limited on the whole, and the joystick doesn't feel as premium as the joystick on my S2721DGF.

Overall:

I'm glad I ignored the "this panel is too dim" naysayers and tried it out for myself. For my strictly-gaming use case in a naturally-dim room, it's totally fine. As nice as 4K would be, I'm so glad I didn't shell out a ton of money on a top-of-the-line 4K OLED, just so that I'd be able to use the monitor in my brightly-lit office. I'm also glad I didn't spend CAD $500+ on a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none 4K miniLED IPS that would not be able to achieve deep blacks without making other compromises that would affect overall image quality.

I'm keeping my Dell S2721DGF for work and productivity, and will replace it with the cheapest 4K IPS I can get when it eventually dies. I'll replace the AW2726DM with a 4K OLED monitor / TV when (if...) those eventually become affordable. And if budget-level 4K miniLED monitors improve in the coming years, I'll consider those as well.

I recently bought a PS5 Pro. I had a launch PS5 for a couple of years, and I know from experience that I should expect the controller that came with my Pro to develop stick drift in 4-6 months or so (don't give me BS about me abusing my controllers; I baby my controllers, it's just something that inevitably happens if you play a lot of games that map sprint to L3). When the drift starts, I will NOT be buying another CAD $95 DualSense that I'll have to replace again in another six months. Went through that with my launch PS5, not going through it again.

Would you recommend the DualSense Edge, or a third party option like the Victrix Pro BFG? I'm leaning towards the Victrix Pro, as I prefer asymmetrical Xbox-style layouts and it has hall effect sticks (so shouldn't develop drift anywhere near as fast as the garbage non-hall effect sticks in the DualSense/Edge). Also, I don't really like it that the stick modules for the Edge are CAD $25... cheaper than replacing the whole controller, yes, but still seems way overpriced for what it is. If the Victrix Pro is trash, though, I'll consider the Edge, as there don't seem to be all that many decent third party PS5 controllers out there.

I've been going back and forth on 4K monitor upgrade options for a while now. I'm currently using an old 1440p Dell S2721DGF which is still working well for me (daily use: mostly productivity/coding for several hours, with occasional gaming for an hour or two every day or every other day). Budget: $300-600 (Canadian). Bare minimum needs: 4K with at least two HDMI 2.1 ports, 1ms or less response time. Doesn't have to have insane refresh rates, just needs to do 120Hz. Decent contrast and HDR performance would be ideal.

I've ruled out OLED (too expensive to buy just for gaming, home office is too bright to handle reflections, don't want to deal with text fringing or burn in, etc), so I've been looking at various 4K miniLED options. Unfortunately, though, it seems like opinions on the monitors in my budget are very divided...

I've been looking specifically at the AOC U27G4XM, MSI MAG 274UPDF E16M, and the KTC M27P6. These all seem to use the same dual mode panel with 1152 zones. I'm seeing plenty of positive reviews on Amazon and on this subreddit as well, along with plenty of worrisome reviews (dead pixel lottery, severe blooming, awful black crush, subpar local dimming, dying after a few months of use, etc.)

Is this panel just too risky of a buy? Would I better off waiting a year or two for affordable 4K miniLED monitors with better local dimming? Or should I just forget about getting good contrast with an IPS panel and focus instead on getting the best standard 4K IPS I can get within my budget?

I'm typically able to make decisions on my own because I'm a grown ass adult, but I'm struggling a little with this one.

Here's the situation: I'm currently using a Dell S2721DGF for a mixed use case of approx 70% work/browsing (Mac Mini M4) and 30% gaming (mobile RTX 3060, PS5 Pro). The Dell is still fine for the productivity side of things, as I don't find IPS 1440p too hard on the eyes when reading text (especially on a Mac Mini with BetterDisplay enabled), but it has always only been so-so for gaming as far as contrast and HDR goes.

My small home office is pretty bright, even with blinds drawn, and I have my degrees and shit in frames behind me which would reflect really badly on a glossy OLED. Even if I somehow managed to improve the brightness levels in my office for gaming with a blackout curtain or whatever, I'd be hesitant to buy an OLED for productivity due to concerns re: text fringing and burn in. I'm not shelling out CAD $1k+ for a monitor that could be toast in a few years due to burn in, so 4K OLEDs are not an option for me to reduce text fringing.

I figure a 27" 4K mini LED would split the difference between decent contrast ratios and good text, and they're within my preferred budget (max CAD $500), but I'm seeing SO many mixed reviews on the mini LEDs I've been looking at (AOC U27G4XM, MSI MAG 274UPDF E16M, KTC M27P6). Also, my laptop can't really handle 4K, so the monitor would end up just being used for the Mac Mini and my PS5 Pro.

Alternative option: we've got a spare room that we mainly use for exercise equipment and my guitar gear. It's much darker than my office, and it would be totally fine for OLED gaming. There's already a TV bench in there and everything for the exercise bike (no TV set up atm though). I have two different 27" options for 1440p OLEDs on sale that I can pick up locally: HyperX OMEN OLED 27q (CAD $449) or an older Samsung Odyssey G5 G50SF (CAD $499). Both monitors only support HDMI 2.0, which sucks a little for the PS5 Pro, but I could deal with it. I'm already dealing with it on the S2721DGF.

The OLED option is really tempting (I'd keep the S2721DGF for productivity), but would I be missing out at 1440p? The PS5 Pro looks plenty crisp on my Dell as it is, but I know objectively that 4K would look even better. I've never experienced a 1440p OLED monitor long-term though, so I dunno. They look fine in store, but I know it's hard to truly judge a panel's overall quality in a brightly lit big box store.

I dunno, man. The sales on the OLEDs are ending soon, so I don't have much more time to decide. I'd prefer to do all my gaming and productivity on the same monitor, but it seems like there are just way too many compromises you have to make for mixed use cases. I could try to wait for Black Friday sales on 4K OLEDs, but that's never a guarantee.

Before you ask about the living room situation, my partner is a gamer too, and tends to hog the TV. :) I'm fine with that, as I prefer gaming at a desk and sitting closer to the screen in any case.

Any insight is appreciated.

I recently bought a PS5 Pro, and the games I'm playing look awesome on my existing monitor (Dell S2721DGF). It's an older 1440p monitor though, so I want to make an upgrade soon to get the most out of the console.

As much as I'd like to, I can't really do OLED, given that I play in my extremely bright home office close to a window and I'm concerned about reflections. The monitor is also used for day-to-day productivity on my Mac, and I personally prefer IPS over OLED for that.

I figure mini LED might be a good compromise that'll get me better contrast than standard LED, while retaining all of the other benefits of IPS monitors for general daily computer use when I'm not playing games.

I've been looking at the AOC 27" dual mode mini LED monitor that came out fairly recently (model: U27G4XM). It can do 4K at 160 Hz and 1080p at 320 Hz, has HDMI 2.1, and HDR 1000. Dual mode seems like it might be a bit of a gimmick, but theoretically the 1080p mode would be nice for my potato gaming laptop that definitely can't handle 4k gaming (mobile RTX 3060), as it can barely handle 1440p. I have a Steam library full of indie and older AAA games that I like to play on it from time to time.

Anyway, anyone have any experience with this particular AOC monitor and their Pro? Or is there another mini LED 4K monitor you'd suggest? Thanks in advance!

And before anyone says to just get a new OLED for the living room ... not really an option, as my partner is also a gamer and tends to hog the TV when we have free time for gaming. :) I'm also one of those weird people who prefer gaming at their desk vs on the couch.