Thought I'd weigh in as I bought this the day it came out and put it on my pedalboard for live use, direct to PA. I used it this past weekend. The points in this video are directionally accurate, but I think there's some antidotes to make it more useable: 1. Feel - generally agree, but I'm using it as a slightly broken up pedal platform. Having a compressor, reverb, delay, etc., which I'm using anyway, mitigates some of the feel issue. 2. Lowering the bass on the EQ, turning the thump/ resonance setting in the internal menu all the way to the lowest of 3 settings, bumping the highs up a little, and using the presence to taste can help. Also, the more gain you use, the more you need to cut bass (which cuts low mids too) to achieve/ maintain clarity. In fact, I think the thump/ resonance all the way down clears it up greatly. 3. Ground noise: Using it with a grounded pedal board pedal supply solves this issue. I owned an IR-X and it definitely was a no-go for me. Does this sound/ feel exactly like a "real amp"? No. But for me it's a lot better than the Strymon Iridium I've been using live. Would I really prefer to mic up my Tone King Imperial or my Friedman JEL-20 (plexi channel, mainly)? Yes. I'm keeping it for now because it has a lot of potential after playing with EQ, the external switches, and internal settings. It's a lot easier to deal with in a live, mostly silent stage situation than a real amp. Plus, sounds better than the digital solutions I've used.

I felt the same with the Friedman irx and sent it back and got 1979 jmp instead, glad am not the only one that thought that.

I agree with your analysis.

Thanks 👍 for your honest opinion . A lot of initial low voltage into bumped up voltage devices have no ground . Once you separate the ground from the devices in your chain it's like having an unpredictable EQ that introduces noise or hiss into your signal it can't define properly your musical frequencies from the added fog of the attracted compound frequencies. The only thing you could do is to send the signal from your unit to an EQ that's grounded and back to your device,😮and filter though the frequencies that you desire. Good 👍 luck . Best regards.John

Appreciate your feedback on why you dont like it. I still would probably like to consider this or the IR-X in the future anyway and see whether i like it or not. But I do appreciate hearing the pros and cons

Came across your video about an hour before mine arrived so I've been more critical than I would have. I didn't notice the noise, in fact mine is nearly dead quiet, so much that I'm not sure why you would need a ground. I agree about the feel or lack there of, but it got me wondering if any device has great feel played through studio monitors/headphones vs a power amp and guitar speakers. Seems to sound better if you record without the IR's and add them later. Anyway, I'm keeping mine, my amp collection is mostly old Marshalls and this adds a nice new flavor.

I bought 2 of 'em to do a stereo ambient board and they are going to be returned as well. In a youtube interview Dave said that he created these series of IR pedals for guitarists who wanted an easy alternative to modelers; to be rid of option paralysis. That sounded great to me as I get tired of menu diving on pedals and want instant feedback when tweaking. I agree that the IR-D missed the mark. My experience/opinion after giving it 48 hours: The good: Had zero noise issues but I only used it with a Cioks power supply. It ran quietly. Aftermarket Ir's can make the pedal sound and respond much better The bad: Muddy Mids that cannot be dialed out with stock IR's. Felt like it was too easy to find uninspiring sounds. Boost w/ more gain produces unwanted fizzy top end. The feel and response was not better than any modeler I've tried or "more amp like". Using the software to try IR's became time consuming and defeated the purpose of why I bought it. I am disappointed and shocked that Friedman put his name on this. His amps are fantastic! Part of me wouldn't be surprised to find out down the road that "some of the early units were bad". Thank you for your honest review! I wish that I had seen your video before purchasing. Subscribed!

I love their amps, haven't tried their pedals yet

I bought IR-X when it was released and returned it. I just was not able to dial any tone that I liked. I took a risk and bought IR-D I compared last night Friedman IR-D to Kingsley Constable (the older one based on Plexi preamp). I have to say that IR-D came out very positively, I am going to keep it. I have Fractal FM9. A few years ago Leon Todd created a patch that would have just power amp and speaker emulation (and effects as needed). I plugged IR-D from the send output to Fractal to this patch, it sounded unbelievable, both clean and gain, better in my opinion than IR-D's power amp emulation and cab IRs.

To each their own of course.. I have several Friedman amps, Dirty Shirley 40 and a JJ Junior. I love the IR-X I have and it works great direct at home and at gigs. I also use it into the FX return of amps for live use. One board for all occasions. I have an IR-D coming in. I think the feel thing is about having the amp turned up is a big part of the feel of course. I also have a Fractal FM3 I have used live when going direct is required a bunch. The IR-X FEELS a lot better and I spent a LOT, I mean a LOT of time with the Fractal deep diving, IRs, etc.. The FM3 is now my audio interface and stays home. Hopefully I like the IR-D as much as the IR-X.

I purchased one and received it last Friday. Sweetwater will be getting mine back soon as well. I agree with everything you say. I would add to that my biggest reason is that I can describe the dirty tones in one word.....Muddy. When I dialed it in to reduce the mud then it sounded lifeless. My Fractal has some DS models in it and it smokes this thing made by Friedman.

Is your experience with the feel of the IR-D unique among tube pre-amp pedals or do you generally not like the feel of tube pre-amp pedals? I have a Victory Sheriff V4 preamp I run into the power section of my 5153; it feels good to me and is noticeably better than the feel of the amp models in my Helix. I've been considering grabbing an IR-D to see if it does anything better than the Sheriff.

Did you make sure you had IRs turned off when going into your Fryette and then back on when going into the DAW? Seems like maybe a dumb question, but I didn’t hear you talking about the different IR’s, etc.

Are you only playing this at home ? I rehearsed with mine last night in a band and it sounded fantastic…

Did you try plugging it into the front of a clean Fenderish amp set neutral?

The response of an amp IS it's sound.

I sold my ir-x too but have loved my Friedman amps 🤷‍♂️

I don’t feel the IR-D is made to sound a 100 percent like a real tube amp , if that’s what you want then buy a real half stack . I really like this unit especially because it has an effects loop , I like it better than my Helix because it’s easier to get my sound fast , I also use it at low volume so I can work on my vocals without having to use my Twin Sister which is loud , will also use it for smaller venues or silent stages . I give this pre amp 100 percent for what I use it for .

Damn of all the things in the vid I never the Fryette had a line in, that is so so so useful!

Thanks for an honest review with criticism. I can no longer take the popular influencers reviews serious anymore. Especially at the absurd post inflation prices.

I'm glad someone is giving an honest account of the gear they got instead of mindlessly gloating that it is a (yet another) "GAME CHANGER". Guitar KZfaq has gotten really bad about that, especially lately.

I wonder if you had one with a defective tube or something? Your video probably landed in my feed because I am interested in the IR-D and have watched several demo videos. I’m saying this as a general observer of gear content and I respect everyone’s decision to have opinions I’d recommend playing/tone samples. It seems the internet has a lot of opinions but not much evidence backing those up.

I don’t know,I ran one into the line in of a PS100…FX Return of a BE,and it sounds fantastic..it’s just a preamp,and since all high gain amps get the majority of their sound from the preamp,not the power amp,I could tell no difference between the IR-X and the “real”Friedman….I then ran it direct,using the IR’s..again,sounded absolutely amazing..I had zero noise,or congestion…it’s a real high voltage preamp…but everything is subjective,everyone likes what they like,but I think the IR-X and IR-D sound great…it sounded and felt as good as anything else I have played..is it for everyone?probably not,but it’s not a “fake”Friedman distortion pedal either..it’s the preamp section of a Friedman,running at the same voltages,no more,no less…

I like the fact that you are a Friedman fan, and you are honest about what you are hearing. Too many videos out here are ass kissing fanboy yes men because they like Friedman. You did a great job explaining your experience with this unit, and I appreciate your opinion. Friedman makes great amps, I have the Runt 20 and I hate the volume knob on the clean channel. It's too loud from the get go, and you really can't turn it down, a very short volume range. It's a deal breaker for me, and I'm selling it for that reason. Amp sounds awesome, but I just can't control the volume the way I want it. Thanks for the info bro.

I no doubt agree with you totally I currently have a twin sister. I have a dirty Shirley combo. I bought a few years ago and I have also one of the Wildwood PT 20 amp heads as well as a couple of other Friedman products and I have been absolutely totally satisfied with all of them, including the rent, they are all great products. These are both great products to IRX and IRD. My situation is totally blind most of the time and transport and carrying my amp around is sort of a pain in the ass when I am going from job to job to teach guitar lessons, etc. and no, it does not have the same touch responsiveness or harmonic content that you get from a hand wired freedman app or even a PCB board Friedman app, truly Friedman does have a bold signature no matter what the gain stage and the clarity is fantastic. Truly, I am wondering, however, for someone in their bedroom and for someone like myself would this not be a handy unit if I left a Friedman reference at my rehearsal warehouse and only needed to take this preamp for rehearsals. This not be a good solution and does it not work well with the Friedman, ASC 10 or 12 section reference speakers or FR type speakers. They only call them reference of course preserving my high end guitar amplifiers as I have protected them with my life because I have over $6000 and just two of them so I can’t imagine adding them all up again probably around 10 or $12,000. I don’t want to replace those but replacing these preamps is no big deal. The other question is aren’t these truly just the Friedman two of the Friedman synergy modules in a box with controls, it seems to me. They are pretty much the same concept just more accessible due to Friedman’s external control box. Thanks for any feedback. 4:49

The power amp needs to be grounded, so if you connect the IR-D to any poweramp it just work without any noise (because no ground loop) or safety issue (because the high current path is on the poweramp). It looks like your poweramp wasnt grounded (you had the ground lift ON on the power station), or you used balanced out with ground lift enabled on IR-D. Also there are 12 more IR you can choose and you can set both presence and depth in the software.

I tried out the Friedman Little Sister amp and really didn’t like it at all. Something with the mids it does that just didn’t inspire me at all. Haven’t tried the IRD but in the KZfaq videos it seems to have a different more open sound that’s more to my liking… 🤔

Thanks, and it seems you are not alone looking at the comments .. what a pity.

Agreed, mine is being sent back as well. I wanted to use it through my amp switcher but It just squealed and made it completely unplayable. So I did a hybrid version through my amp switcher and it still squealed. I ended up using a $300 pedal to change the phase and lift the ground of the pedal to get it playable. I am also using a EHX Magnum 44 for the power amp so I am now $950 to get this thing to work. Hard pass. The Mashall DSL100HR is for sale for less than that. It may not have some of the harmonics of a Friedman amp but I guarantee its better than this pedal.

If you don't like it, you don't like it... it's that simple.

2 rules of The Gear Page. Never criticize Friedman and never criticize Suhr.

like all modern amp builders dave friedman has no choice but to use modern tubes which sound like crap compared to vintage tubes, this unit comes stock with jj tubes which are known to sound congested too much low mids and they lack air and clarity the good news is that you can swap tubes to vintage and fix this problem

Nothing wrong with not digging it! How something feels is environment-dependent. You need the interaction of the guitar and speaker/amp, room, and sadly, volume. Just how it works.

Sorry guys but from 2 of 100 people that didn’t like that friedman pedals doesn’t mean anything. I had the IRX and I order the IRD and I really love the response and dynamics of the pedal

12:27 looooooooool

Just get a Tech 21 fly rig.

Please…

It sounds like you dont really like friedman if you end up selling all the stuff you buy.

You keep mentioning that people should just buy a real amp instead. Some situations don’t allow you to play a real amp in a live scenario. That’s where amp pedals fill the gap. It’s like buying a driving emulator and expecting it to behave like a real car. Nothing will ever sound as good as a real amp. If you bought it to play thru another speaker live in the room then you’ve missed the point of these types of pedals altogether. It is a pedal. It’s not an amp. It’s meant for situations where an amp can’t be used. I’ve got one on order myself so I’ll have to be my own critic when it arrives. I’ll be stoked if it sounds as good or better than my iridium or UA lion.

I had a different experience, response and dynamics sound great, this is just a guy who did not like it,

Dude complaining that something that’s not an amp doesn’t feel like an amp…