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When Orange announce a new amplifier head which comes in 50 and 100 watt models, you stand up a listen. The Orange Dual Dark seems to take the flagship OR100 a few steps forward in terms of gain levels and tonal range.
The attenuator and different power options mean both amps can driven hard even at relatively low volumes, but the Orange Dual Dark has something completely new in its locker.
It's a brutishly powerful two-channel amplifier, the kind of amp you feel shaking your rib cage, but channel one is a voicing we've never heard before from Orange, a completely new three-band EQ which reacts quite differently to that on the Orange OR100.
Channel two is the Dark Terror voicing - Orange's high gain voicing which pushes into the region of heavy metal, but with a classic British rock and roll sensibility (of course)!
Adrian Emsley, Orange's tube guru and the man who designed the amplifier, explained the inner workings of the amp to us at the 2014 NAMM show, and also gave us a (very LOUD) demonstration of the Dual Dark in all its glory.
You can watch this in the video above.
Is there anything you want us to check out at this year's NAMM show? Let us know on Twitter - @SonicAmped.
Written by Richard Beech - @RichTheJourno.
Filmed by Rob Hicks, presented by Richard Beech.
Demonstration by Adrian Emsley of Orange Amps.