February 2, 2020 :

A reloaded and revisited version of its rock and metal E606 Ironball lunchbox amp to be available soon : Engl is releasing a Special Edition (SE) of this small high-gain amp. The previous model seems to remain on the Engl catalog (standard E606) as well as it’s recent cousin the Engl E600 Ironball combo.

The E606 Ironball SE is a lunchbox amp, with 2 channels : 1 clean and 1 overdrive channel (named “lead”) for heavy rythms and solos. The E606 has 4x 12ax7 preamp tubes and 2x EL84 power tubes, for 20 watts of output. The E606 features as well a power attenuator named “Power Soak” that allow for switching from full power to 5 watts, 2 watts and 0 watts (off). It also features a boost that can be activated on the clean and the lead channels

Engl Ironball : new font panel

The front panel has changed a little bit, with new features and controls :

  • a new store button, that works with the new midi functions
  • MVB button : turns on or off the volume boost (Master Volume Boost)
  • Reverb : now has a facade switch
  • Delay : new function, together with this facade switch
  • FX Loop : probably FX loop on/off, which is a new function
  • Noise Gate : on/off, a noise gate has been added, which is pretty cool

The rear panel shows new and interesting features :

E606 : new rear panel

The power soak control is still there, and in the upper left corner we notice a new set of controls for reverb, delay and the noise gate threshold. Nice.

But the most exciting new feature is probably the addition of a cab simulation module based on impulse responses : an USB port is present to enable custom IRs loading into the amp, and an 8 positions selector is present to change the IR slot in use. According to the text of the back panel, the 3 first slots are hard wired to Engl IRs (which are made with …. Engl cabs 😉 ) and the remaining 5 are reserved for your custom IRs.

USB port, IR controls and output

So a new “IR Balanced Output” XLR connector is present : this is great, as this will output the amp signal processed by the IR loader, which should provide a way better experience than the one you get from old “emulated” output solutions.

The back panel provides information about the 3 first “factory” IRs :

E606 Factory IRs : Engl Cabs !

No information yet on the format / length of the IRs. Engl states that the MIDI operations allow to store and recall all the front panel settings, plus the selected IR, the reverb, delay and noise gate values.

GAS crisis ahead !

Engl web site : https://www.engl-amps.com/ironball-e606se#content

Pre-orders opened on Thomann web site : https://www.thomann.de/intl/engl_e606_ironball_head_20_se.htm