Axe-Fx II (legacy)

User contributions

Manufacturing the Axe-Fx II

• The Axe-Fx II is made in USA. All units are identical for all global regions and supports 100-240V. Source
• The MFC-101 is designed in USA and made in China. The Axe-Fx II is made in U.S. Source
• Some manufacturing information can be found by reading Liam's posts.
• Cliff: "The Axe-Fx II is a no-compromise product and that is reflected in the price. Most, if not all, manufacturers use, for example, TL074 op-amps for the analog I/O. Those are inexpensive, quad, FET input op-amps with okay performance. They cost about a ten cents each. We use high-end Analog Devices products that cost about a dollar for a dual. These are reference-grade amps. We use film capacitors where possible in critical signal path locations. Again, much more expensive but reference-grade performance. The A/D and D/A converters are reference-grade. Even the circuit board has gold-plated pads as compared to tin." Source
• Cliff: "The Axe-Fx II is "Made in USA" as much as anything can be nowadays. There is basically no component manufacturing left in the US. I believe there are some American companies that make axial film capacitors and maybe certain specialty ICs but the vast majority of components are now made in Asia. The unit itself is assembled and tested in the US which is virtually unheard of for a consumer electronics product. I still believe that outsourcing is detrimental to our county in the long run." Source

Hardware parts

• Power supply specifications
• Cliff: "The power supply is quite over-spec'd. The unit only requires about 25W but I spec'd a 40W supply to ensure longevity under difficult operating conditions." Source
• Value wheel specifications Axe-Fx II: #SWITCH, ROT. ENC. ALPS EC12E24204A9. Source

Axe-Fx II weight and dimensions

• BOXED - Cliff: "17 lbs. 22 x 18 x 8 inches." Source
• UNBOXED - Dimensions: 19 × 3.5 × 12 inches (483 × 88 × 305 mm) Weight: 10lbs (4.5 kg) Source

Axe-Fx II "Mark II"

• The original model has been replaced with a Mark II model in October 2012. The main change is the addition of an EtherCon jack, replacing the standard RJ45 port for connecting an MFC-101. This is in line with the MFC-101 Mark II version. EtherCon offers built-in strain protection to guard against damage from CAT5 cable pulls or jolts. It's backward compatible with standard EtherCon cables, however EtherCon is recommended for harsh environments. Another change is that Mark II models are protected against inserting the ethernet cable into the USB port (source).
• Cliff: "The connectors are backward and forward compatible. The problem was that people were breaking the connectors, especially on the MFC. So we changed them to more durable connectors." Source

Axe-Fx II "XL"

• Announced in January 2014 and available in March 2014.
• The Axe-Fx II XL has the same DSP and amp modeling capabilities as the Axe-Fx II Mark II, but offers expanded memory, new I/O ports, and other upgrades detailed below:
  • Built-in FASLINK™ port for connection to MFC-101 Mark III over conventional XLR cables.
  • Dedicated MIDI IN, OUT, and THRU jacks (vs. shared OUT/THRU in the Mark II).
  • Two onboard PEDAL jacks (vs. one in the Mark II).
  • Primary VALUE entry via (powered) optical encoder with a lifespan of 1,000,000+ rotations.
  • “Secret Sauce III” instrument input features an even lower noise floor.
  • 128 Mb of non-volatile Super-FLASH memory allows for storage of up to 512 presets and 512 user cabinets with copious reserves for future expansion.
  • Double-capacity preset size allows for expanded functionality including X/Y switching on more blocks and more instances of effects.
  • Built-in backup firmware allows recovery in the event of complications during update.
  • Backward compatibility with Axe-Fx II Mark I/II presets via Axe-Edit software.
• The XL will be sold alongside the Axe-Fx II, at a higher price.
• Cliff (source):
  • The primary impetus for the XL was the FASLINK port. Since I had to develop a new mainboard to support this I figured why not put in some of the other requests we get from the power users.
  • The additional memory is FLASH which is EPROM not RAM. This will not increase the looper time as the amount of RAM has not changed.
  • The type of FLASH memory is "Super-FLASH" which is an expensive, high-reliability memory. It can be erased hundreds of thousands of times without wearout or slowdown. This prevents the need to wear-level the memory and the dreaded "Tuning Memory" stuff.
  • There is no longer any SRAM for preset storage. All presets are stored in FLASH.
  • There is still a small SRAM for storage of system information that requires a battery. You can still back your system up to FLASH. If the battery dies you won't lose your presets and hopefully you've backed up your system.
  • There is enough FLASH memory to store 1024 presets and 1024 user cabs but I'm reserving half the memory for future upgrades.
  • The "Special Sauce III" uses a combination of things to get a lower noise floor. One of these things is new, premium Burr-Brown op-amps in the signal path which have extremely low noise and distortion (and are very expensive). As always I don't design stuff to be cheap, I design it to be good.
  • The optical encoder requires power and therefore can not be retrofitted into a Mark I/II. Also the shaft and bushing size are different so it doesn't fit anyways.
  • UltraRes is not specific to the XL.
  • All algorithms will be identical between the Mark I/II and XL. They all share the same code base. Any enhancements/improvements will benefit all models except when aforementioned features are not available.
  • The Mark II will continue to be produced and sold. The XL is a higher-priced option for those who need the features and does not in any way obsolete the Mark II.

Racking the Axe-Fx II

• The Axe-Fx II is a 19” 2U device. It can be mounted in a rack or rackbag. If necessary combined with things like a racked power amp, a power conditioner etc. Rear rack rails are not required or supported. It's about two inches deeper than the Standard and Ultra.
• If you need a custom rack panel to bring the outputs to the front, read this thread.
• The rack ears at the front are removable if you need the space. Source
• You can put the rack or bag on a stand such as this one or this one.
• Cliff: "From the rack ears to the back of the chassis is only 13". You should allot a couple inches for plugs and cables though." Source

Axe-Fx II serial number

• Units with CC numbers were assembled by Cliff himself. The 5 numbers are an internal work order number. The XX indicate the batch number and the #X indicates what unit from that lot was produced. This shows who built and inspected each unit prior to going to Fractal for final inspection and burn-in. L or LF indicate the units that were built lead-free (CC#s are also lead free), and the motherboard will have an e1/e1 sticker as well. Source1 Source2

Axe-Fx II frequency response

• The frequency response of the Axe-Fx is flat, see above, and read this.
• Read more about frequency response in Wikipedia.

Axe0-Fx II converters

• Cliff: "We use the flagship Cirrus converters along with Analog Devices "Butler" op-amps. Film caps where possible. All I/O to the converters is balanced to provide optimum SNR and distortion performance. One of our op-amps costs ten times what is commonly found in other products." Source
• Cliff: "I'd be willing to put the converters and circuitry up against the best names in the industry." Source

Axe-Fx II aliasing

• You can read more about aliasing in this thread.