Crazy Tube Circuits Unobtanium Raw

I really find it difficult to be in a position to criticize this pedal when everyone is raving about it, but hey I'll go on anyway since I've put it up for sale only a few months after purchase.

First the positives. The pedal in terms of build quality is a tank. Like any other CTC pedal, and I have been through a few, there is no expense spared in the construction, finishing, and selection of components. The buffer on the Klon side is amazing, one of the top if not the best buffer I've ever used, and the Klon side sounds great on the stock setting.

Nevertheless I found some significant (for me) weaknesses when using it.

a) For me the Dumble side was a major let down. I read and watched raving reviews about this how glassy and dynamic it is etc. To be honest, my Laney L5 studio in the Low input, bright switch on, and EQ B-3 M-3 Tr-7, Tone-8 sounds leaps and bounds better with my Strat. In fact, if anything, I felt the pedal killed the harmonics and the glassiness of my amp considerably at any gain setting/EQ.

b) The amp side has 'enormous amounts of volume' as also stated by CTC. My opinion is that this amount of volume has no practical application as this is a pedal more likely to be set and forget rather than fiddle with it all the time. You can switch between the amp models with a FS, but only with the same settings, therefore you can't use the Dumble side as both an OD and a clean boost in one session which makes the feature pointless IMO. Unity, with the gain set at 2 o'clock is around 8 o'clock and the enormous amount of boost the pedal can provide makes it very difficult and fiddly to not only find unity, but also pinpoint a desired boost setting. Note I have the same issue in the Hi-Power Colorsound side, but I had no difficulty getting great tones there. Why there is so much volume boost on these pedals is beyond me.

c) The germanium transistors compared to the stock diodes do change the sound, particularly taking away the Klon muddiness thus making it more clear with a more crisp and aggressive attack. Both settings sound great, but IMO you wouldn't buy this pedal for the Klon side to NOT sound like a Klon. So the inclusion of this option makes no sense to me after hearing it. These transistors would probably make a better application than this.

Edit:
d) The pedal is too mid-forward in general despite having a couple setting options and two internal pots for setting up. This limits its application significantly, especially with both sides engaged, which is a bummer at this price. For the Klon side this is expected, But the amps side could really benefit from mids control.

So overall, I find that the Unobtanium Raw is an expensive pedal for what it does, given that I found it very difficult to get new usable sounds out of. I have not tried the original version, but I'm sad to say this pedal felt like more like bunching together a few hyped things than trying to make something meaningful. It's too limited in sounds to be your only overdive, and in a pedalboard you can insert far more versatile options.

I'll say I have a few of their pedals currently on my board, the TI:ME delay, the Super Conductor, and the Hi-Power and they will never leave my pedalboard especially the latter 2. The Hi-Power, which is a similar concept, is one of the best pedals around. It makes much more sense to me and is much easier to configure and get great sounds out of despite (or may because of?) having a more complex EQ interface.

I bought this pedal to replace another great double pedal featuring D amp and TS style drive (the posh Italian made one) in my main pedalboard, since I needed a more aggressive D sound (more Lindley/Harper than Ford), and it's just what I was looking for. It lacks the capability to change the order of the two drive units with a switch, but you can manage to do that using the send and return sockets, that make the pedal more versatile for those who use an external switching system or want to put one or more pedals between the klone and the amp simulation sections (a tweed amp style overdrive in the loop with a low gain setting is great, either when driven by the Klone or driving the D- amp section, a compressor lets you choose to apply compression after the klone, mantaining dynamic control on the drive attack, or before the amp drive, enhancing sustain and evenness for rhithm or slide guitar). The main feature, however, is the rawer, more aggressive attitude of this pedal compared to other D style pedals, while stil mantaining the dynamics, note separation and violin like sustain typical of that kind of overdrive. The germanium transistors option on the klone side differs slightly from that using germanium diodes and gives more perceived drive and glorious harmonics, but only at high gain settings. The build quality is great as usual with CTC pedals (I also own a Falcon and a Killer V).
Klones and D style pedal are often associated with a "blues lawyer" attitude, the Unobtainable Raw is a pedal for those who feel more like rockers, but seek the "unobtainable" refinement and class of a klone and a Dumble.