Portable amp: VOX DA-5 or Roland Micro Cube?

GP compared those same two amps!

http://www.guitarplayer.com/story.asp?storyCode=15020

I haven't played the DA5, but this comment on the Micro Cube is what I experienced, and is why I returned it the next day:

"as you increase the gain ... the Micro Cube breaks up in unpleasant ways"

The one I had would fart out with a basic blues shuffle and moderate gain; the small speaker just couldn't handle the bass from a 52-gauge E string.

They comment further down in the article that the Vox does a bit better in this area:

"The DA5 can get remarkably loud considering its size, and its 6.5" speaker is just large enough to keep from breaking up (in the wrong ways) on all but the most extreme settings."

Hi Vink,

I was reading on those amps last week! I suffered a GAS attack but, fortunately, I controled it... more or less.

I only was reading reviews and comparing specs this time. But when I bought my Marshall I was testing a MicroCube and I agree with Mitch: when you increase the gain, the MicroCube doesn't sound Ok. I was warned by the salesman.

Sorry if I include new alternatives or if they are not interesting for you. I also considered the Ibanez ValBee. It isn't the same type of amp, it is a 5 watts but with tube. Probably it is comparable to the Epiphone Valve Junior and also to the Fender Champion 600. The reviews say it is a good amp and with the tube you could get the blues tone. I saw it in my local store last week, I was buying strings. I want to test it but probably I didn't return until next month.

This is part of my research:

Valbee: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMWnBepurKA
Champion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBU7YYS0yHE
MicroCube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcZ1iYSMwig
Vox DA5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t7FzdACtf8
EVJ Combo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8twAHspOw4
EVJ Head: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFdDd57s1tI

Nuno

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot to write the links to the Epiphones.

I have a Roland Microcube. It does fine for what I want ie. a small portable amp that I can play without AC power when I am boondocking in the Baja, In my opinion it is in no way a Blues amp. The amp does breakup at higher volumes but not a in a pleasing way, it sounds too thin to get good blues tones IMHO, but that is just my thoughts.Your mileage may differ. Take your axe to the local emporium and try some out. I have an EVJ head that does the Blues chores at my house.
Robbie

I suggest you try something like an EVJ combo, but with no reverb you are going to have to buy a pedal. However the EVJ head is about the same price as the Roland Microcube.

Thanks for all the comments.

BTW, I already have an EVJ combo and a VOX AD-30VT. Both of these are great amps, and I do get a great blues tone out of both. I also have a reverb pedal, eq etc, so I can make them work great. But, most of the time, I am practicing at really low volumes at night when everyone else has gone to bed. Also, none of my amps have an aux input, so I need to be next to a stereo to jam along with anything.

These two amps seem like they are really portable and have an AUX input, so they would be quite versatile as a practice amp which is easy to move around. My expectations are limited, but I do want it to sound good enough to make me want to use it for practice :-)

If anyone has hands-on experience with the VOX, please post. I will let you all know if I go out and try them out.

I just bought a Roland Micro cube yesterday, This is my first Electric guitar so please take my comments with a grain of salt.

I purchased this for a MIM Strat, I compared this amp to a crate, both were in the 100 dollar range, after listening to both without hesitatoion I chose the Micro cube, the selling point was the size, and effects, when you've played acoustict for years effects are COOL....

It's more than loud enough for a practice AMP, the effects include Delay, reverb, tremelo, phaser, chourus, and phlanger. I dig it's small size, it's perfect for playing around the house, it's hard to work a stack of Marshalls into my decor.

You can hook up a cd or MP3 player if you like.

I'm as far from an expert has you'll find when it comes to Amps and electric guitars, but I chose the Roland Micro cube after listening to the different amps in my priice range, best advice I can give is head to the local guitar shop and check one out, mine came from GC.

Dgar, thanks for sharing your experience. Just out of curiosity, did you also try out the VOX DA-5 when you looked at other amps? Thanks ..

No I didnt compare it with the VOX-DA-5, I wish I had, I may go back and see if they have one at GC, after reading the reviews on the VOX it seems it has more built in effects.

Check them both out, it sounds like thier both great little amps, and again for the size and price I was blown away.

after reading the reviews on the VOX it seems it has more built in effects.

Just from looking at the specs, the VOX has couple more effects (a compressor is one of them for sure). Since the VOX has effects by pair while the Microcube has the delay/reverb separated from the other effects, you really have to look at all pairs to see the difference -- I have not compared in that detail. However, according to the review in GP, some of the VOX effects were noisy while the MicroCube is very quiet. Also, the VOX is a little bigger and heavier.

I need to find time to go down to the store and compare them.

Thanks for your impressions ..

I A/B tested them on Wed. I think I am going to go with the VOX; to me, some of the clean and crunch tones on the VOX sounded better than corresponding ones on the Microcube, although the rectifier model on the microcube was better than the distortion models on the Vox. I didn't play that much with the effects, because for this purpose I only need minimal effects: reverb, comp, maybe a lilttle chorus or delay occasionally. The store had only the red VOX, I wanted one with the "classic" look -- they should have one in today, I am going to call and check later.

Congrats on the decision and thanks for the final review! :D

When I heard the demo sounds in their respective web I also thought the Vox sounds were better than the MicroCube but sometimes you can not compare them using the demo sounds and a "direct" test is needed. The Roland Chorus is one of my favorite tones and probably it influenced me.

The classic look is great! 8)

I've had the VOX DA-5 for a few days now, so I thought I would post a quick review.

I wanted a simple setup I could use for practice that does not take much room. My previous setup needed my stereo to play the drum machine or IPOD, and since my amps were usually inside the closet, I had to reach in to change anything. With the DA-5, I have a really simple and easy to use setup all the time. I turn on the power switch, and everything is ready to go, and the amp fits right under where I put my music stand. So, it pretty much fits what I had in my mind for use model.

The tones are actually quite good for the size of the amp. For lead, the clean, blues and high gain models all work well. The bass is not that great, but what can you expect from such a small speaker? For practice, I usually use a clean setting and a higain setting for my scales and similar exercises; I tend to use one of the hi-gain setting with the gain backed off for the blues licks I am practicing. The "blues" settings themselves are not that great, I tend to use one of them for a "tight" clean sound. I usually just use two of the effects (reverb/chorus setting and comp setting) and they work pretty well. I am not that much into effects though. I have not tried feeding the line out to another amp or adding a speaker-out jack, but I am sure it will sound really good.

The amp is really really loud for its size. I have left it at the 0.5W setting, and even with that, it sound really loud if I crank up the master and the gain in the high-gain settings. Usually I leave the master at about 25% for highgain and 50% for clean sounds.

The only other thing (other than bass response) that's not great is that the amp is a little noisy. With the noise gate at the default setting, it is very noisy. Once I adjust that, it is pretty good, but still a little noisy with my single coils. If I take my hand off the strings, it starts getting noisy. It is better with humbuckers. (I may need to improve the grounding/shielding on my guitars).

That's pretty much it ...

I recently purchased a Vox DA-5 to use with a MIM Tele. This is the first amp that I have owned, just picking-up electric after playing an acoustic for the last year. My instructor recommended the Vox over the Micro Cube as did the dealer's sales rep. I've had it for a week now and it has a ton of features that have yet to be explored. My main purpose is to run it through headphones (baby at home). As mentioned prior it does have plently of volume for its size with great tones. If you're looking to get a small travel size practice amp or want to try various modeling styles before making a big purchase check it out!