Roland cube 30x vs Vox Valvetronix VT30
 

which one do you guys think?

i have played the roland cube and liked the sound very much, but while doing research today i noticed the valvetronix VT30, and the vids on youtube sound great to me. but i dont know anything about vox amps. im going to guitar center tomorrow to play one if they have it.

anyone used both?

I tried both and went for the VT15.

The Cube 30x is very good, but you have more features and variety with the Vox.

VT30

They do a really amazing job capturing the sounds of other amps, it's almost criminal. You're not just getting a Vox with the VT series.

i tried both and chose the VT series in the end too hehe

The new Vox VT30s sound great. And have better features.

VT30

yeah. i just noticed them today.

but the youtube vids are really making me go crazy waiting for some money come in to get one.

how do they sound for blues? i heard the sounds for classic rock, so thats no problem at all.

i dont have a local vox dealer, so i kinda had to go with the roland

Get the Vox.
Read the instruction manual. There's even more cool stuff if you know where to look.

EG

Not keen on getting one shipped?

This was before he knew they could do that.

EG

they are the same price. i can go to best buy and play both of them beofre i buy.

i cant wait. my birth day is late sept. and my getting some extra money, and for the longest time i planned on the roland cube, since i had played them before and liked them. luckily i do research before i buy, and well it might have paid off.

how does the vox sound for blues?

I own both and I would give the Vox the edge as well.

The Jazz Chorus mode on the Cube is OK though and the Recto model has some merit as well, though a bit on the buzzy side. I give the clear nod to the Vox on everything else.

The Vox is great for blues.

IMO the valvetronix is an amazing amp, i've gigged a couple times with my friends before, sounded great for the price :idea:

I've been between the Vox VT30 and the Tech 21 trademark 30, and the VT50 as well for a month. I haven't cranked the VT30 in GC because I never want to be "that guy" but how loud would you say it can play clean (bluesy cleans)? I need to just go early tomorrow between classes and crank it.

fender SCXD
 

throw that in the mix.

i went to my local GC today and noticed they had it for $279 i consider than in the same price range.

this is making me go crazy

Yea I tried one and didn't get on with it, but I don't think I gave it a proper chance. A 15w tube amp should be at least as loud clean as a 30w all ss right? Oh man I just looked and it is 6v6 based.. Now I have GAS or AAS or whatever you want to call it. I'm definitely giving the SCXD a thorough run through tomorrow. The problem with all these modelers is they are damned hard to use if you've never checked out the manual. Sitting in front of a Peavey Vypyr is like taking a course in Philosophy or something, I mean how many functions can you possibly put into one knob?

the SCXD is a hybrid amp.

I couldn't make up my mind on either, so got both (I realize this doesn't help).

If your thing is blues and slight break up tones then the Vox is for you.

The roland suits me better for metal and crisp clean tones, althogh I've been using it for blues stuff a lot latelly too and hasn't disapointed me yet

Vox, hands down. The Rolands have nice cleans, but their distortions really leave something to be desired, IMO.

going to GC to test them all out right now.

come back with results.

The Fender SCXD is nice. So is the Vyper, the Line 6 stuff, etc....

Just get one of each.

I checked out the SCXD and bought it. It is the best of the lot by far if you want to play blues/classic rock. Heck I think it is worth it just for the channel 1 blackface setting.

+1

The SCXD is mighty hard to beat IMHO.

Yeah, if you're gonna throw the Super Champ in there...that's the way to go for sure.

Super Champ is good but the effects are soso-->you need pedals

Roland

So dude...what did you decide?

I'm loving this amp, the effects aren't GREAT but the reverb and delay are passable. I just love that channel 1 blackface tone, sitting at about 8 volume, it gets that perfect tone where picking technique determines how clean things go.

I fully expected to open this thread and see a bunch of Roland fans, and I cannot believe that all have chosen the Vox. My personal opinion, the Roland Cube 60 is one thee best modeling amps to come out today. I personally like the distortions.. I would trade half my amps away before giving that Roland Cube up.

Not a big fan of that Fender. Really don't like the Rolands. Like the Valvetronix for the price.... a lot.

I kinda agree, If I had to give/sell one of my amps away, I woud keep the cube over the vox, simply because it fits my needs a little bit better, but I could't decide which sounds better though, very diferent amps

so, seriously...what did he get?

I have a Roland MicroCube RX and a Vox AD30 (not quite the two amps you are mentioning). Overall, I generally plug in the Roland -- especially for the clean settings. (Plus it has a drum machine and a tuner and takes batteries.)
The Vox is no slouch either, though.

I haven't tried the VT but I feel lemming gas coming on as the endorsements come in. Especially since the VT has independent reverb.

Have you looked into the new Line 6 amps with Celestions in them? Definitely play them side by side -- I found one the other day that caused me to forget about how crappy the Spider III I used to own sounded.

I made this decision a year ago. I went with the Roland Cube because I read a lot of comments about Vox reliability problems. I got a good deal on Ebay for a 30X. It's ok. I'm not going to sit here and scream and sing praises about how great it is. But it's good for what it is. I mean, come on. It's just an SS practice amp.

I haven't tried the Roland, but I have the Vyper, the Line6, and I own the Vox VT15, and the VOX was better, hands down. The Vyper and Line6 are much harder to figure out, and have too many functions, without many good sounds - the Vyper is definitely better than the Line6 (III), but the Vox beats them all, easily.

Since I read the owner's manual on my Vox I'm even more impressed. There's a whole other pile of stuff I didn't even know about.
I like it more every day and the AC50 model sounds phenomenal with the new Alleykat.

Ya, I really like the AC50 and the Express Train.

I lubs my Vox AD30VT

Was the VT series even out then? I think it's only been out for 6-8 months. Two

Different

Amps.

The VT30 is the improved AD30VT. The old AD30VT had issues.

Expess Train is good. Once I learned about the noise gate and how to use the compression without the chorus I was very happy.
And I never new an AC15 could get that dirty. Wow.

EG

I've had 2 AD30VTs. I sold the first one to get another with a Ragin Cajun. To be honest both sounded great. I've never had a single problem with either of them.

The AD30Vt has a ton of better than just "usable" tones - for me the AC30 and Fender models sound great. I probably wouldn't recommend it for alot of hi-gain stuff but if you play anything else the AD30VT is flat out great.

The headphone out and "attenator" knob on the back are just sweet bonuses for me.:thu:

I should specify that I have not owned the AD30VT. I have read of the issues with these (like with the loose input jack) but have not seen the issue first hand.

I have read that the VT series solved this by correcting these issues (like mounting the input jack to the metal frame).

Obviously the issue with the input jack would only appear on amps that take a beating or are abused.

well after going to GC i realized why so many people hate GC.

i played the amp, but the salesmen acted like they were too busy for there customers. and there was only 3 customer. when i do buy, i wll absolutely not buy from them.

ended up going to best buy and comparing the vox side by side with the roland cube 60x.

to me the vox beat it with sound quality all the way around. and including the distortion amp models. however i did not play using any of the effects models.

the vox actually made my crappy playing sound well..... less crappy. very nice sounds out of that amp.

i did not get a chance to play the fender SCXD so i will end up going back to GC (BB doesnt have it) and comparing the Vox with it side by side.

so far really leaning towards the vox.

i might get the GC salesman to play it so i can here it with good playing, and concentrating on the sound and not playing it myself.


for a budget of under $300 are there other amps i should put into this race?

Cool - bummer re: the wack GC. You probably weren't trying the presets on the Vox but I'll say just in case - Stay away from the presets and dial in your tone manually. I get far superior sounds by ignoring the presets and just messing with the knobs.

I don't have any other amp suggestions but hope your search goes well...

I've beat my AD30 all over the place for several years with no probs.

I had a VT Vox.. it was sketchy. I mean it never didn't work, it would simply not remember volumes well, without moving the knobs back and forth to sort of "reset" Its no fun, turn the amp 1 smidge and getting blasted like Michael J Fox in Back To The Future. It was annoying.

It sounds like you maybe had the amp in preset mode. That stupid, unintuitive feature probably confuses more people into NOT buying that amp than it ever entices folks into a sale.

Anyway, yeah it remembers volumes well, that's what makes it confusing (at first). You just need to learn that (all things being equal) the low gain models are simply quieter than the high gain models. I think it NEEDS to work this way to allow marginal tube breakup on the different models. I do not believe there is a way to switch between a high gain model and a clean model and equalize the output volume without adjusting the attenuator. That's a sacrifice that I don't mind making.

You sure you just didn't understand it? If you weren't in manual, regardles of where the controls were at physically, the actual saved setting could have been far different, and moving them changes the saved setting to the physical setting immediately. Say you had it on a high gain preset which initially had the volume at 2 as part of its saved setting and the volume knob was currently on 7 physically. As soon as you move it at all, it is like moving it from 2 to 7 and then wherever you planned on going with it. If you thought it was on 7 because the knob currently pointed there, and just wanted to nudge it to 8 for a hair more volume, you would have actually been going from 2 to 8. Something that needs to be understood.

Maybe that was the case. Not sure though. I have moved on since then, that was an amp I purchased maybe 5 years ago.

Mine had the input jack prob...it fell into the amp.

But I did manage to wiggle it out, and it hasn't happened again.

Great amp.

:thu:

yeah. most people seem like this vox amp pretty good.

so far im leaning far towards that amp. but ill wait to make up my mind till i get the chance to compare with the fender SCXD

I just picked up this amp today (the VT30) in hopes of a more versatile sound than my Marshall 250DFX. Honestly, I went in there looking to buy a triple guitar stand, and I made the mistake ( :thu: ) of asking to try out the VT15. I went with the VT30 because I know I'd regret it if I found myself needing more power, but I haven't played a show in over a year, and can't see myself needing more than 30 watts in the near future. That, and the price difference between the 30 and 50 wasn't worth it to me (though I do wish the 30 had the line out). I'm still messing with the sounds, but I've already found a tone that I like more than what I was able to get out of my Marshall, and it has only been a few hours. I was wondering about using the compression by itself, and figured there had to be a way to turn off/down the chorus, and sure enough it says it right in the instruction manual. Your post made me think to check though, thank you! I'm very impressed by this little guy, I think I'm even going to be selling my Marshall now.

I was in this very same dilemma a few years ago. I went with the Valvetronix and never looked back. Except once when I saw how portable the Cube was. But as far as sound/effects go the Vox has Roland beat.

Got my VT30 about a month ago. Had the original AD15VT before and really enjoyed it. The VT30 is great. There are so many good sounds to dial in on it...

...that doesn't preclude my Bugera V22 GAS, though ;)

Since you're just atarting out and learning to play, I'd say your best bet would be the VOX. If you had more experience, I'd recommend a used Classic 30.

The VOX will let you experiment with more sounds and effects while you learn what you're looking for in an amp.

That sucks the guys at GC weren't more helpful to you. Out of curiousity, how old are you? You're a pretty young kid right?

Serious Kick-Ass Advice. :thu:

It's exactly the reason I bought my AD30VT (beginner/complete amplification neophyte). I'm glad I did - two years later.

I had the exact opposite experience, the salesman was really nice, answered all of my questions, and got be a manual from a boxed amp so I could play with the settings. Then when I asked the guy about pinch harmonics on it, he demonstrated it for me and asked if I had any questions. Nothing but 10s across the board. Though I do frequent there, as that's where I've bought a couple guitars, pedals, and an amp so they may recognize me.

Out of curiosity, what guitars are you guys playing through these?

so...are you ever going to buy an amp? Just curious...

I just got a Vox VT-15 and I gotta say it's pretty damn good. Lot's of different sounds that are quite passable. The effects are decent. The octave+chorus and the pitchshifter are both fun to play with. Echo is pretty good too.

I haven't tried the headphone outs yet, but it would be nice if the amp came with a line out and an extension jack.

All and all I've found a great little practice amp that gives you a lot of tonal options.

On the older VT's the input jack ring has no bottom nut pincing it to the top-plate. It is just glued.. so if you stress the jack at all it breaks loose and you have to slide the chassis out and re-glue it. Pain in the ass. But not the worst. Mine is loose now but my connect is still good. I will repair it soon.

And another neat thing about the Valvetronix models is that once you choose a model, it is pretty much the same as working with a regular typical amp as far as dialing in.

BTW, does anyone have any idea how hard it would be to re-wire the 1/8 inch jack to a 1/4 line out? Would that work? Or would it need to be phantom powered ala a DI?

I believe the impedance required for most speakers, and power draw, would be too great for it to be a line out

should be simple. Just so you know, using the line-out does kill the internal speaker signal.

Do the AD30VT and newer VT30 have the same 10" speaker. And how is it for bass respon?

Remember, line out is not speaker out. Line out is a line level, UNAMPLIFIED signal. You can run it to something that expects a line level signal. A speaker/passive monitor is not one of thsoe things.

to answer steve man, since he seems to really try to help out a lot, at least he does for me. a long with a few others.

i believe im going to go with the vox. enough sounds to keep me occupied and to find my own sound. i play through it with a fender standard.

since my b-day is at the end of this month, i plan on putting new pups in my strat, and getting and VT30. should be a nice change.

to answer another forumite, im 18. learning but my guitar teacher doesnt consider me a beginner.

and if anyone else wanted to know, i play blues and classic rock.

i also plan on selling my v18 and putting it toward a vox pathfinder 15R just to have 2 to play around with.

I think you'll really like that amp man. Very flexible, and great tones!

I vote Vox. Tons of usable tones out of the box (especially once you start exploring everything)

And I know its not really what your thinking, but I think the Vox takes pedals really well too.

My "dorm rig" right now is my lester into an ME 50 into a Vox VT15. Great stuff. If the VT15 has more headroom I'd seriously consider gigging it. It's not that it has bad headroom, but it is a 15 watt amp with an 8 inch speaker. I'm not expecting miracles.

I'm second to this question. :snax:
I'm planning to order either VT30 or VT50 next week. How is the bass response on VT30? The price difference on VT50 looks too much for just change to 12" speaker and 20 more watts.
BTW, I won't gig, just for basement use. I believe 50 watts will be overkill for basement, but I'm curious about the low freqs.

I haven't used the exact models you're comparing in a head to head comparison -

But I have bought the Vox
DA5
AD50VT
AD60VTX

and the Roland
MicroCube
Cube 20X
Cube 30


And I've found the Vox to have quite a bit better warm cleans and reverb tones. Both do some competent jobs on distortion/OD tones, but I give the nod to the Vox products for all around performance.

Next amp I'm looking at is the Tech 21 Trademark 30. It's something else you might want to consider. But so far, I'm just hearing YouTube clips on that one. The ones above, I've bought.

You can't go wrong with those. They are amazing sounding for the price. Not the best sounding overdrive tones by any means, but they sound deep and rather tube-like, which is amazing for a solid state 15W amp with an 8" speaker. But part of their tone comes from a well designed/coupled cabinet.

And I've also found that they surprisingly take pedals quite well as well.

So if you can find yourself a Digitech Bad Monkey for around $30 or so, put the two together and you'll be surprised how well they work together (again - for a 15W SS amp) ;)

I bought a trademark 10 about 5 years ago but it's not very good in comparison to the Vox . The gain was fizzy on the Marshall and Mesa channels and the Fender channel was too quiet. They were one of the first to make modelers so they've probably improved, but my experience was not good.

Thanks for the replies.



That's what I was wondering. Will it work?


That probably wouldn't matter too much I don't think. I'd want it to go to daw.

Duh, me. Yeah. That's right.

Don't know Originally when I went looking for one of these, I didn't want anything smaller than a 10" speaker. But then when I heard the VT15, I was convinced that I didn't need it any more.

If anything, the VT15 is boomy and I need to reduce the bass response. Remember, this amp is in my apartment where I can't crank things like I can at my house, when I have the DSL100 1/2 stack.

Thanks for the tip. Then I'll make sure I demo one in person before ever doing the on-line trigger pull routine.

Based on what I know about amplification and impedance, I'm saying with 99% certainty no. I leave 1% because there could be something I don't know about with this amp, but I'm ALMOST positive that you can't. That's (having a line out) the only reason I considered going VT50 over the 30.

I have tried both and the Vox wins hands down,It has a much nicer all around warm sound.