VOX MV50 Series Amplifier, AC Head (MV50CL)

It was far more than I expected. I understand that this newer tube technology has been a long time in coming, so I did think that this new product based on it would be good. I'm glad to say that it lives up to its hype *and* that Vox did deliver something impressive with it. I saw that it would be short of features, so I opted for the clean version with hopes that I could build a very small pedal platform. All you needed on a pedal board and just add speakers. I have rather a lot of amps - and most of them have excellent cleans as that is a prerequisite for me. I was expecting this to sound rather middle of the pack ordinary. Happy to say very well past that. This sounds amazingly good. Great punch - super clean yet lush. Rich. A lot of times articulate comes at the expense of lush and rich. And vice versa. Not at all here. The bass and treble controls allow an amazing range of meaningful adjustment. So impressed with the subtlety of the sound sculpting, and how excellent it *all* was. And when not playing - dead silent. It has few controls, but they work well. The bass and treble as mentioned are great. Also I've only used the cabinet selection as deep, but I can tell you power amp output voicing is great. The whole amp seems very well orchestrated and tuned between the provided features to a great total experience. Very well done and you will not feel like you made a bad purchase. I was even more convinced as soon as I used pedals into it. Just wonderful++. Upshot is that I ended up far happier than I thought I'd be. This newer output power amp technology works. With 8ohm 12" speaker it puts out a very believable 25W of volume (power amp will deliver 50W at 4ohm - 12.5W at 16ohm), yet it weighs virtually nothing, being palm sized. And the unit stayed cool to the touch. Pretty impressive. This clean version has a power attenuator selector to allow for more sound sculpting between the preamp and output. The volume control at the front then preserves your sound at your desired volume. The cabinet has flat and deep selector. I've only tried deep. And that's been so good I've not bothered checking the flat. The attenuator has full - 1/10 - 1/100. I think the rock and AC versions of the MV50 have an 4-8-16ohm selection selector instead. All selectors or on the back, and the last selector is power. Do wish it was on the front. The power plug for the separate power supply is on the back next to the power selector, so at least it's fairly easy to feel/find the power selector. The other oddity is output gauge on the front. Seems really just a very large and fancy power indicator where most amps would just have the LED. Not obnoxious and lets you know the amp is on :-) At this point I absolutely mean if I were to lose this amp, I would be running to replace it. It's that good...Update 8/2/2017:Really liking this little amp. Very, very nice cleans. Noise free and super quiet when not playing. Still have not changed the cabinet emulation from deep because I like that voicing so well. That and the tweekablity of the bass and treble knobs. Thought I would miss the classic BMT EQ, but not here. I'm updating this here as I given up some other amps. Partially due to this one, but also decided to try a Quilter 101 Reverb. The Quilter is another amp inspired by class D powering. Of course I had to AB these 2 :-) Surprisingly - this little MV50 clean held it's own very well against a highly touted, and more expensive, adversary. I would say for a pure clean the MV50 is at *least* the equal. Not just for cleanliness, but also that cabinet emulation and great touch of the bass/treble controls. The Quilter took me aback a little initially as it seems kinda of bassy. Also the BMT EQ is a little different in how they overlap - so took some learning. Eventually got what I wanted out of it. It seemed just a little flatter and more sterile than MV50 on the far end of the clean spectrum. Some of this has to do with that MV50 cabinet emulation, which I really like. The Quilter is more neutral. Ok - as heads usually defer this to your speaker cabinet tastes. Also I did not use identical speaker cabinets. So a difference there. I was able to adjust close. The Quilter, though known for cleans, is more than that. It really has amazing gain/output power controls and allows very subtle interplay between them. Was able to dial up an amazing spectrum of squeaky clean/punchy very rich cleans/very smooth light overdrive/heavy overdrive. Very sensitive controls that allowed you a great deal of sculpting. And they all sounded great. Particularly the smooth overdrives. The Vox can get a nice rich clean, but no transition into more as the Quilter does really well. Final usage comparisons. I really like the layout of the Quilter. The normal heavy 3 pronged power chord in the rear. No clunky external power supply. The control knobs are highly visible, easy to use, look sturdy. An EFX loop, and like how they are in the front actually. Hefty power switch in the front - easy to see that it's on. The thing looks built to take abuse and still last years. But still very small and a couple of pounds. The Vox does feel chintzy compared to the Quilter. Come to despise the power switch - almost dip switch small - on the back. Absolutely have no use for the fancy output indicator on the front, other that I can see the amp is on. Ultimately the Quilter and the Vox don't really compete that much with each other. The Quilter is a more utilitarian and workman amp. Covers more bases very well. The Vox is a one trick pony, but *exceptional* in that niche. Bottom line is both are being kept. This tiny Vox is fun, yet sounds way more than the fun toy it looks like!

Holy crap is this thing amazing for its size. Its footprint isn’t much larger than an average smartphone and through a single vintage 30 it absolutely rips.It’s a small tube with a solid state amp. The tone knob shaves off treble to the left and bass to the right, giving a surprising range of tones off of what seems to be a simple circuit. EQ switch on the back goes between flat and scooped-mids. With those two there are a ton of high gain sounds and it still does the Vox AC thing.Another review mentions that it would make a great backup for his AC30 and I agree. It wouldn’t be ideal but this thing makes enough watts to keep up with a 1x12 or 2x12.The max watts is determined by the ohm rating of the speaker so most 1x12s will be 8ohm so that maxes at 25 watts where a 4ohm setup would be 50 watts. I only have an 8ohms setup so I have not heard it at its full potential but even 25 watts is enough for playing with acoustic drums.The price is what it is, but this definitely delivers at its price point despite being small enough to fit in my guitar case. That’s the real selling point to me. With a lightweight 1x12 cab, this thing in your guitar case, and a pedalboard in a bag on your shoulder, you can easily carry everything around you need almost anywhere.

I've written very few reviews of gear because I haven't been that enthusiastic about any one piece. . . until now. I'm in my early 60s and I'm way beyond enjoying the heft of tube gear, in a physical sense. My Blues Deluxe weighed 40 pounds, and it sounded ok. I had a love-hate relationship with it - it was heavy as sin, but the cleans were fantastic; though the cleans were great, the drive channel wasn't. It was very difficult to dial in that crunch that I was looking for without going over the top. It looked cool! Mine was an original release BD, and it looked like it had been through the war - I dig that beat-up look. However, it must have been kind of beat up on the inside too - it kept needing repair. $150 bucks here and there for repair, and soon you've got enough money into it for a new amp. Also, if you've owned one of these, you'll understand this - what is up with the volume control? .5 isn't very loud, but 1.0 is insanely loud . . . ?Anyway, I needed something small and light, and that sounded good. I've been intrigued with the Vox mv series since they first came out. I started listening to youtube demos, and was so impressed that I had to order one. I also ordered an empty 1x12 cab and a Texas Heat (4ohm) to go in it. I definitely wanted the full 50 watts available, so the 4 ohm speaker was a must.Because it arrived before my 4 ohm speaker, I tried with an 8 ohm cab. Not so good. It cuts out when you hit it hard at medium volume. Buried in the literature, it says that it will do this with a 16 ohm cab, but I experienced it with the 8. When I put together the 4 ohm, I had no problems at all.The clean sound isn't as chimey as a Fender. There's is more mid freq. present. If you turn up past halfway (or just at halfway), you begin to get that characteristic tube saturation - it's really a great sounding crunch. If you turn it up louder, you get more. Now, if you use the 1/10th power cut in back, of course you get more tube saturation at a lower volume - but it's still really, really loud. In my first rehearsal with it, I found that the 1/10th power cut was really fine for keeping up with the drummer and everyone else - and I didn't have the volume turned up all the way. It was a great sound, great crunch, and great volume. Not sure about gig level yet, but I have no worries that at full power it will be loud enough.Drive pedals push the tube with a wonderful, sagging tube distortion. I use three drive pedals at various levels, which I can stack for an awesome singing, soaring lead sound. This amp turns it into the very best lead sound you can imagineI'm giving it 4 stars for a couple little reasons: the cut-out I experienced at 8 ohms, and the tiny switches on the back of the unit. Sound-wise, it gets 6 stars! I'm hoping it will be service-free and long lasting. I'm already enjoying the portability of a one pound amplifier and a 24 pound cabinet.

After over a decade of anxiety that I’d blow a tube in the middle of a gig on my AC30 clone (Mesa Transatlatic TA-30), I’ve FINALLY found a perfect backup head to throw in my gig bag (or hell, even tape it to the inside of my speaker cab!). This thing is LOUD, has 99.99% of the tone I need. Unreal. I will say, however, that it’s only 50 watts if you’re running into a 4 ohm speaker load, which most don’t use; most will have an 8 ohm speaker, getting only 25 watts, which isn’t a ton of headroom. But still, it’s def giggable. HIGHLY recommended.