Ultrasound AG-30, Good or Bad?
 

I just bought the ULtrasound AG-30 Acoustic amp...I wasn looking for something pretty portable but sounding good and inexpensive..I haven't recieved it yet, but all the reviews I've read say give it a 9 or 10 with great sound....Does anyone own one?

Yep, I've got one---two thumbs way up....

Its just fine, for the price. It has a limited feature set and poor dispersion. On the other hand, it sounds good and handles a lot of different sources well (but not all). For $200, you can't get everything.

what's limited about the features and what is poor dispersion?

The AG30 has no effects and is only a single channel. Other than that I'm not sure what they're referring to. I have the AG50DS2 which is 50w and has two channels and 16 efx. I also have the DI Plus. I think they're both great. For the money, there's not much you can get that's better.

Nelson answered the first part of your question. Dispersion is basically how the amp spreads the sound out from the speaker(s), vertically and horizontally. If you stand directly in front of an Ultrasound amp (say 10 feet out in front), you hear all it produces, highs, lows and midrange. This sounds the best. However, if you stand more than 20 degrees or so off dead center, to the left or right, the tone changes - some of the frequencies are not being sent to your ear at the same strength as other frequencies. As you get further away from dead center, it gets worse. That's poor dispersion.

There are reasons why Ultrasound amps do this. Part is the design of the box to obtain more bass response. The amps use a baffle and set the speakers back a bit. That increases bass response, but the trade off is a fall off in dispersion. Plus the 8" speakers in most Ultrasound amps are coaxial - that design limits dispersion of high frequencies.

It's not the end of the world or anything.

for $200?

good.

Come on Larry, you know what dispersion is. And you seem to agree that the Ultrasound amps have limited dispersion. You make a good point that this means they make good monitors. As a main source, for an audience, that doesn't work as well. Two do just fine, on stands, or otherwise raised up. Like I said, the Ultrasound's dispersion performance is no big deal. Sorry to rain on the Ultrasound love fest.

The dispersion aspect is easily handled by lining out to the PA system in a larger venue. I find the AG 30 and very intimate amplifier with a very natural acoustic guitar sound. That's what I was searching for when I chose it. It's light,sounds good,records through the line out extremely well and being designed as an acoustic preamp specificly makes it easy to tweak for different guitars. In smaller places I've even used it with a small mixer for vocals as well as guitar. Their larger models have more bells and whistles and share the same sound quality but for my purposes where I need just a bit of amplification the AG30 does quite well.

I love my AG30!
 

I originally bought the Fender Acoustasonic 30DSP and I find that it is one of the good amp out there. Two channels with all the effects you can think of.
However, it was heavy to lug around and with all that buttons and knobs to which it will take time for me to figure out. I returned it and bought myself the AG30. The Fender was good but for my talent and purpose I thought the AG30 is far better to serve me at half the price.
One of my friend thought I made a mistake for trading it, but others say differently. I think you made the right choice and even if you didn't, I am sure you can sell it and there are a lot of people will be glad to take it off your hands. JMHO :)

You done good, kid.

thanks for all the input...I was just asking a simple question...I am basically just using it for my bedroom practice...playing with a couple other guys in a quiet practice room...I dont' need any effects on my amp..I have a danelectro chorus-trem Wasabi, and a Boss Flanger....good enough for me...I do need a reverb pedal though....other than that..it should be a good light acoustic amp, that sounds natural and easy to carry around.....looking forward to getting it on Tuesday....thanks
paul