Quote:
Originally Posted by lpa53
So far the reviews seem to praise the BA's overall clean sound but dislike the reverb and EQ controls. Those dislikes I assume Jack may say will be taken care of with the addition of the upcoming Bagamp Mixer. Of course as has been mentioned before, adding this increases the BA's weight, cost, and portability, possibly defeating the unit's main selling points.
However, so far none of the reviews (other than Larry Patis' first review) address the dispersion issue and compare it against Bose or Soloamp units. If more testers would do that, and if they confirm Larry's impression of the BAs having better dispersion that the SA, perhaps the other concerns would be overcome. In other words, if the addition of external EQ and reverb (Bagamp Mixer or other) raised the cost to that of an SA, BUT the resulting sound was was equal in quality to SA but with better dispersion, then more people may be encouraged to give it a go.
So I'll still be watching this story. Wish I could test one of these alongside my Soloamp, for which I still have nine months before having to pay.
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Further down below is a copy of my review of the BagAmp from AG. But I also wanted to address a couple things you said.
Starting backward, you're in luck -- I see that you're in the Chicago area as well. Maybe we can figure out a way to meet up. If so, I'll be happy to let you try my BagAmp.
Sound dispersion: You might as well just take Larry's word for it. As I found out today, he was pretty much right on all other aspects of this amp. I have no gigs currently lined up and haven't been looking for any, so I don't expect to get into a good sized room in the foreseeable future. (I'd take it out in my backyard, but it's
cold out there.)
And your first point, the lack of controls: IMO, this is the biggest weakness of the amp. A good reverb and full eq controls should be on the amp, but they're not. However, don't think that these obvious drawbacks are serious enough to "defeat the unit's main selling points." This is a
good sounding amp that has a lot of advantages. It's still going to be a good buy. (Although it would be even better with full controls.)
Here's my review posted on the AG forum:
I received mine today as well. I didn’t take any pictures, but I was tempted because the amp looks so different from anything I’ve used before. The padded case is about the same size as a hard shell rectangular electric guitar case, but thicker. It has a carrying handle and a shoulder strap. As you can see in Mike’s pics, the case has compartments for the amp, stand and power cord.
I think the amp’s going to be a winner. It has a nice clear tone. It seems to be more feedback resistant than my other amps (current and past). Unlike Bill, I did not start with the volume low and work my way up. Standing at the amp with mic in hand (Shure Beta 58a), I started increasing the volume in search of the feedback threshold. I didn’t really find it. Instead, I got to a point where I felt it was plenty loud, and left it there. That was with the mic’s channel set at 12 o’clock and the master at 3 o’clock.
I plugged in my guitar (CA OX with L.R. Baggs Stage Pro electronics + Fishman Aura pedal) and adjusted the volume to match the vocal channel, then started tweaking the tone on both channels.
As others have noted, the reverb is not reverb, it’s more of an echo/delay, and is IMO, practically useless. I did use just the slightest hint of it, but I would rather have a true reverb. Better yet would be a few different types of reverb. The lack of reverb on this amp is not a deal breaker for me, but it would have been nice.
Also as others have noted, the tone control is less than ideal. I used it sparingly, nudging it slightly toward the bass side on my vocal, and a little more than that for my guitar. If you adjust the tone control too much to the bass or treble side, you lose sound on the opposite side of the spectrum. Two or three tone controls for each channel would be an improvement.
Back to the volume: without realizing it, I was overdriving the amp. During loud passages with aggressive strumming and loud singing, the sound was breaking up and distorting. I had already read the owner’s manual and had seen the part stating that the amp has protection circuitry that limits the output and if overdriven, distortion will occur. I saw that in the manual, but I guess I didn’t really pay attention to it until I ran into it myself.
I didn’t realize just how loud the amp was initially -- much louder than I normally would play with my other amp. I left it at that level for a while before backing off the volume and noticing a big improvement in clarity.
I eventually changed guitars. My CA GX model with L.R. Baggs I-Mix electronics straight into the amp sounded better than my OX/Stage Pro/Aura combo. I think that’s due to the clarity of the sound; the OX sounded just a little too bright.
Altogether, I played and sang through the BagAmp for about 2 hours. The sound of the amp grew on me (especially after I turned the volume down and my ears quit bleeding). I gradually got used to hearing myself without reverb and without my usual eq’ing (typical smiley face with bass/treble boost and optional mid-cut).
This amp doesn’t have as much bass as my Genz Benz, but I didn’t really miss it. In the future I may try running a line out from the BagAmp to the Genz Benz to see if that adds something to the bottom end. I would definitely try something along those lines before trying to decide if I wanted to add a subwoofer.
The BagAmp has a very natural sound. I don’t think a subwoofer is necessary, although it might be an enhancement to an already good sounding amp. (The drawback to a subwoofer, money aside, is that you start losing some of the amp’s portability and ease of setup.)
I did not get a chance to test this amp in a big room to see what happens with its sound dispersion, and it will probably be a while before I get the opportunity.
The only two negatives to this amp that I’ve seen are the lack of reverb and multi-band eq controls. But the positives outweigh the negatives, IMO. At $700, if I was in the market for a new amp, I’d buy a BagAmp.