Vox MV50 Clean - not too impressed

[RaistMagus]

Well I got one after reading the unanimously raving positive reviews all over the internet. Here's what I think so far.

I used it with three different speaker setups, all open-back - 1x12" Celestion V30, 1x12" Jensen Tornado (not broken in) and 2x10" Eminence Legend 1028K. The sound is dull and dark, I have to run the bass very low and the treble high, even with a strat with vintage-style pickups, and I still don't get a bright tone. It definitelly doesn't have the shimmer and briliance of Fender Blackface or of Vox AC30 amps.

It does respond similar to a tube amp, it feels better than most basic solid-state amps but not 100% as a tube amp. When pushed the tone is ok, not unpleasant but not very natural either.

It is VERY VERY loud. I used it at 8 ohms load (25W) with the Jensen Tornado and it carried me through a loud surf gig (we play loud and clean) with lots of unused headroom. People say you can't compare solid-state to tube watts but in this case, it is as loud and clean as a tube amp of the same wattage.

The options of 1/100th and 1/10th power attenuation are great. At home I use the 1/100th. Not sure if there are any tonal differences between these modes yet.

The features are nice but they are implemented with numerous tiny switches at the back, with tiny lettering. They feel cheap, unreliable and hard to locate and turn on/off. These switches make it feel like a toy and make me hesitant to rely on it. I don't expect it to last years and years.

I used the headphone out with a pair of good Beyerdynamic headphones and I could hear some kind of clipping, just from the weak strat pickups. I can't hear this clipping on the speakers so I guess it is a fault of the headphone/line-out path.

It is extremely light and portability could have been a big plus but the lack of a case and the big and heavy power supply+cables kinda negate this protability benefit.

It would have been better to include the supply in the housing of the amp, make it a bit bigger and provide a bag. If they also upgraded the switches then it would be a professional piece of gear.

I chose this amp over similar modeling solutions because I wanted a "real" amp with a "real" amplification signal path. But I guess modeling might sound better, I remember a Fender Mustang I heard like 10 years ago that dropped my jaw. I expect the modeler won't sound as good cranked but for home use / low volume, it had that chime.

I'll probably keep it as a gig backup in case my tube amps fail or to use when I can't carry much. It's also nice for home practice when you don't want to fire up tubes etc.

 

[Tim S]

I'll probably keep it as a gig backup in case my tube amps fail or to use when I can't carry much. It's also nice for home practice when you don't want to fire up tubes etc.

Congrats on obtaining a nice backup amp!

As a fellow-owner, I think most people who buy one fall into (at least) one of these camps:
1) Need a clean amp for a pedalboard that can actually fit on a pedalboard.
2) Want to dip a toe into the NuTube waters to see just how tube-like it is.
3) Looking for a backup amp that’s small and can fit in the back of a combo amp.

Yeah, the slide switches in the back are annoying. But my biggeat gripe is the lack of an fx loop on the gainer MV50 models. There are instructions out on the Internet on how to add one, but I’m too squeamish to mod mine.

I think the original, First Series of Vox ValvEnergy pedals (that emulate some of the same amps that the MV50 amps do) offer better sonic controls & the same NuTube technology. They can also be chained together to act like a multi-channel amp (activating one automatically de-activates the others). I think they are woefully overlooked and will someday be sought after… just not now, apparently.

 

[Heartbreaker_Esq]

This is a great review, thanks! Very helpful and informative. I've definitely looked at some of these MV50 models in the past, although they were never a great match for my use cases.

 

[11 Gauge]

I used it with three different speaker setups, all open-back - 1x12" Celestion V30, 1x12" Jensen Tornado (not broken in) and 2x10" Eminence Legend 1028K. The sound is dull and dark, I have to run the bass very low and the treble high, even with a strat with vintage-style pickups, and I still don't get a bright tone. It definitelly doesn't have the shimmer and briliance of Fender Blackface or of Vox AC30 amps.

I don't have the MV50 Clean, but I do have the MV50 Boutique, and while it may not be a 1:1 issue with what you're experiencing, I did find that the Boutique requires the right speakers and cabs to sound good. The aggravating part is that it requires experimentation to find a winner, and a speaker/cab combo that works with other amps doesn't seem to also work with the Boutique. I had the best luck with an open-back 1X12 cab with either an Eminence Lil Texas or a WGS ET65.

It is VERY VERY loud. I used it at 8 ohms load (25W) with the Jensen Tornado and it carried me through a loud surf gig (we play loud and clean) with lots of unused headroom. People say you can't compare solid-state to tube watts but in this case, it is as loud and clean as a tube amp of the same wattage.

This is my conclusion, as well. SS watts and tube watts are equivalent, as long as the SS watts are not driven into clipping like they typically are with tube watts. So you can have 25 tube watts with horrendously high harmonic distortion figures that sounds good and is really loud, but the equivalent SS 25 watts requires very low harmonic distortion up through the peaks, and under all circumstances. IMO, a class D power amp, even in a tiny package like with the Vox MV50 line, is totally capable of this.

I also wanted to add that the powerful class D power amp is then potentially a double-edged sword - it's not going to give you any power amp coloration, so that all has to be handled by the preamp. The only exception to this is found in some of the amps by Quilter, where they intentionally make the power amp itself behave like it does with a tube amp.

 

[J-bass&Tele]

Great review. I've almost bought one of these to use as a backup but ended up with a Quilter Interblock instead. It has some of the same drawbacks, such as the power supply that is as big as the amp.

Regarding the clipping when using headphones. What is the rated impedance of the Beyerdynamics?
Some of the more affordable amps with a headphone out need low impedance headphones.
For example, my AKG K141 (600Ω) have too high impedance for many headphone outs and there's clipping and/or low volume but there's no clipping with my cheap AKG K52 (32Ω) and there's plenty of volume.
The K141 sounds great when driven by a proper headphone amp.

 

[RaistMagus]

I don't have the MV50 Clean, but I do have the MV50 Boutique, and while it may not be a 1:1 issue with what you're experiencing, I did find that the Boutique requires the right speakers and cabs to sound good. The aggravating part is that it requires experimentation to find a winner, and a speaker/cab combo that works with other amps doesn't seem to also work with the Boutique. I had the best luck with an open-back 1X12 cab with either an Eminence Lil Texas or a WGS ET65.

Were you missing sparkle as well?

Speaker hunting is an expensive sport, I've already put 600 euros in this portable setup (pine 1x12 cab, Tornado, Vox MV50), that's a lot of money for a meh sound : /

Great review. I've almost bought one of these to use as a backup but ended up with a Quilter Interblock instead. It has some of the same drawbacks, such as the power supply that is as big as the amp.

Regarding the clipping when using headphones. What is the rated impedance of the Beyerdynamics?
Some of the more affordable amps with a headphone out need low impedance headphones.
For example, my AKG K141 (600Ω) have too high impedance for many headphone outs and there's clipping and/or low volume but there's no clipping with my cheap AKG K52 (32Ω) and there's plenty of volume.
The K141 sounds great when driven by a proper headphone amp.

Yes my headphones are high impedance (I think 250 Ohm), I tought it was a good thing haha. Interesting.

 

[11 Gauge]

Were you missing sparkle as well?

Speaker hunting is an expensive sport, I've already put 600 euros in this portable setup (pine 1x12 cab, Tornado, Vox MV50), that's a lot of money for a meh sound : /

With the MV50 Boutique, it wasn't so much sparkle that was missing as it was that the midrange didn't sound quite right with many speakers. I found myself fighting with the bass and treble settings as I increased or lowered the volume, with the bass control being especially touchy. The Boutique has an EQ switch on the back for 'flat/deep' settings, and IMO even the flat setting doesn't truly seem flat, but it's better than the deep setting, which is too scooped in the mids.

What I think that all of the MV50 amps might benefit from is T/M/B controls, and probably a presence control too, despite if the amp they're trying to replicate doesn't have 'comprehensive' EQ. I think what's happening is that the class D power amp isn't coloring things at all, so either the speaker or the preamp has to compensate for that. Maybe they got the MV50 AC just right, because that seems to be the one that most folks rave about.

I purposely chose the Boutique hoping that it wouldn't be so mid-scooped as the Clean, but it seems like the EQ for both is not really optimized.

I agree that speaker hunting is an expensive sport. I have towers of speakers in boxes in my garage that didn't work out. It's taken me years and thousands of dollars to find the handful of speakers that seem to work with more than one amp. For something like the MV50 Boutique, that I picked up on clearance, I was really hoping that it would work well with a variety of speakers, because I was hoping to use it as a portable, grab-and-go setup.

 

[J-bass&Tele]

Yes my headphones are high impedance (I think 250 Ohm), I tought it was a good thing haha. Interesting.

For hifi or studio purposes, you're right. Beyerdynamics have a good explanation:

What impedance should I choose for my headphones?

What does headphone impedance mean? What impedance should I choose? Find out what you need to consider - read now!

blog-en.beyerdynamic.com

It's just that they need better amplification.
The low impedance headphones are just easier to use with anything (phone/tablet etc), where fidelity and accuracy aren't the primary focus and for example battery life is more important.

 

[LOSTVENTURE]

I still prefer the Vox's earliest Valvetronix based modelers, the 2004 Tone Lab specifically.
I play everything pretty clean, so having access to a basic pure, warm, clean tone is essential to me. So the inclusion of an actual vacuum tube in the circuitry seems, to be the secret, left behind now, that makes the old Lab my preferred amp modeler. I think that the signal going to the speaker section being analog, recreates the electronic/mechanical signal transfer more what I am familiar with.
But knowing that a 20 year old component is going to eventually need replacing, I spent the summer testing the existing technology out. With the help on a GC manager, that I've dealt with for 20 years, I was given personal time with a half dozen of the newest modelers. I tried Fender, Helix, Tonex, Headrush, Boss, and Nux. All based on having the best reviews available. Had it not been for GC's return policy,I could have spent over $6000 on these things.
Not going into details, they all were loaded with amps and effects, and control of those features that were overwhelming at first glance. My favorite interfaces being the Helix and the Boss.
The deal killer, for someone looking for a basic clean sound to build effects on, was that the cleanest tones I could get were too sterile, lacking the harmonics that I'm familiar with.
I do have to admit that if it's effects you are after, the possibilities are very realistic, at any price you are comfortable with.

 

[bendercaster]

Thanks for the review. I have the MV50 Clean and my son has the MV50 AC. I think we've had them for 2 or 3 years now. We got them bundled with small 25 watt Vox Cabs. I also have a 65 reissue Deluxe Reverb and a Vox AC15.

In my experience, the MV50 AC compares very favorably with the AC15, but is lower noise and has no reverb. I've been impressed with it. When we run it into both of the Vox mini cabs together it runs at 50 watts, and even though it is a tiny little stack, it's loud enough to gig with.

I don't disagree with your assessment of the MV50 Clean, but to be fair, my Deluxe Reverb sounds best with the treble up to 6 and the bass at or below 2. Its a bassy amp. The MV50 behaves similarly, but I think that is what is modeled after so that didn't really surprise or disappoint me. Because it is easy to do, I ran the MV50 into the Deluxe Reverb cab and it was comparable to the Deluxe Reverb with the reverb turned off. But, when I run it through the little Vox speaker cab it came with, yeah, kind of in the ball park but not nearly as full or sparkly.

I have enjoyed using it to record direct through the line out, adding some reverb through my DAW. But I have noticed the same issue you had with the headphones. It can clip in an unpleasant way if I turn it up too loud. It doesn't do that with a speaker though, but I don't always like the way distortion pedals sound when using the small Vox Cab. It doesn't clip like it does through the line out, but it's not super smooth either.

Since the Deluxe Reverb is my main gigging amp at the moment, it is a great back up that I can keep in my pedal board bag or glove box. And since the Deluxe Reverb uses a 1/4 inch cable to control next the speaker, it would be pretty easy to sub in the MV50 using the Deluxe Reverb if the Deluxe Reverb failed. Its primary use is to play in my home office at night or on breaks between meetings because it sounds good and clean at low volumes in a way that Vox and Deluxe Reverb don't.

 

[black_doug]

Thanks for the review.

I was considering the MV series, mainly because of the Nutube.

What I bought was the Vox ValvEnergy Silk Drive, which I like.

As for having a backup in case of amp failure, I have the Quilter Phantom Block. Cheaper and better, IMO.

 

[JeffBlue]

I own an MV50 Clean and I run a Sonicake Pocket Master in front. It is a cheapo amp modeler/multi effects unit. Sounds better with it.

 

[J-bass&Tele]

But I have noticed the same issue you had with the headphones. It can clip in an unpleasant way if I turn it up too loud.

Have you tried other, low impedance, headphones? At least under 100Ω, preferably under 50Ω.

 

[bendercaster]

Have you tried other, low impedance, headphones? At least under 100Ω, preferably under 50Ω.

I should have been more clear--I'm using the line out to record. I haven't used it with headphones yet. But the clipping isn't coming from the DAW.

 

[Tim S]

I should have been more clear--I'm using the line out to record. I haven't used it with headphones yet. But the clipping isn't coming from the DAW.

Are you using the cab emulation or bypassing it? Does it make a difference for you?

 

[dougstrum]

Like others said it's a great backup, I carry it in my emergency kit. It also is great for practice sessions.
With treble turned up, and bass down, It works well with an emi gb128 or a neo V type.
I like the fact that it has a clean sound and low noise.

 

[J-bass&Tele]

I should have been more clear--I'm using the line out to record. I haven't used it with headphones yet. But the clipping isn't coming from the DAW.

Is it clipping no matter where you're setting the gain? What is the impedance of the input of the preamp/audio interface you're connecting it to?
Gain staging and impedance matching can be a lot of hassle but a few combined line out and headphone out that I've encountered are compromises, not really optimized for either.

 

[11 Gauge]

Are you using the cab emulation or bypassing it? Does it make a difference for you?

Hey - I just read this. So do all of the MV50 units feature cab emulation for headphone out?

I have a MV50 Boutique, and must have missed this in the owner's manual. I never used the headphones out, figuring it would sound kind of lackluster. I've got an Atomic AmpliFIRE that I use with headphones, but it's kind of bulky for just basic practicing/jamming.

Sorry for the thread hijack.

 

[Tim S]

Hey - I just read this. So do all of the MV50 units feature cab emulation for headphone out?

I have a MV50 Boutique, and must have missed this in the owner's manual. I never used the headphones out, figuring it would sound kind of lackluster. I've got an Atomic AmpliFIRE that I use with headphones, but it's kind of bulky for just basic practicing/jamming.

Sorry for the thread hijack.

Would you believe Vox didn’t include that bit of info in the owners’ manual? I can’t find it anyway.

https://voxamps.com/wp-content/uploads/support/MV50_OM_EFGSJ1.pdf

I learned about it in another forum thread. I guess this feature is an Easter Egg?

 

[bendercaster]

Are you using the cab emulation or bypassing it? Does it make a difference for you?

I am using the Cab emulation. I'll try bypassing it next time and see what happens.