Noisy Vox Amps!

[bongolation]

In the GC December sale catalog, there's a deal on Vox VR ("Valve Reactor") amps at 60% off. OK, so I look around the net for reviews on these things and see that unlike some of the recent Vox modeling amps, these have no particular reliability problems and get positive reviews.

I went down and got a VR30R in a factory sealed box and brought it home and set it up in the studio. It is unacceptably noisy -- any type of noise you want.

With no input and all controls at "0" there is an annoying level of 60Hz hum that can't be nulled -- even through a filtered power supply. There's also hiss and grunge as you turn it up. I thought it might be a bad tube, so I replaced the generic Chinese 12AX7B with a new JJ. No help.

My Rolands, SWRs and even some of my Fenders are stone quiet out of the same outlet. Yes, it's all the amp, not the environment.

I bought a Vox Pathfinder 15R a while back and got exactly the same result. It went back to GC the same day. I think this one is going back tomorrow.

I'm forced to conclude that all these Chinese Vox amps are just cheap, noisy units with no place in a quality gear lineup, especially for low-volume recording. I've heard the same complaint from others, too, but I thought I'd give Vox another chance...never again.

 

[noisedude]

I actually find my AD15VT to be REALLY noisey if you turn the noise gate down a bit ... which you have to do if you actually want any sustain or want to tune your guitar using harmonics!!

People come into the shop all the time asking for them and all I can do is tell them the truth ... I love the sounds, but mine has broken four times in its first year and I haven't had a single Line 6 return in the time we've been doing them!

I actually keep calling them Korg amps, because I call Korg so often to sort problems out that I keep forgetting they're not the actual brand name!!!

 

[bongolation]

I actually find my AD15VT to be REALLY noisey if you turn the noise gate down a bit
[...]
People come into the shop all the time asking for them and all I can do is tell them the truth ... I love the sounds, but mine has broken four times in its first year

My take on the modeling Voxes is that the digital circuits are simply too complex for low-end offshore production and quick-and-dirty QC. I've heard of an incredible variety of failures with these, and the warranty isn't that great.

The normal analog circuits seem to be reliable (or at least diagnosable) enough, so I thought I'd give this one a try, but it's just absurdly noisy. On a quality 30W solid-state amp with no input and all controls nulled, you should hear nothing -- not a bunch of hum.

The thing that offends me is that Vox has the nerve to refer to their "low noise" circuits on their site. That's an outrageous lie.

I really want these amps to be good, and I keep hoping that they eventually get it right...but they never do.

 

[cactuseskimo]

Bottom line. Don't even bother with vox. Vox is my favourite sound, but they don't even test their amps as far as I can tell.

Cambridge Series - excessive brownout problems due to insufficent optocouplers.

Valvetronix - loads of problems. Noise, circuit board problems, power problems, etc.

Custom Classic series - already on HC, the reports are coming in with various multiple reliability problems.

BTW, I've owned the Cambridge and VT, so those problems are also from my own experiences.

I've went with the Laney VC-30 for my vox sound. I could not be happier (except if it looked more like a vox).

 

[noisedude]

I can't agree more on the Laney advice ... the VC-30 might be a bit much for my uses (although I do love the 2x10 one), but I'm fairly sure I will add a VC-15 to my line-up sooner rather than later.

 

[bongolation]

Back On-Topic w/Update:

Took that POS back to Guitar Center.

My guy there talked me into taking another one to check out and if was no better, to bring it back.

Just got home with it, unpacked it and put it on the bench.

If anything, it's noisier than the first one, if that's even possible this side of having a dead short somewhere.

No question about it, these Vox amps are just junk. There's no nice way of putting it, and there's no denying it if you know anything about amps. Despite the venerable Vox name, these are in the same quality class as Drive, Rogue and all the other generic, bottom-end, Chinese-contract junk -- though Korg seems to think that these amps should have high enough MSRPs to fool buyers into thinking they're better gear than they are.

It kills me to say it, as I really wanted this to work out, but it didn't. Every new Vox amp I've personally heard is like this. Avoid them like the plague.