Vox AC4TV Mini Review
Vox AC4TV Mini Review by Fran
Hi all! I'm happy to write the first mini review of our wiki, hope many more will follow :)
I've owned a Vox AC4TV amp for 7 months now, and I must say it's a great amp. I have the head + 12 inch cab version.
It's an all valve Vox amp, which can function at 4W, 1W or 1/4W (yes, just one fourth of watt!)
Having said that, this thing is still loud for home use (apartment). Even at 1/4 Watt setting making it break is a bit too loud and could easily disturb your neighbours.
Sound is really warm and full thanks to the 12 inch speaker. Cleans are delightful. It's own distortion is rock and roll ACDC alike, but as I said, it might be too loud for home use. The good news is that it takes pedals well, both OD and distortions, so you can rock enjoying its tubes warmth at low levels too.
It only has volume & tone knobs (only one tone knob), but I don't really need anything else as the sound is so nice. Besides my pedalboard can easily tweak the tone as needed.
It's very well built, it looks great, it sounds good, and it's not expensive at all. I payed around 350 € for both the head and its matching Vox Cab.
Fully recommended for home practicing.
Ivan Milenkovic's Minireview
I tested the combo version of this amp in the store couple of times and at fellow player's home. It's a sweet little combo with 1/4W, 1W and 4W switch. The 1W seems like the way to go at home, you can crank it and feel it properly. 1/4 is good too for silent practice, although I've found the sound on the lowest wattage setting a bit too easy on the speakers. 4W is a bit too loud for home use, but it's great that they put it there, I'm sure people will like to crank to 4W from time to time to get the cones moving.
The purpose of this little combo is too achieve power tube distortion on low volumes, which in comparison to preamp one doesn't have a fizzy/buzzy character too it. Power tube distortion from this small amp makes a very smooth and a bit compressed kind of overdrive that is really pleasant to listen and play with.
This amp does have a good warm clean sound, but since it is so low powered, there is evident lack of headroom on higher volumes. It achieves a nice woody Vox-like tone, and with a bigger cabinet I suppose it can sound much better. The little combo is reasonably well voiced, but the range is narrowed down - understandably for such a small speaker.
There aren't many features on it, for example there is no FX Loop. This means that using time-based effects like delay or reverb doesn't sound good when the amp is in cranked. These effects will be overdriven as well. There is no way around this, unless you use studio effects, which brings it down to its purpose: This amp is ideal for home practicing & recording, but it can be used in studio recording environments as well.
