Roland Micro Cube RX: A Very Versatile Practice Amp, But Kinda Pricey
Written: Aug 23 '08 (Updated Aug 23 '08)
Product Rating:
Pros: Light practice amp with good modeling
Cons: A little pricey
The Bottom Line: The Roland Micro Cube RX is a very good, light practice amp with good modeling and other features. It's a little expensive for what you get.
buffoonery's Full Review: Roland MICRO CUBE RX Portable Guitar Amplifier MIC...
Roland Micro Cube RX
The Roland Micro Cube RX Guitar Amp is a versatile mini-practice amp designed for guys who play in their parent’s basement or don’t want to drag a big amp to a practice session. It’s the bigger, badder brother to the successful Roland Micro Cube and, at $229 street and 14 pounds it will strain neither your wallet nor your muscles. Let’s check what’s under the hood.
First, you get a lot more power. There are four 4” speakers (5W total) with stereo capability that will fill a bedroom or practice room. There’s also a headphone jack for late night sessions that doubles for external recording and triples as a connector to the house PA. The speakers sound crisp and clean and, while no one will mistake this for a Fender Twin, it delivers good volume.
For $229, you expect more than 5W of power, so what you also get is expanded modeling capability. Roland gives you seven amp options as well as a mic option. So you can play sounds ranging from clean (JC-120) to classic blues (Fender Black Panel) to angry metal (Metal and Rectifier) plus an acoustic guitar sim, controlled by bass, mids, treble, gain and volume knobs. The modeling is very competent (I own a GT-6 so I’m very familiar with Roland’s high-quality emulations) and there’s nothing to complain about.
You also get two knobs that control six effects in total: Knob 1 is phaser/flanger/chorus/tremolo and Knob 2 is delay/reverb. The effects are good although you can only use one from each knob simultaneously. The chorus and reverb are in stereo, thanks to the added speakers.
There’s more. You get a tuner and a metronome, the last being a new feature. You also get a drum machine that can produce 33 variations from rock to latin to funk with a tap/tempo control. Very useful. You can plug your MP3 player in and jam simultaneously with your favorite tunes.
The thing is powered by AA batteries (14 hrs. estimated life) or an AC adapter. There’s also a footswitch jack
All in all, it’s a pretty darned capable package. You got volume, emulations, effects, drum machine, and other cool stuff. Now, I’m figuring that Roland developed this because players were demanding a practice amp with more features than the Micro Cube, and the RX delivers. However, on the downside it’s $100 more than the Micro Cube and is also heavier. In addition, for another $70 you can get a much louder, more capable (and heavier) amp like the 75W Line 6 Spider.
So, for me at least, the Micro Cube RX is an in-between amp. More capable than the cheaper micro practice amps, it’s also too close in price to louder and more versatile solid state modeling amps. What it does, it does great. I just think it’s a tad pricy for what you get.
Technical specifications:
Amplifier Section
Rated Power Output
2.5 W + 2.5 W
Nominal Input Level (1 kHz)
INPUT: -10 dBu
STEREO AUX IN: -10 dBu
MONO AUX IN: -10 dBu
Speakers
10 cm (4 inches) x 4
Controls
POWER Switch, TUNER Switch
COSM AMPLIFIER
BOOST Switch, TYPE Switch (ACOUSTIC SIM / JC CLEAN / BLACK PANEL / BRIT COMBO / CLASSIC / METAL / R-FIER / MIC), GAIN Knob, VOLUME Knob
EQUALIZER
BASS Knob, MIDDLE Knob, TREBLE Knob
EFX Knob (CHORUS / FLANGER / PHASER / TREMOLO), DELAY/REVERB Knob
RHYTHM GUIDE
START/STOP Switch, TAP TEMPO Switch, PATTERN Knob (METRONOME / ROCK1 / ROCK2 / BLUES / COUNTRY / R
Indicators
POWER
TUNER
TUNER, TUNER METER
RHYTHM GUIDE
RHYTHM GUIDE, VARIATION
Others
Connectors
Input Jack (1/4" phone type), Foot Switch Jack (1/4" TRS phone type), STEREO AUX IN Jack (Stereo miniature phone type), MONO AUX IN Jack (1/4" phone type), REC OUT/PHONES Jack (Stereo 1/4" phone type), AC Adaptor Jack, Grounding Terminal
Power Supply
DC 9 V: AC Adaptor or Dry battery(*) LR6 (AA) type (alkaline) x 6 *sold separately
Current Draw
186 mA
Accessories
Strap, Power Cord, AC Adaptor, Owner's Manual
Options
Foot Switch (BOSS FS-5U, FS-6), Connection Cable (PCS-31)
Size and Weight
Width
296 mm
11-11/16 inches
Depth
207 mm
8-3/16 inches
Height
294 mm
11-5/8 inches
Weight
6.4 kg
14 lbs. 2 oz.
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