Vox DA5 5 Watt Digital Practice Amp with Effects: Indispensable Gear for the Road

A year ago I purchased a VOX DA5 amplifier. I needed a small practice amp with built in effects to take on the road with me. I wanted lots of bells and whistles crammed into a tiny box that gets loud and can take a beating for less than $150. The DA5 has thus far exceeded my expectations. I throw it in a duffel bag and toss it into the back of a construction truck with tools and hardware.

The VOX DA5 is an incredible value. VOX packed 11 amplifier styles into this little machine. The usual array of clean, bluesy, and high-gain sounds are included. The clean 2 setting is crisp and sings for days if you use it with the built in reverb. I find the high gain to be a little muddy, and often use a separate distortion pedal. The blues and crunch settings are great for practice. It's no surprise that the clean, blues, and crunch sounds are better than the high gain coming from Vox: a company made famous by the AC30 amplifier (used widely by British invasion era and contemporary UK rock bands).

The amp has a small army of effects that include: auto-wah, a compressor, compressor and phaser, compressor and chorus, chorus and digital delay, chorus and reverb, flanger and reverb, tremolo and reverb, rotary and reverb, digital delay, and digital reverb effects. The saturation or rate of the effects are easily adjusted with a knob and a button. For a relatively inexpensive 5 watt amplifier, the effects sound good. They don't sound like a tube amp plugged into top notch analog pedals, but they are excellent for practicing in a hotel room, dorm, or bedroom.

Another fantastic feature Vox included is dual rear inputs and a headphone jack with cabinet modeling. You can plug in your mp3 player and a microphone (with a separate volume knob) and have a virtual jam session to your favorite albums all through your headphones. I've also connected directly from the output jack to a mixer for computer recording and had excellent results (no unwanted noise from the amplifier). The signal processing is 24 bit, 44.1kHz.

The Vox DA5 is powered by batteries or an AC adapter (included!). I rarely use the battery power, but love having the option when on the road. The Amplifier is adjustable to 5 watts, 1.5 watts, or .5 watts with the flip of a switch. This allows you to get the full rich tone of the amp at lower volumes, and extend battery life if needed.

For less than $150 you will be hard pressed to find a better traveling amplifier than the Vox DA5. This machine is well crafted, sounds good, and is loaded with features. The amp is less than 8 pounds, packs into an overnight bag, and has more input options than some amplifiers many times its size and price. If this piece of gear were stolen or destroyed in an accident I would replace it with the another Vox DA5.