Heads Up - Portable Amp Bargain - Roland Mobile BA

katysax

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Just to let folks know - Sweetwater music is running a $99 deal on the Roland BA Mobile. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MobileBA

If you are looking for a portable, battery operated, acoustic amp, this is a sweet deal.

It is a stereo portable PA system that is slightly larger than a computer laptop. It weighs about 5 lbs. It is very similar to their mobile cube. The Mobile BA normally sells for $199 (it is currently $99 on Amazon too - from Geartree - which is the same as Sweetwater). The Cube sells for $179. The cube has some effects and sound modeling that the BA does not have, but the BA should be better as an acoustic amp. Some people even use it for bass. Other than this deal the amp pretty consistently sells for $199.

It should be somewhat equivalent to the Yamaha Thr 5A. I bought this amp - don't have it yet. I have the Thr10 which I am not powerfully in love with. I'm curious to see how this Roland stacks up.

Maybe this should have gone in the buying tips thread. If the mods want to move it - that is OK with me.
 
I have this amp (older model) and really like it.
Only criticism is tone and reverb settings can't be done on channels independently.
 
My intended use for this is pretty minimalist so for me that doesn't matter. I'll probably never use the reverb, and if I need to adjust the tone on different channels I will use a preamp. I'll probably use it more as a PA than as an amp. I'll also probably use it at very low volumes for bass. (I've even used the Orange Crush for low volume bass - not its forte). My expectations are not very high. At $99 I'm willing to give it a try that I would not at $199.
 
I wish the mic input was an XLR jack instead of a 1/4" jack.

- FiL

Agreed. That would be better. I'm guessing they did that for price.

The Emerson headset is $11 at Walmart.
 
Thanks for sharing
 
Fellow UU brother Bazmaz had posted a review of a similar Roland amp here:

http://www.gotaukulele.com/2014/08/ukulele-amplification-roland-mobile.html

However, this one he reviewed seems to have a different option for selecting the type of input on the LINE-IN (which I'm guessing has more to do with impedance matching to your device) as well as a Chorus effect.

Also, on the Sweetwater description for the item in the title of this thread, in the specs it says "OUTPUTS: None", but in the photos if this unit, it clearly shows a headphone output above the power button and DC input jack on that side.

At one time I was going to buy one of these that Baz reviewed but instead went with a $20 Danelectro Honeytone amp to test the waters, and was unimpressed with it for anything other than using it on the bench for testing purposes since to get any meaningful volume out of it, you had to up the GAIN control. which of course adds a bit of overdrive to the sound, and makes it crunchy sounding (not what you want if you want a CLEAN sound).

Of course, by all accounts, it seems that this Roland unit lives up to their reputation of being quality gear, and is probably in a whole other class, similar to the other Roland CUBE, Vox Mini3 and Mini5 and Fender Passport Mini battery-powered portable amplifiers.
 
The unit that Baz reviewed was the mobile cube - which is intended as a small guitar amp. This unit, the mobile BA is intended as a PA. As far as I can tell the main difference is that it doesn't not have as many emulation modes but only a clean signal. I am sure it is limited. For $99 I think it is probably a bargain for $199 not so much but still a good unit.
 
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