My search for small valve amps for home use began when I fired up my old Marshall 100 watt valve amp recently. I realised two things: I miss playing through valve amps and 100 watts (even attenuated to 25 watts) is too loud for home use. I have a little 5 watt Roland cube which although excellent, just doesn’t have that valvey magic. So I went trawling through the web to see what’s available these days.
It seems that in these days of small home studios producing superb quality music, small valve amps for home use are all the rage. All of the big names have a 5 watt or lower offering as do many less well known (at least to me) manufacturers. I was spoilt for choice. Time to narrow it down.
I’m not doing a comparison review here. A. I don’t have all the amps and B. There are plenty of excellent reviews already out there. But these are the amps I considered: The Blackstar HT-5r MKII, Marshall DSL5CR, Vox AC10C1 and Fender 57 Custom Champ. I also looked at some of the Boutique offerings from Bugera and Supro, A Laney and an incredibly cheap Harley Benton. Warren Huart from Produce Like A Pro’s compares 10 of the best in this post
The Big Brothers
The guitarist in a band I recorded a couple of years ago had a little Blackstar 5 watt amp which I was impressed with so I started there. The HT5 in question is now on its MKII incarnation and came off well in lots of “small amp shootouts”. But so did the classics from Marshall, Fender and Vox. Those are actually the modelled sounds I like best in my Boss GT100 and in Logic Pro so they were very tempting. On stage I’ve been a Marshall man for decades but I have also owned and loved Hiwatt, Orange and Peavey valve amps. It was going to come down to the features most important to me now.
Not surprisingly the big brand products all sound fantastic. They sound like their iconic big, loudass brothers but they can be cranked up to 10 where valve amps are at their best without breaking windows. For me though there were two issues. Firstly, they are one trick ponies and I have pretty good models of those most excellent ponies at my disposal. Secondly they lacked some of the features I want. On the other hand the Blackstar has the lot. And I’ve heard one in real life.
So after a couple of days of reading and watching reviews about small valve amps for home use I got the credit card out for the Blackstar HT5 MKII. It’ll be here in a couple of days so I’ll review it in full then.
How Do You Choose Your Perfect Small Valve Amp For Home Use?
Meantime here’s what sold it to me. Obviously the sounds it makes. Blackstar valve amps employ slightly different valves than everyone else. Those and some clever electronic jiggery pokery enable them to sound either very British (Marshall, Vox etc) or very American (Fender, Mesa Boogie etc) and all points in between. While not exactly the same as any of those amps this gives you the characteristics of their iconic sounds. From what I’ve heard you have a wide tonal palette here ranging from chiming clean to searing overdriven.
The HT 5 also has an effects loop – lacking on some of the others – which I like. In common with some of the others it has an attenuator which drops 5 watts to 0.5 watts. This is where you can really get the dimed valve amp “thang” without killing your neighbours. So miced up home studio recording is a possibility. Beyond that there’s also a usb output which basically makes the amp an interface, and an emulated speaker direct output which switches between 1×12 and 4×12 cabinets. You can even plug a sound source through it to jam along with or plug headphones into it for silent practice.
Of all the small valve amps for home use I’ve seen reviewed this little updated 5 watt Blackstar offers the best bang for bucks IMHO.
Of course sound is subjective. Some people will be happy just to get their classic old Fender or Marshall sound in a more home friendly format and won’t care about fancy extra features. I get that too and it wasn’t an easy choice. These are all great amps.
