MVX150H 150-watt Hybrid Tube Head Review

Not Quite!

I own the Vox MV50 Rock and Boutique amps, both of which offer a pure, tight pre-amp distortion I find superior to the glass tubes I own (Marshall and Fender - ECC84 and 12AX7). When A/B-ing the NuTube amps with the glass tubes, the glass ones sound like they have a papery film over them, where as the NuTubes are clear and focused. So, when the MVX150 was announced, on paper it… read more was perfect. Thank you Sweetwater for letting me spend a few days with it along with the MV50 High Gain and Boutique models. The specs are compelling for the MVX150H, so I really wanted to like it. The first channel is fabulous - warm, rich as well as chimey, and the bright and fat switches add excellent tonal variations. And, when I over-drove the first channel with my TC Electronic Mini-Spark, it had the clear distortion of the MV50 models. But then tried the second channel. Problem! I worked and worked, but couldn't get it to sound better than an average fuzz pedal. Not sure if that was because of the second NuTube, which does provide the sag and compression of traditional tube amp power-stage distortion. I got a cleaner sound by turning down the output attenuator so only the power section NuTube was distorting, but that defeats the purpose of having two channels. After all the testing I settled on the Boutique, which has a marvelous warmth as well as an interesting high-end rolloff as you get past 9 o'clock on the gain knob. But, I still would love to see a professional-level NuTube head from Vox that has the focused sound of the MV50 series along with needed extras like an effects loop, built-in power supply and hopefully reverb along with 2 channels. Just leave out the second NuTube and put a 100-watt Class D amp after the effects loop and I'll buy it!

---

Cancel Comment