Smallish acoustic amps: Marshal AS50D vs Fishman Loudbox Mini (opinions sought)

Snags

These both seem to be a broadly similar price, with the Marshall being a bit dearer.  I know that ultimately the answer is to go somewhere and play with them both, but in lieu of (or preparation for) that, I thought the assembled wisdom might be useful.

My gut says the 2x8" in the Marshall should produce a fuller sounder, but Internet Wisdom seems to think the Mini produces a very clear, faithful output (and it's cheaper, and lighter).

Use cases will mostly be:

- farting about with effects at home
- monitor/DI source for relatively low volume settings
- possible tFB jams
- possibly, just possibly, used as a small amp+vox deal for small performance situations (but nothing on the horizon)

Clearly tFB Wisdom outranks Internet Wisdom so … wise me up!

ICBM

Fishman. It's just a much higher-quality sound and a better-built amp.

Snags

Ta. I thought that in my head, but keep getting seduced by the extra features on the Marshall. Which I'll probably never use, but ...

Might get a chance to try one of them tomorrow, but no-one nearby seems to have both in stock at the same time, which is a bit annoying.

Modellista

I've had one of the Marshalls for a while.  Haven't used it much but took it to a little gig the other day in a marquee.  Was surprisingly loud and decent-sounding.  Was quite impressed.  Wasn't using it for guitar, had an electric through a Katana at the same time, but for vocals it worked better than I was expecting.  Can't comment on the build quality though.

Creed_Clicks

What about the Roland Cube CM30? Not loud enough? Seems to be good specs on it.

Snags

If I went Roland I think I'd want to go up to the AC range, and that starts getting a bit spendy for where I'm at right now.

At a client near a Dawsons today, so have chucked the acoustic in the car and am about to sneak out and see what they've got on offer.

Snags

So, Dawson's 0/2 for amp testing ...

Snags

Quick update, purely for the record.

As above, popped into Dawsons in Reading hoping to try the Marshall (was nearby with work) but not expecting them to have the Fishman based on the website. In the end, despite the nice young lady going all round the shop, it turned out they had neither. So I bought some bass strings, and that was that.
 
Returning to the office of El Client I thought "Screw it" and ordered a Loudbox Mini from Gear4Music (because they were notably cheapest, and I was already over-budget just thinking about it). True to form, "next working day delivery" turns out to mean "the day after next working day delivery if you're lucky" so I'm hoping to have it for the weekend, which will be handy, as Mrs Snags is away, so me and the dog can test it out.  Hopefully won't have to take advantage of the distance selling stuff.

crunchman

I've got a Loudbox Mini.  It's a good little amp.  The Fishman was definitely the bext onen I found in that price range.  I'm reasonably sure I tried the Marshall when I bought the FIshman.