Positive grid spark amp

Switch625

roberty said:

roberty said:

My order has been shipped, seven days after ordering

And it arrived today, so 8 days in all

update: has the grounding issue, have you guys been raising support cases?

Yup, raise a support case. Expect them
to request a video showing the problem to be uploaded to WeTransfer. Then wait...

roberty

switch625 said:

roberty said:

roberty said:

My order has been shipped, seven days after ordering

And it arrived today, so 8 days in all

update: has the grounding issue, have you guys been raising support cases?

Yup, raise a support case. Expect them
to request a video showing the problem to be uploaded to WeTransfer. Then wait...

Cool thanks

First impressions are it sounds immense, way fuller and fatter than the THR10, I imagine due to the deeper cabinet. EQ wise it is much closer sounding to my full sized amps so I expect it will be better for testing pedals. Being able to adjust the sound from listening position is a massive bonus too. Really pleased

chickenchaser

Just looked to buy one at $269 but didnt realise there was tax on top. Working out at £250. 

Are there any codes available at the moment? Don't know whether to wait to see if another offer comes on or just jump for it now. 

roberty

chickenchaser said:

Just looked to buy one at $269 but didnt realise there was tax on top. Working out at £250. 

Are there any codes available at the moment? Don't know whether to wait to see if another offer comes on or just jump for it now. 

Use the honey Chrome extension, it will find the best discount code

DartmoorHedgehog

If anybody's looking to buy one of these now, the code REFERRAL40 should get you $40 off until 30th October.
@chickenchaser

MildAshers

So, honeymoon period over, played it for about a month. Heres my honest take.

Its an absolutely OK amp. Absolutely nothing more. The tones are fine for the amp models, the effects are mostly fine with a few duds, the build quality is good for the most part, the app is fine at best. 

And that's the best way to describe this amp, its fine. If you're looking for an amp that has a good range of amp models amd effects that sounds good, there are plenty of better options. Yamaha THR is much more natural sounding, just a little thinner sounding due to the cabinet differences. The Katana has outright better tones, both in 50, 100 and Air formats, and has more effects which are generally better but does need a laptop or computer for maximum usability. Even the Fender Mustang GT/GTX series are superior in tone and effects plus have a similar app with much more flexibility regarding signal chains. 

If its more the software side you're interested in, SmartJam, backing tracks, chord reader etc. Again, it doesnt really do anything revolutionary. SmartJam is OK, used it a handful of times and didn't find it as good as its made out to be. The backing tracks are just pulled from YouTube so you can just search YouTube for them. The chord learning isn't 100% accurate so kind of renders it a bit useless and it doesnt pull from Spotify playlists or Apple music playlists, it looks at what you have saved and again, pulls from YouTube which is lower quality and not always ideal for quality audio play alongs. Again, there are apps and ways of doing this which are better. Ultimate Guitar has better chord and tab sheets, the Trio+ from Digitech is a better jam tool, among the many others that exist. And due to the overall sound quality raking a dive when you jam along to songs while playing, a separate speaker for backing tracks will always yield better results. 

If you want all of that in one package with having to spend extra to other stuff or for slightly more expensive amps, and don't mind iffy chord recognition and app integration. This amp is for you. But if you want a versatile modeller that has better tones, effects and a more flexible app. Buy the Mustang GTX.

In all, its just OK. I purchased it 90% on the strength of the app and its function and it isnt all it cracked up to be. Plus iPad use is patchy at best. 

For me it isn't worth the admission fee with what else is out there. 

dazzajl

You haven’t mentioned the rather lovely leather strap/handle

roberty

What's mad is I can't seem to find a spring reverb on mine. Am I missing something?

MildAshers

dazzajl said:

You haven’t mentioned the rather lovely leather strap/handle

The lovely strap is almost worth the price of admission. 

And the bass modelling, but the Rumble LT and the Vox Adio bass both do it better. Albeit of course not attached to a guitar amp but still. Rumble LT and Mustang LT together is around the same price as the Spark. 

Don't want it to sound like it was just a post of scathing criticism and I'm sure there will be a dedicated and loyal fanbase for the amp and I get that. The tones are good enough for it not to be a complete dud. I just think personally there are many better options than it out there and it perhaps isn't as clever and groundbreaking as Positive Grid made out. 

dazzajl

MildAshers said:

dazzajl said:

You haven’t mentioned the rather lovely leather strap/handle

The lovely strap is almost worth the price of admission. 

And the bass modelling, but the Rumble LT and the Vox Adio bass both do it better. Albeit of course not attached to a guitar amp but still. Rumble LT and Mustang LT together is around the same price as the Spark. 

Don't want it to sound like it was just a post of scathing criticism and I'm sure there will be a dedicated and loyal fanbase for the amp and I get that. The tones are good enough for it not to be a complete dud. I just think personally there are many better options than it out there and it perhaps isn't as clever and groundbreaking as Positive Grid made out. 

I think anyone who bought one to replace one of the other small boxes of many tricks may feel very underwhelmed. As a choice against the other options, it seems to stand up fairly well at its price. They all seem compromised somewhere down the line, the Spark is just what you say, perfectly useable but no game changer. 

roberty

dazzajl said:

MildAshers said:

dazzajl said:

You haven’t mentioned the rather lovely leather strap/handle

The lovely strap is almost worth the price of admission. 

And the bass modelling, but the Rumble LT and the Vox Adio bass both do it better. Albeit of course not attached to a guitar amp but still. Rumble LT and Mustang LT together is around the same price as the Spark. 

Don't want it to sound like it was just a post of scathing criticism and I'm sure there will be a dedicated and loyal fanbase for the amp and I get that. The tones are good enough for it not to be a complete dud. I just think personally there are many better options than it out there and it perhaps isn't as clever and groundbreaking as Positive Grid made out. 

I think anyone who bought one to replace one of the other small boxes of many tricks may feel very underwhelmed. As a choice against the other options, it seems to stand up fairly well at its price. They all seem compromised somewhere down the line, the Spark is just what you say, perfectly useable but no game changer. 

I prefer the sound of the Spark to my THR10, it actually has bass. Haven't spent much time tweaking but it's easy enough to dial in an appropriate sound to practice with. The transcription is almost useless except it does split the tune up into bars meaning you can jump to any measure with a tap which is amazing. No fiddling around with a timeline. Having the hardware controls and the practice tools in once place is really convenient. I am using the app a lot

chickenchaser

Halloween offer on these at the mo and along with spark5 discount code it's working out at £230 on PayPal if anyone is interested

shsam75

£189 now. Thanksgiving offer.

Does that include Vat or is that final price, shipped?

I have a thr10ii. Really on the fence with these 2 amps

chickenchaser

shsam75 said:

£189 now. Thanksgiving offer.

Does that include Vat or is that final price, shipped?

I have a thr10ii. Really on the fence with these 2 amps

They put a tax on top. I paid £225 through PayPal using their latest "25% offer" plus the save5 discount. Not too bad

roberty

Had a sheet of 1cm thick neoprene foam lying around (as you do) so I stuck two big squares of it to the internal back wall of the cabinet with velcro tape. I also put a small amount of light packing foam in the bass port just to calm its tits down slightly. Much less flubby sounding now, worth doing if you have a few minutes

Might get some 2 way car speakers for it too. Apparently the modelling is FRFR

tampadragon

I ordered one of these yesterday, I ordered from Guitar Guitar and they should have them in in Jan. I wanted to buy from a UK shop really so that it was easier to deal with them if I had any issues with it!
I'm excited to get it as it will reside in the lounge with a guitar always plugged in and should encourage me to play a lot more as I suffer from "out of sight, out of mind syndrome" when it comes to playing.
I am also hoping another bonus is that my son might start to want to pick it up and play!

roberty

I just stuffed my spark cab with polyester foam. It has sorted out the weird hump in the low mids. I have shit loads of this stuff now so if anyone wants some I can send it out to you for the price of postage

These speakers sound better overall but I don't think they have the excursion needed to amplify a guitar. Some buzzing/rattling noises. Also I had to hack the brackets to bits with tin snips to make them fit. I will try something a bit more robust in the new year

Overall I am still enjoying the amp but I don't think the stock speakers and cabinet colouration bring out the best in it

bobblehat

Just ordered one of these. Have been after a practice amp for a while but couldn't make up my mind on what to get. The Katana Air was top of the list for a while but couldn't really justify the price. The Vox Adio was also a consideration. I will be using it as a practice tool so the additional features on this swung it for me. Hard to find an unbiased review on You tube but the tones generally sound pretty good to me. Certainly good enough for noodling away to backing tracks. Will post a full review when it turns up. (might be a while though , current shipping showing 45 days!) 

Haych

I bought one a couple of months ago.

Things I like:

• The form factor - compact but well built, looks good enough to keep out all the time and not be moaned at by anyone.
• Immediacy - it's convenient to just switch on, plug in and play.
• Bluetooth - works great as a bluetooth speaker.
• DAW interface - does a really good job as a DAW hardware device, not only at being able to get good tones onto SSD but monitoring playback too.
• Versatility - has lots of tones and lots more ready made downloadable sounds in the cloud that other users have uploaded.

Things I don't like:

• It definitely adds a colour to the tone, and not for the better.  Far from being transparent there's a massive mid bias.
• The app - to get the best out of the Spark you really need to have your iPhone/iPad on and connected.
• The app - I don't have an iPad but even with the iPhone 8 Plus the app feels a bit claustrophobic on that size screen.
• The app - has a lot of "useful" features I doubt I'll ever use.
• DAW interface - dial in a good tone and lay down a few tracks on your favourite DAW but play back on a different device and it sounds radically different.

Things I'd like to see*:

• A desktop app - would be a lot easier to navigate a desktop app than the mobile app I reckon. As a lot of people will use it via USB with a DAW a desktop app makes sense rather than switching between PC/Mac and mobile device.
• Bias Amp/FX integration - the ability to sculpt tones in the Bias Amp/FX sphere and then save to the hardware and/or app, and conversely if you can get a great tone from the amp and then import the settings into Bias Amp/FX then I reckon that would be massively useful.

Overall it's a very useful little box and for the price it's hard to beat.  I had the Yamaha THR10 v2 for a while and while I think the sound was a bit more transparent from the beige toaster it didn't sound as big as the Spark does.  I also found my ears fatigued a lot with the THR, something I don't find with the Spark.  The Spark also doesn't seem to suffer with the same tinny rattles and vibrations the THR did.

Perhaps it's not a fair comparison since the THR came out quite a few years ago now, but pound for pound the Spark offers a lot more.  The updated THR has some of the more up to date features already on the Spark but the price is also eye watering when placed next to the Spark.

* For all I know these already might have been done.

roberty

@Haych I stuffed mine with polyester teddy bear foam and it tamed the mid hump quite nicely. I still have a massive bag of it if you want some