Sorted. Purchase made. Which travel amp

TheMarlin

I’m looking for a travel amp, battery powered, with various guitar models and effects.  Easy to use, which won’t give me option blindness, and allows me stream jam tracks from my phone for practice. I’m on the road regular, so this and Steinberger will be my travel setup.  I have a NUX Mighty Plug pro for headphone use which I’ll use in meantime. I like the Nux mighty plug pro a lot, so looking at other NUX devices. 

What I do end up buying must have good reverb, good delay, and sound great. In mostly use Fender style amp sounds, but a good Vox sound would also be useful

I’ve heard good things about positive grid spark, but I heard one which sounded very tinny.  I think my old Yamaha THR5 which I ran on batteries, sounded much nicer. 

Looking around, I’m looking at the Nux Air or Space, as an option. 

Just curious to see what everyone else is using, and likes, and whether I would be better buying something else before I get my wallet out. 

What do you all recommend?

Fingers657

The new Boss Katana Go headphone amp does everything you want.
The Spark Go is also very good.
I have both and really like both of em.

TheMarlin

Does the Spark support streamed streamed backing tracks so you can pay along? 

Anyone used the Nux Air or Space?

Neilybob

I’m old skool and when I go travelling I take my trusty Digitech Trio + and headphones.  I like how you can record/loop 5 different parts of a song. It has different genres for bass and drums backing tracks. Also it has an effects loop so I can run my pedalboard through it. 

LionAquaLooper

Why the need for a mini amp for travelling if you already have a Mighty Plug?  (I'm assuming you have one when you said you like it a lot in your opening post).  If you don't have one, then probably best to go down the headphone amp route in my personal opinion.  Cheaper, more portable, rechargeable, quieter, and will have all the effects you can ever need.

TheMarlin

LionAquaLooper said:

Why the need for a mini amp for travelling if you already have a Mighty Plug?  (I'm assuming you have one when you said you like it a lot in your opening post).  If you don't have one, then probably best to go down the headphone amp route in my personal opinion.  Cheaper, more portable, rechargeable, quieter, and will have all the effects you can ever need.

I do have a mighty plug pro, it’s actually great.  But I dislike being tangled in headphone cables.  It gets irritating. 

I’d like the flexibility of battery powered practice amp that I can pack in my suitcase when I’m on the road. 

But will use the Mighty Plug Pro in meantime. 

LionAquaLooper

Ah I see.
Another option to consider - Boss Waza Air.  Fully wireless and can bluetooth to your phone so you can play along to whatever streaming or mp3s you might have.  Not to mention it sounds amazing.  Not the cheapest though. 

You could also just buy a good portable speaker with an Aux In and plug your Mighty Plug directly on to it instead of using headphones.  With a mini amp you'd need to cable on to the amp anyway so it's the same thing - but instead your cable will be running from the mighty plug to the speaker and not your ears.   

TheMarlin

Any other opinions before I buy?

dazzajl

Spark mini. It’s exactly what you need and makes for a nice little BT speaker too. 

TheMarlin

dazzajl said:

Spark mini. It’s exactly what you need and makes for a nice little BT speaker too. 

Sorry, didn’t like the Spark mini. I know it gets a lot of love,  but it seriously underwhelmed  

dazzajl

TheMarlin said:

dazzajl said:

Spark mini. It’s exactly what you need and makes for a nice little BT speaker too. 

Sorry, didn’t like the Spark mini. I know it gets a lot of love,  but it seriously underwhelmed  

That surprises me. Where did it fail? 

TheMarlin

dazzajl said:

TheMarlin said:

dazzajl said:

Spark mini. It’s exactly what you need and makes for a nice little BT speaker too. 

Sorry, didn’t like the Spark mini. I know it gets a lot of love,  but it seriously underwhelmed  

That surprises me. Where did it fail? 

It sounded like a transistor radio. Small and tinny

dazzajl

I enjoyed mine a lot and I don’t like little tinny sounding things either. It’s not a huge sound obviously, it’s just a 5inch cube but anything much more will get you thrown out of your hotel

Deadman

TheMarlin said:

dazzajl said:

TheMarlin said:

dazzajl said:

Spark mini. It’s exactly what you need and makes for a nice little BT speaker too. 

Sorry, didn’t like the Spark mini. I know it gets a lot of love,  but it seriously underwhelmed  

That surprises me. Where did it fail? 

It sounded like a transistor radio. Small and tinny

That’s part of the charm for me   

stickyfiddle

THR or something plugged into an iPhone/ipad and headphones would be my pick. 

Obviously the former isn’t tiny and the latter still needs headphones but otherwise not bad. 

Perhaps some small travel speaker with an Aux In could work with an iPhone based amp modeller (GarageBand, amplitude, JamUp, etc)? 

pt22

Another vote for the Spark Mini over a THR. I sold my 30ii for the Mini and I couldn’t be happier. 

TheMarlin

What about other sized Spark amps, do the bigger ones sound better?

Wazmeister

Boss Dual Cube LX

I think this thing sounDs terrific, and whEn I a/b them, it was superior to the THR.

Superb.

RichAC

I’ve got a Spark Go (the tiny one) and to my ears it sounds superb. 

I also have a pair Waza Airs, which are headphones but wire-free. They also sound great, but the companion app, which is essential to do anything useful, is awful.

TheMarlin

Anyone tried the Nux Mighty Lite 2 or the Nux Space?

dazzajl

TheMarlin said:

What about other sized Spark amps, do the bigger ones sound better?

The Spark options are the Spark Go, next up is the Spark Mini and then the Spark. 

The Spark sounds bigger than the Mini, if anything it can be a bit too boomy but is tameable. No battery and about the size of the little Mustang you had. If you’re happy with mains power and that size it’s a good amp. I might give the nod to the Fender though. Definitely less cool points but I liked it a bit more