Arion HW-2 Multi-Effects/Headphone Amp

Les Paul Vintage.
lot of distortion and FUZZ.

Picked it up at a car boot sale. 20Euro.
Lot of hum and ciss in background.
Good for messing around with the plastis speakers on and you are not annoying anyone with the crappy sound.
Chorus is good but the rest is FUZZ.

It is more of a kiddy toy!

No

it is a handy Gismo to have.
Wish the sound was better.
Play it through my HIWATT amp.
The distortion lets you play bung notes and get away with it!

I use the unit as a practice amp, maybe an Eq to bring out more bass in the headphones

A little noisy. The effects are okay.

It's good only for late night 8 fingered tapping, I like the clean Strat tones I get off it.

Never used their customer support, I bought this unit back in 1987 for playing between gigs or traveling in the van.

I play Metal,Blues, Fusion, Neo-Classical Metal and Classic Rock. I've had this unit since Nov. of 1987, used it as practice amp. Like some one mentioned on this post, it sounds good throu a couple of boom box speakers in the headphone jacks.

Since the sound is direct-injected into your brain, it's amazingly "live". Very spacious. The distortion is God-awful, but gives you the sound to work with for practice. The reverb works well, although not adjustable. All effects are strictly "go-no go". The chorus was surprisingly good. I'd never had a chorus before, so I played with this a lot. Chorus and reverb together were very nice. With all effects off, the clean sound was really dead. Needed reverb as a minimum to make it tolerable. One day, being bored and always on the look out for new and dispicable things to do with my sound, I waited for everyone to leave the house and ran the line from Hot Watt to VT-22. After selecting distortion, reverb and chorus, I dialed up the distortion on the amp channel. I then played the intros to "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and "5150". Holy Sh*t!! The Hot Watt acted like some weird kind of preampmegagain thingy. Harmonics out of bounds and I didn't think that the sustain would ever let go. Intrigued, I go get my LP copy and go for the intro of "Just Got Paid" by ZZ Top. The disgusting stench of cowsh*t, cactus and horse manure filled the room. I even got the feedback note at the end. Even better, I discovered that when the Hot Watt was turned all the way up and the amp was turned down to, like, 1 or 1.5, the tone stayed the same. I tell you...I was up until 2:00 the next morning trying stuff. Don't sell a piece of gear short until you've explored all possibilities. I rate it 10 when run with another amp. Six when alone.

I bought one of the original Hot Watts back in the late 70's. I needed a practice amp and my Ampeg VT-22 was just too loud to play around the house. Unit came with cheapo headphones and has Clean, Chorus, Reverb and Distortion effects. A line in lets you run a Walkman or such with your guitar to play along. There is a line out for connecting to a real amp and it has an input to use a wall wart adapter instead of 6 AA batteries. Not bad for a little guy.

I've had this thing for years and it just recently took a dump. Seems the input jack is screwed up. Also, the clean sound is now somewhat distorted. I don't know if it's worth fixing, but I feel I got my money's worth.

I've no idea.

It's served it's purpose and allowed me to stay loose without dealing with lawsuits from the neighbors. As I don't work in a band anymore, I'm seriously considering replacing it with a small combo, possibly a Peavy or Zoom that has effects on board. I'll still use headphones when the family's asleep. The Hot Watt enabled me to quench my thirst for blastin' out hard, bombastic rock and roll without having to deal with the inconvenience of divorcing my wife. I've read some of the negative reviews and don't quite get it. Maybe the older ones were better, as is the case with so much musical gear. All I know is, my experience was a good'un.

One slide switch, four push-push switches, two pots. Cheap jacks - sometimes need to wiggle plugs to make solid contact. Intermittant volume control. Distortion level pot inconveniently located on the side of the case - shaft doesn't protrude enough to adjust easily. "Instruction Manual" consists of a single sheet, poorly translated. No schematic.

Plugged into a standard Strat or a Bronze Warlock, the Hot Watt II produces thin, gutless sound with no bottom end. Swapping out the cheap headphones that came with it doesn't help. Putting it between guitar and amp doesn't fix the problem. Apparently this is a design flaw or component deficiency. Echo, chorus and distortion sound nasty.

Wouldn't expect the Hot Watt II to last long with daily use, but it sounds so bad that it will hardly ever get used.

No mention of support in the "manual". Ever tried to contact Arion / Ueno Kaihatsu Center Ltd? Arion's support ended when these rolled out the door.

The good news is that if it disappears, it won't be missed. If you're considering buying a Hot Watt, save your money for something useful.

The "Echo" is the worst reverb I have ever heard, I have a Radio Shack reverb that sounds better. In Muscian's Friend they say "Stereo circuit and effects that'll have you believing you're in a concert hall." I guess this guy thinks an up-rooted septic tank is a "Concert hall", but if I had to wager on it I'd say the septic tank would sound better.

The Chorus isn't too bad, far betetr than the Echo, and the first distortion (overdrive) sounds decent.

Its best sound is with no effects. BUT, noisy as hell: even my old tube amp is quieter than this thing, be sure not to sit anywhere near your tv or monitor, those devices usually make noise in my single coil PUs, but with this thing its unbearable!

Maybe mines just broken, but I doubt it.

This is a head-phone amp with 2 distortions, a Chorus and an "Echo" effect. The Distortions have a gain control, but its heard to use it (you need to insert a narrow screwdriver like device to adjust it).

Haven't had it long enough to say, but its pretty light weight, made of plastic. Maybe its a screwed up, but I don't think so, its just a cheap, crappy device.

Bought it used (Thank God!)

I'm very glad I bought it used, because I wouldn't have paid $25 for it new. Its a $5 toy you give your little brother after a month or two. I suggest saving your money and getting a real amp and forgetting the whole head phone amp thing.

I bought mine to facilitate practice by not having to set up my huge tube amp, but this thing sucks so bad I have decided I could use the excercise lugging around the 50 lb monster.

Easy to use, inherited it so no manual. Not much to confuse, 4 buttons and a drive tweak knob.

I've owned it for about 9 years, so I've played a few different axes through it. An 82 Ibanez ST-50 with V2 P.U.'s,an 86 Kramer Baretta prototype W/1 Duncan J.B.Custom at bridge,a Heritage Les Paul type with 2 potted P.F.2 Type H.B.'s,and last but not least, a Fernandes LE-2 Strat. Sounds good with all axes. Great chorus,acceptable distortions, wish echo was a little wetter. Tried to use it direct to board a few times, BAD IDEA!!!!,sounds like TOTAL S@#*T. However it is kind of cool if you plug boom box speakers into the 2 headphone jacks.

Battery cover and belt clip broke early on...

N.A.

I've been playing for almost 25 Yrs now. I've also worked as a guitar tech, stage Mgr., general roadie, and live audio engineer for 14 Yrs. I play all styles. Like it better than Rockman products, however it still would be nice to use it direct. Overall not too bad.

I USED THIS AMP WITH A LES PAUL TYPE GUITAR. I DON'T REALLY LIKE EITHER OF THE DISTORTION SOUNDS BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH GAIN, AND THEY JUST DON'T HAVE VERY GOOD TONE. BUT THE CHORUS IS VERY NICE. IT IS THE BEST CHORUS YOU COULD ASK FOR.

THIS IS A HEADPHONE AMP. IT CAN ONLY BE PLAYED THROUGH HEADPHONES OR USED AS AN EFFECTS PEDAL. IT FEATURES CHORUS, ECHO, OVERDRIVE, AND METAL MASTER SOUND DISTORTION. IT HAS A KNOB THAT DOUBLES AS A GAIN CONTROL FOR BOTH THE OVERDRIVE AND METAL MASTER DISTORTION. THE CHORUS AND ECHO CAN NOT BE ADJUSTED, THEY ALWAYS SOUND THE SAME. YOU CAN NOT USE BOTH OF THE DISTORTIONS AT THE SAME TIME OR BOTH THE CHORUS AND ECHO AT THE SAME TIME, BUT YOU CAN COMBINE ONE OF THE DISTORTIONS WITH EITHER THE CHORUS OR ECHO. THERE IS ALSO A SWITCH TO CREATE A HIGHER TONE TO YOUR SOUND, AND A VOLUME CONTROL.YOU CAN ALSO HOOK UP A RADIO OR CD PLAYER TO IT AND JAM WITH YOUR FAVORITE MUSIC THROUGH HEADPHONES.

I HAVE HAD THIS AMP FOR ABOUT HALF A YEAR, AND HAVE NOT HAD ANY PROBLEMS.

I HAVE NOT DEALT WITH THE COMPANY. I THINK THE WARRANTY WAS A YEAR OR TWO.

ITS PERFECT FOR PLAYING LATE AT NIGHT WHEN EVERYONE ELSE IS SLEEPING.