Vox DA5 Digital Amplifier

It's a little practice amp which mean I'd expect no features. This has many quality ones. Easy access tap tempo is nice. As far as I can tell settings are not saved when you change settings. I would have gladly paid more for saving settings and a reverb control separate from other effects.

For what this is and cost it's absolutely awesome! My main amp is a fixed up old Fender Deluxe Reverb. Though it's doesn't shine like that, I find plenty on inspiring tones from this cheap little box.

Worked perfectly for a month but totally died after a plane trip in a suitcase. All connections seem fine so not sure what happened? Otherwise seemed well built?

I loved it until it stopped turning on. I also play bass and may get the 10 watt DA10 now. The extra speaker will help it work for battery powered bass playing. Nothing compares to great tube amp but I highly recommend this for a portable solid little companion.

I own a 1963 Vox DA5 prototype with a custom 6.5" greenback (silk dome tweeter) that I modded with a WWII-era soviet power soak...

OK, it's a Vox DA5 like you see in the catalogs. I bought it as a practice amp for writing at home that would give me plenty of sonic options. It delivers in spades with a very nice group of amp simulators that run a wide gamut from clean to distorted. The effects included are also really neat.

Sure there are some things that aren't that great for my taste (ex.: I'm not a big reverb fan and many of the effects include it) but for the most part they did a bang-up job. By the way, 5 watts is plenty loud--it's just that the speaker can't handle it that well. I find the 1.5 watt setting (being able to pick between .5, 1.5, and 5 watts is very cool) to be a nice balance.

It looks pretty cool, too. I got the red one. I like the carrying strap a lot. My runners up were the classic (but I already have an AC30) and the pink one. Wish they had white--that's what I liked about the Microcube.

Great features for the price.

My main amp is an AC30 and Vox knows the Vox sound. It also knows what people like in Fenders, Marshalls, and Boogies, with the slight edge going to the "British" in its somewhat darker colored-ness. Is it flawless at reproducing them? No. But it gives reasonable facsimiles of them that are fun in their own right.

I don't find the amp terribly responsive to pick dynamics, nor does it have the distinctive "push-pull" sound of tube amps. But it is clear, harmonically interesting, and has a nice throaty roar to it that is Vox-y at heart. I think all the crunch and distortions are pretty nice for what they are; metal-lurgists may disagree--but then, don't buy a 6-inch speaker s.s. practice amp!

I'm impressed by the effects sounds overall; each one sounds professional. For being an inexpensive, in-one-unit group of effects, they are surprisingly versatile and adjustable. I'm not huge on effects in general but these are quite nice. I particularly like the flange and the rotary sounds, but they're all decent.

I play classic/indie rock and picked this amp as a writing tool. "Cheesy" is NOT a word I would use to describe this amplifier; the closest it gets to that adjective, I'd call "charming." It has more than enough to inspire new sounds. I think it's a fine achievement.

Seems well-built; I haven't really peeked at the guts.

I have been playing for 25 years. Guitars are Les Paul, PRS, Fender. I have had Fender, Marshall, and Boogie amps in addition to my AC30. I had a hard time choosing a practice amp, as the various competition have their advantages, in that each might do a certain sound better. Once I realized I'd be using it mainly to write at home, not to gig, I liked the portability, variety and quality of features, and looks of the DA5.

If stolen or lost, I might replace it, or I might sample the competish. Does it go with my hot pants? is really the question.

The DA5 would be a GREAT amp for a kid starting out. Man, I WISH this type of thing were around back in Ye Olde Dayes. Really quite miraculous what these whippersnappers now have available to them. To me it is fantastic as a sonic notepad that does not offend the ears at all. For what it is, it is mighty, mighty cool.

You have read it in the previous posts. For a little practice amp, a nice collection of features...

It is OUTSTANDING to be able to use this amp via battery power and play along with acoustics without drowning them out.

Cleans are GREAT. The heavy distortions, not great but useable. The crunches are nice and classic rock sounding.

Very fun to play a strat through the clean sounds with a spash of reverb (which sounds great as well!).

So far so good. Made in Vietnam. Lets see what kind of products they push out...

Have not dealt with them.

I bought this amp for my father to play around with. I have a few higher end amps that sound very good, but when I would go to Dad's house, I just loved playing through his amp.

I stopped at the music store the other day and saw a DA5 in the classic style and just said forget it and bought it.

I played it over the weekend during an acoustic jam. I played some solos on my strat through it and it sounded PERFECT. It did not overpower the acoustics (although I easily could if i turned it up more)...

When I first purchased the amp for my father I compared it to the Roland MicroCube, and it was NO COMPARISION. The roland sounded very lifeless and sterile in comparison. The VOX just seems to interact better with the guitar in a more musical way. Try it and you will see. For the money you can't beat it. You also can not beat the tiny size and the ability to run it on batteries. How damn cool is that?

This amp actually has too many features. They could take out all those high gain amp modes, they sound pretty bad. They also put in too many effects and lumped them together. You can turn parts of the effects off if you want to like turn off reverb in chorus+reverb mode by turning the effect knob down. The microcube implemented their effects better I think. Some improvements I would like would be to make the strap buttons metal(easily changed), remove that plastic grip thingy from the strap, it makes it harder to carry, Put a right angle plug on the AC adapter so if it falls backwards, it would not break the PC board. Wish they would make the cheese grater grill black not chrome. Wish they had put a 12volt SLA battery in it with a charger instead of C batteries.

The clean 2 is the best mode, I use my tubescreamer for distortion sounds as the amps modes are not very good. This has 3 power levels that you can choose from. Bad thing is if you dial in your tone at the 5 watt level, then drop to 1.5 watts your tone is gone and you have to tweek it again to get it back. This happens even more if you drop the power down to .5 watts. I leave it at 1.5 watts, dial in my tone, turn on the clean channel, add a little reverb and it does sound very good. I am running it on batteries and it still sounds good. I got this so I could move from room to room easily and not disturb others in the house. Love the small size.

No problems.

no problems.

Mine is pink, special edition and very nice gift from sweetie.
I was among the first to own the microcube, and at the time it was way incredible. Now with this Vox I really can't stand it anymore, I sold it right away.
If you like the rectum fryer sound, the microcube do it better than the Vox (but quieter of course). It is the only department in its favor.
What I like is the tweakability of effects, a huge improvement to any sound.
The power attenuator on the back is way useful too, and more so since I use the Vox hooked to an open-back 212 box in my living room.
Now sweetie has some regrets, after all it was not a so good idea for a gift...

I like clean and not to distorted sounds, and the thing sounds absolutely killer. Very natural, relaxed sounds in there.
Not too tight, so the heavy fraction should look elsewhere, but nothing unmanageable with a metal zone in front of it.
Absolutely silent, a nice point. Very good sounding effects, only the lack of compressor w/reverb combination is to object, but this applies to the whole ad series so...
One point for the lack of rectifier sound, but myself I don't care.

The open-back design lets you see the innerlife of the main board, I would have seen a better protection since we have the possibility to use this carrying space for a pedal or God knows what.
No opinion since it's new and working flawlessly.

This amp is a real one, hook it to a big box and you'll see, and a good sounding one.
It made me to buy a korg ax3g in order to have its sounds elsewhere, and I am in love with the Vox modeling thing, fresher and more natural than other stuff have/had. Such as line6(flat and lifeless, no sparkle), Fender fm25dsp (still flat and lifeless, but some sparkle and enjoyable), and Roland cube 30 (somewhat dark and flat, still lifeless, but usable nevertheless).
My atention on Vox modeling was drawn by Mr Rob Math on gearwire.com and his test of the vox ad30vt, a very precise transcription of what the Vox modeling does. And I found the same sounds in both da5 and ax3g, hats off for your honesty Rob.

This is a practice modeling amp. all solid state. can run on 'c' battries. several useful settings. Like all modeling amps, there are like three or four good settings and the others are filler. Its loud, and a very handy size.

For what it is, the prime competitor to the Roland MicroCube, its absolutly superb! really, there is no comparison.

Yes, its solid state. It either works out of the box, or it doesn't. Used by kid to good effect at outdoor recital and it was fairly loud.

n/a

I also have the AD 30. I like this better. This blows away the Roland Microcube. Considering that a bottom of the barrel practice amp is $60 but this is only $125, I'd say its a bargain. For a parent shopping for a practice amp for a kid, this solves the problem, period. Beware though, this amp can be irritatingly loud.

It's a fairly new model, which I've owned a few months. If this amp won't do it, you probably don't need it. It is super for playing around at home, low volume jams, and campfire rockouts!

I love the way this little box sounds. You should be able to find just about any sound you want in there.

Don't know.

Don't know.

I've been guilty of ranting on and on in the past, but have gotten a little tired of all the long winded reviews. So, I thought I'd keep this one short.

I've played forever, and own or have owned about anything you can name. If you play guitar, any style, you need one of these. It sounds good, can cover a lot of ground from solo practice to jamming with an electric drummer. Unless you mic it, it won't cut it for a gig - just in case you're tempted to try. And, bottom line, it's just plain cool - what more do you want for the money?

Solid state practice amp with several built in effects (reverb, auto-wah, flanger etc). 5W max output with power selector. Auxilliary in, Line in, Headphone out. Can be powered by battery as well.

This amp has settings for clean, blues, crunch, higain, and drive. All sound great.

I play mostly soft rock, a little blues. This amp does both wonderfully.

It is a practice amp. Would not gig with it.

It has never broken down yet.

Never had to deal with customer support.

I have been playing for a little under 3 years now.

I run this amp with an Ibanez AS73, and the combination sounds awesome. I have fiddled with the effects - and I mostly use reverb, and sometimes delay or flange. But that's about it. The amp is capable of a lot more, though.

Eleven amp modes/models and plenty of effects. It's small enough to pack in your suitcase for the plane, or you could even put it in a backpack and carry it on. I got it mainly for travel, and the size/weight is perfect for that. The control for some of the effects is a little complicated, but it's nothing to really hinder the overall value of the amp. Besides, I don't really use effects. I got the one with the classic Vox styling - it looks really sweet.

First the bad - it's got a very slight hum when on (undetectable while playing it), and it seems to be more sensitive to your cell phone than other amps (y'know, that annoying beeping sound that cell phone signals make through speakers).

I know, the bad points are pretty petty, so let's get to the good stuff! This is one of those modelers where all of the models sound good. I've got other modeling pedals - a Line 6 Pod 2.0 and a Zoom G7 - and both of those have some really sorry models. Vox (or actually Korg) made the most of all 11 models. The cleans have sparkle and character, and the overdrives all have a good range. You might have some problems with a real metal sound, but really - this has a 6.5" speaker and it says "Vox" on the outside. Of course it's not meant for metal! That said, it does have good high gain sounds, and they sound as fat as the small speaker can make them. The effects are all pretty good, though I really only use reverb. Another good sound option is found with the battery door - it's made of wood, and it's located on the back of the cab... this translates to open back and closed back sounds! Not too shabby if you ask me.

I have used this with a Gibson Les Paul and an American Strat. Great sounds from both!

No problems yet, but I just got it. Looks well-built.

I've had to call them before concerning a different amp (the problem was really with the retailer - long story, blah, blah) and they were nice and helpful. Remember, Korg owns the Vox name, so you're actually dealing with Korg when you call Vox for support.

I was really amazed by the sounds of this little thing. This would be a great first amp, practice amp, or travel amp. I've been playing alternative and classic rock for 11 years, and I've got a ton of gear. This is a fine addition to the collection!

Brand new vox da 5 amp. It is extremely versitile, many effects. I use mainly auto wah, chorus, and the crunch settings. At home I use the .5 watt setting. You can see all the bells and whistles on the website so I won't go into detail. For a semi-serious amateur like me this is an ideal amp.

I also own a Fender Mini-Deluxe, and for a few extra dollars the Vox is very impressive. Totally worth the $100 I paid. It has the power, the look, and the versatility to handle many effects, plus it is completely customizable

The crunch 2 setting is nice and chunky, even with my Fender Strat with the 3 single coil pickups. Auto Wah sounds very good. The clean channels are probably the only thing that I can criticize. But that is a minor complaint, and I'm sure with a little tweaking I could get the sound I am looking for.

I have had it for a short time so no opinion.

Don't know yet.

Great value, great looks. I am very happy with the purchase and it was one of those things I knew was a good decision right out of the box. You will not regret purchasing this amp, if your need is something smaller that still has many options for sounds and effects.

I really don't think the amp needs much more, except as others have said it would be nice to have a input for a sound petal. But Vox has my loyalty now for this high quality product.