“Hand Wired” can be meaningless – whose hands? Did they know what they were doing? Did they care?
Anyway, a first look at this newish handwired model.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
These are things I get asked about a lot :
Amp Tech Gear Used :
Hakko FX-951 soldering station
Weller SPG 80L soldering iron (chassis work)
Rigol DS1054Z digital oscilloscope
Thsinde 18B+ digital multimeters
Kester 60/40 solder
Techspray #4 No-Clean Desoldering Braid
Engineer SS-03 solder sucker
Below are things that make this channel possible that people don’t usually think about. If any of these companies want to send me new and wonderful toys, I’m open to that. I can’t take free stuff when it comes to the amps I review, etc, but for the stuff below, bribe away!
Microphones/Audio Equipment :
Guitar Amps : Royer R-10 Hot Rod and/or Shure SM57 (noted in videos)
Voiceover Bench : sE Electronics sE8
Voiceover Streaming : sE Electronics sE4100
Occasional use : DJI Mic 2s and Rode Wireless Go IIs
Voiceover Mic Arms : Elgato Wave Mic arms
Guitar Mic Stand : Gator Frameworks short weighted base stand with boom
Mic Cables and Guitar Cables : Mogami/Neutrik
Mic pre : MOTU M2
DAW : Logic Pro 11.2 on MacBook Pro 16 running Sequoia 15.5
Plugins : No effects other than level matching/normalization unless a recording
specifically has reverb etc added in post (rare, various Waves plugins)
Monitors : Yamaha HS7s
Monitor Stands : Gator Frameworks Desktop Clamp-On Stands
Monitor Isolation Mounts : IsoAcoustics Iso-Puck Minis
Headphones : Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (main)
Headphones : Sony MDR-7506 (alternate)
Video Equipment :
A Camera : Sony FX-30
Lens : Sigma f2.8 18-50mm (A Cam)
B Camera : Apple iPhone 16 Pro
Tripod : SmallRig 71” with SmallRig Fluid Video Head
Streaming Mount : Elgato Master Mount S with SmallRig Ballhead
Bench Light : SmallRig RC 120D
Bench Light Diffusor : SmallRig Lantern Softbox
Bench C-Stands (light and overhead camera) : Neewer Pro SS Heavy Duty
Streaming Light : SmallRig RC 120B
Streaming Diffusor : SmallRig Parabolic Softbox
Streaming Light Mount : SmallRig 148CM Wall Mount Boom with Triangle Base
Various Other Lights : Neewer LED Panels with Neewer Softboxes
Video Software :
Davinci Resolve 20
Pixelmator Pro
Ecamm Live (streaming software)
What drives me crazy is these companies just put out anything as long as it looks the part. Fender keeos reissuing classic Amps and they sell them for a lot of money and they’re crap. So what happens is they have ruined the vintage market because if somebody is selling a vintage amp they have to put it up for more than the junk that Fender is selling. Not only do they ruin the whole market their selling to — They’re screwing up the Used market too. They are inflating the cost of vintage Amps when there’s plenty of them. Vox is doing the same. Only they are rarer. If they built something great and improved on what vox originally fell short on it would be great
what amp do you recommend for home use if you won’t ever be gigging out?
Thanks for this, not the best sounding amp. I hope you keep better soon and from Scotland I wish you and all of your subscribers a Happy Hogmanay.
There are quite a few reviews on the AC15 HW that are very positive. Look forward to hearing your comments on the AC15, but doesn’t sound like much hope of a positive outcome. I like mine a lot. Speedy recovery sir!
I hope they sound better than the new Hand Wired AC4. I played one and it just did not sound good.
Merry Christmas Lyle
Works as it should 🙂 Cool amp
Mmm. It’s fizzy in the distortion in a way that I don’t associate at all with vox sounds.
I wish Vox would reissue the Conqueror or the Defiant solid state models.
$1,500.00.
For this?
Atrocious.
But, yeah, they’ll sell a ton of ’em.
A fool and his money are soon parted.
If the amp is that bright with a greenback… gasp!
OMG…I just got what I thought of was a heck of a deal on one of the new AC15 Hand wired in this series. A reverb store sent me an offer for $1500 new with free shipping so I went for it. I pray it is better than this AC10. Thank you Lyle for your review. I was going off of the few reviews online of the ac15 hand-wired which sounded pretty good. I also saw good reviews on forums online also. I hope I just didn’t make a 1500.00 mistake!
See tomorrow’s video.
I think that the Mosfet in the AC10 is there to simulate the EF86 tube used in the originals (this kind of tube and mosfets actually act and sound pretty similar) but I don’t know why they didn’t use an actual EF86 instead (probably cost related). I have an AC15H1TV and an AC30H2L, both with an EF86 channel, and they sound fantastic without any particular problem: I heard horror stories about how microphonics these tubes are but mine work perfectly.
click on something once and jumping chicasole there it is in your feed again, my friend has the AC30HW2X with the Blue Alnico … the mystery in why amplifier manufacturers choose Alnico or Ceramic …. but environmental Mr. watch, using the left hand that is the hand that u should not be using to touch electronic components because it goes right to your heart… What ever the composite is lead free(tin) is good for the environment and say it … prone to cold solder joints … I was playing my friends VibroKing With the Gold Celetions, then the 64 Custom HW Deluxe Reverb … unless you have heard the difference you cannot tell the difference … so a solid state amplifier will sell as longs and there are people to buy then who are ignorant of the difference in the tone and performance …. once u get married and the honeymoon is over u adjust… but I will say this that some people will strip that machined screw by forgetting to reverse the direction when putting it in with their hands and feeling the thread line up before turning it in the right direction …
Thanks Lyle. Love the Channel. I have this Vox model and enjoy it very much. It sits in a nice little niche: better than the ‘normal’ 10 watt Vox (which you repaired and were not impressed about ;)) and probably on par or below the AC15 which was too big and loud for my need. It’s not a ‘serious’ amp for pros; but something clearly for someone like me who will never do anything with this amp other than use it at home.
For context:
1 – I use an iridium into a FRFR amp – it’s great but the sound doesn’t quite ‘feel’ like a ‘real’ amp. All modellers still feel like this to me. Neither better or worse, they just have their own sounds.
2 – I use a tone king imperial – which is head and shoulder above the Vox.
Agree with your review: the Vox is a little ‘tiny’ and it’s disappointingly noisy; which is worse when pedals are used. BUT even at that price (cheaper if you’re not in US); it’s still a solid choice. I considered other options – like a swart – but the price points then jump really quickly.
Curious about the 15 version though.
You said, “Just a pretty dress with nothing underneath,” as if that’s a bad thing. 🤣
Yeah, the analogy got away from me.
Thank you for making this video. You just saved me and many other people a loooooooot of money. Great stuff as always.
Wow, I just returned one of these an hour before seeing this video. Mine was also unacceptably noisy (to the point where I’d consider it defective). The Reverb also seemed like it could have been defective as well. I can’t imagine anyone being okay with what I was hearing. I packed it back up so quickly and happily plugged right back into my AC15C1. I was looking forward to shedding 15lbs in amp weight, but I think I’ll just hit the gym instead. I can’t wait to get my money back. Vox should recall these.
You have convinced me that the cost of these high dollar reissue amps is not even remotely justified. I guess we are at that “disposable” age in amps. As we all know, marketing never lives us to the hype. This channel has show they are not even trying to turn out a quality product. Thanks for the videos Sir!
i don’t like the way this amp sounds