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Topic: New 50 Watt Battery Powered Amp- Roland |
Dave Sky
From:
Columbus, Ohio, USA
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Posted 13 May 2014 8:00 am |
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I have had or tried most all of the Roland battery powered amps. Finally, Roland has one with enough power, 50 watts on 8 AA batteries. I just bought the Roland Street Cube EX. This is NOT the 5 watt Street Cube.
TheCube EX:
50-watt with 2 x 8" LF drivers and 2 x 2" HF drivers
Perfect for amplifying electric guitar, acoustic-electric guitar, vocals, keyboards, and drum machines
Two mic/instrument inputs plus stereo line inputs gives you diverse connectivity options
Built-in tuner and COSM amplifier modeling
Reverb and 3-band EQ on each channel
This is a 4 channel amp with line out, acoustic guitar preamp and 3 settings for electric guitar. I use backing tracks with acoustic bass and this amp handles the lows well. This is the amp to have if you play on battery power. Amp even has a battery level gauge so you know how much juice is left. You can set the power to low, normal and max. This will replace taking two amps, my mobile cube and the micro cube bass rx to gigs.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CubeStEX/ |
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Stephen Cowell
From:
Round Rock, Texas, USA
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Posted 13 May 2014 10:08 am
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8AA's won't last long at 50W... but since it runs on 12V there are lots of options to extend the play time, up to and including using a car battery! Good news, I'll be checking this one out myself.
_________________
Too much junk to list... always getting more. |
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Dave Sky
From:
Columbus, Ohio, USA
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Posted 13 May 2014 1:38 pm
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| The manual has run time of 20 hours at low power and 5 hours at full power using rechargeable batteries. Most of my gigs are three hours so this will work for me. I will also carry a backup set of 8 batteries, too. |
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Earnest Bovine
From:
Los Angeles CA USA
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Posted 13 May 2014 3:52 pm
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Most AA rechargeables (NiMH) are rated at about 3 watt-hours. Maybe more if you are lucky. With 8 of them you have 24 Wh.
So 8 AAs can deliver 24/20=1.2 watts for 20 hours. That is low power indeed for a guitar amp.
Full power for 5 hours would be 24/5 = 4.8 watts. (ear protection recommended)
Methinks a truly high power cordless guitar amp is awaiting the perfection of dilithium crystal technology. |
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Stephen Cowell
From:
Round Rock, Texas, USA
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Posted 13 May 2014 6:02 pm
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The AC adapter is given as psb-12u... I couldn't find the specs on it at first glance. The amp is $500, so not for the faint of pocketbook.
P=EI so I=P/E.. at 100% efficiency you'd require 50/12 or 4.something amps... that's where the car battery (better, a marine deep-cycle battery) comes in. Really, using AA's in this thing would be laughable, I can see it chewing up D cells in no time.
Ah, I found it...
http://www.rolandus.com/assets/press_media_resources/ACAdapterGuide.pdf
13V, 4A. List $50.
I think I'll crack my XL40 open and see if it's got 12V capability!
_________________
Too much junk to list... always getting more. |
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Dave Sky
From:
Columbus, Ohio, USA
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Posted 31 May 2014 8:54 pm
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| Did an outdoor gig with the Street Cube EX. I was on the sidewalk of a 4 lane busy street (Main Street actually) not far from a food truck with a loud generator. My mobile cube/Bass Cube RX amp setup would not have cut it. The Street Cube RX was loud enough with my acoustic bass fueled backing tracks and Strat copy guitar. After two hours the battery gauge showed over half and I was playing at full power (50 watts) and at 2/3 volume on two channels. This is a specialty amp. If you need to play using battery power, this is the one. I play most of my gigs on battery power and I wish I could have had this years ago. It is light to carry as I walked 15 minutes from my house to the gig with the amp in one hand and the guitar in the other. The guitar settings, clean, crunch and lead are useful for my style of blues, jazz and latin. The 4 channels are more than enough for what I do. Line out is great for sending a signal to one of my other amps. Amp can be pole mounted, too. I played with the amp on the sidewalk and with the monitor style cabinet, the sound was projected up and could be heard easily. |
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Greg Moynihan
From:
Bremerton, Washington, USA
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Posted 5 Jun 2014 8:19 am
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I'm so excited for this amp. Wouldn't this amp have ruled back in high school? Better late than never. Mine is on the UPS truck and headed my way today. It was a fair bit of money to part with, but cutting-edge technology usually is.
I'm hoping it will shine for several applications for me -- bedroom practice, jams in the backyard, playing out at the farmers market, boombox at the drive-in movies, karaoke parties, small PA for events. Also, easy on the back! |
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Dave Sky
From:
Columbus, Ohio, USA
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Posted 5 Jun 2014 8:30 am
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Greg, It will do what you are wanting it to do. I will use it at farmer's markets, too.
I use it to practice. I play my iPod/iPad through it with my backing tracks that I put together in Garageband. I use latin jazz style of music and the two 8 inch woofers and two tweeters deliver a good sound. However it is pricey if you don"t need battery power and light weight. However, I do, so it is worth it to me. |
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Tom Wolverton
From:
Carpinteria, CA
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Posted 5 Jun 2014 8:44 am
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Are you running it with 8 AA dry cell batteries and it lasts for a 4-hour gig?
_________________
To write with a broken pencil is pointless. |
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Dave Sky
From:
Columbus, Ohio, USA
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Posted 5 Jun 2014 9:02 am
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I am running 8 rechargeable AA (2300MAh). After 2 hours at max power (There are 3 power settings) with guitar channel and iPod channel set at 7, the battery gauge showed half power left. However, when I got home, the gauge read full and has stayed at full for my practice sessions. I checked a battery with my tester and the battery had a good charge. So I think it would do a 4 hour gig at max power. If you practice at the low power setting, the amp is supposed to last 20 hours. Based on my experience with my 3 other Roland battery powered amps, I would say that Roland usually has the number rights.
I also carry 8 charged batteries, too. AND, I carry a set of 8 regular AA's just in case a backup battery losses a charge. But then again, I also carry extra cables, too.lol |
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Bruce Derr
From:
Lee, New Hampshire, USA
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Posted 5 Jun 2014 5:27 pm
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| The amp is capable of delivering 50 watts but doesn't do so continuously during normal use, so it's not as simple as calculating battery life from the battery's amp-hour rating as if it were just connected to a resistor load. I would think the amp's average power output is typically much less than 50 W even at the high setting, especially with a class D power amp, which I presume this amp employs. |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 9 Jun 2014 2:13 pm
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| Like Ernest, I think the 50w rating is mostly smoke and mirrors. That's probably "peak power", "maximum music power", or some other rating, and not true RMS...at least, for any length of time. Battery life would be highly dependent on the type of playing (programming) the amp is seeing, and the idle current. Single-note high stuff uses very little power, while fat chords and bass tones positively demand it. |
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Dave Sky
From:
Columbus, Ohio, USA
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Posted 9 Jun 2014 2:34 pm
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| I agree with everyone that this amp is not a true 50 watt or 25 watts a channel amp. I have tried the 30 watt, 15 watts a channel Roland 3 channel battery powered keyboard amp and it was not as loud as my battery powered Roland bass amp which is rated at 5 watts. What I am suggesting is that this amp is much better than any other battery powered amp I have tried or own. It will handle low notes of my backing tracks and my guitars sound great through it. I do not recommend it for anyone who does not need battery power. For the money, better, louder amps are available if you can plug into ac. The Fender Blues Junior 15 watt tube amp costs about the same money! If you HAVE to have battery power and you want the convenience of using AA batteries, this is a 16 pound amp is the way to go. And come to think about it, that has to be a small market! |
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Len Amaral
From:
Rehoboth,MA 02769
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Posted 15 Jul 2014 3:32 pm
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| I sold my boat and bought a Street Cube. Played guitar through it and am very impressed. Will try my lap and pedal steel with it tomorrow. Impressive for a light weight. Cool... |
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Tom Wolverton
From:
Carpinteria, CA
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Posted 15 Jul 2014 7:50 pm
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Len, please let us know how it works on batteries for steel. Very interested in your report.
_________________
To write with a broken pencil is pointless. |
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Len Amaral
From:
Rehoboth,MA 02769
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Posted 16 Jul 2014 8:22 am
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Hi Tom:
I'll see if I can do a short youtube demo with the pedal steel. Please realize that you will be hearing the recording from the camera mic. The street cube can also be mounted on a stand or lean back like a stage monitor. I'll give you my impression of the overall attributes of this amp.
Lenny |
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