Recommendations for Good Sounding Quiet Amps

I purchased a NexTone Artist last year on a whim. I like playing with the editor. You can make the amp sag like an old tube amp with a tube rectifier and weak power supply caps with the editor. It is a lot of fun.
 
I love my Katana 50, same reasons as mentioned above. There's lots of available patches and downloads even for a lamebrain like me. The 3 power modes can be super useful for solo play when quiet is needed and you don't want to wear phones but still want the amp, and the acoustic channel is a really nice touch. I have to agree about the crunch channel offering more pleasing sounds. The built in effects did confound me for a bit when I first got it until I got more used to them. But it certainly also has enough punch to gig with. Have no way to compare it with a Kemper since I haven't played through one.
 
I think modelers do much better at very low volumes. They don't depend on pushed tubes, speakers moving air, or speakers breaking up, for their tones, so they sound better at very low volumes than a tube amp.

But if you want a really small amp for very low volume playing, there are plenty of choices. I like to joke that my Roland Micro Cube has more gigs on it than every other amp I've ever owned put together. Reason being, I had a weekly gig for around 3 years, that was with an un-mic'd acoustic guitar and vocalist, and sometimes banjo/mandolin and sometimes bass. That gig was as low as 5 people, as many as 30, but usually 10-15. With an un-mic'd singer and acoustic guitar it was plenty loud enough.

That said, I also have a Fender Micro Mustang and it sounds better. It took some tweaking with the computer editor because the effects are overdone big time, but it sounds pretty good now at volumes from quiet talking through loud TV. Very small and light. I carry it in a backpack.

The Micro-Cube wins on batteries. I've never tried the fender because it only lasts 4-6 hours on big batteries (C or D) and the Micro Cube lasts over 20 hours on 6 rechargable AA's. Hard to beat that. When I couldn't plug in, we were playing an hour or a little over every week and I was charging once a month. And the Micro Cube sounds pretty decent. It definitely gets boomy when turned up, but that was easily cured with an old sock in the front port. :) But after my last run through with the computer editor setting the effects and gain levels and all, the Fender sounds better and has many more tones.
 
I use a Yamaha THR-5. Great quiet practice tones, very dynamic overdrive, and it doubles as a good sounding boombox with a headphone cable from my phone. Runs on batteries as well.
 
How do the built-in effects on the Boss Katana compare with their pedals? Is it just as good, exactly like their pedals or isn't it? Would it be redundant to use a Boss Pedal with the Katana amp or can I get away with not using Boss pedals? I have an OS-2 and an ML-2.
 
How do the built-in effects on the Boss Katana compare with their pedals? Is it just as good, exactly like their pedals or isn't it? Would it be redundant to use a Boss Pedal with the Katana amp or can I get away with not using Boss pedals? I have an OS-2 and an ML-2.
They’re quite good. I basically just use the Kat and the GA-FC foot switch.
 
Chester, I just listened to the demo. This is a great sounding option! It would be very hard to pick between this an something like Suhr's PT 15, except that the Laney is HALF the price!! Of course, I'd want to play both to know for sure, but...yeah. Very nice indeed.

My old band mate used a Laney Valve combo (50 watt). A beautiful amp, too loud for me, but he used to make it sing!
 
Oddball recommendation here… load box/IR loader like the Torpedo Captor X or similar, and a set of decent monitors. You’ll be able to use any tube amp you want, crank it up for the goods, and get plenty of other uses out of it as well.
Nothing oddball about this, it’s a wise choice! I think it is always a very common-sense move to purchase something that 1) allows you to use what you have, 2) incorporates future gear as well, 3) works for multiple purposes.

But, to the specific OP, I have a friend who is very high on the Yamaha THR series amps and uses one all the time for quiet playing and practice. On modelers, I’m a Fractal Audio Systems user, and have been gigging their gear for a decade or more… spectacular stuff, but nothing at under 4 times the price you’re seeking. Lots of good suggestions here already, but don’t gloss over the suggestion made by @andy474x , as you may get the most bang for the buck right there!
 
Chester, I just listened to the demo. This is a great sounding option! It would be very hard to pick between this an something like Suhr's PT 15, except that the Laney is HALF the price!! Of course, I'd want to play both to know for sure, but...yeah. Very nice indeed.

Yep .. they are popular here, great value, and particularly useful for studio work. Quite underrated. Not sure how available they are to you guys in the US, but certainly worth checking out. And made in the UK again :D
 
Yep .. they are popular here, great value, and particularly useful for studio work. Quite underrated. Not sure how available they are to you guys in the US, but certainly worth checking out. And made in the UK again :D

My son worked with the producer Flood on a project, and got the chance to hear the Audio Kitchen Little Chopper, a 7 Watt, UK-made studio amp. I'm told it's fantastic sounding, and the demos of the amp do sound great. It's expensive, but seems like it's the real deal.

I'm still that guy who puts a microphone in front of a speaker cab to record, and likes the tone of amps with bigger iron. But I'd happily check out any one of these smaller amps, because...why wouldn't I?
 
I think the Katana is a great beginner amp and it's great for people who like effects ... but it's not great for people who want easy-to-dial in organic-sounding edge-of-breakup tube tones.

I might recommend, instead, the Vox AV30. It's essentially a 1-watt tube amp connected to a 29-watt solid state amp, with a variety of analog modeling circuits creating different gain structures. It does a very good job of getting edge-of-breakup sounds, and it's easy to dial everything in - although it takes a second to get comfortable with the fact that is has three volume knobs - a gain, a volume (which is the tube power amp volume) and a power level (which is the SS amp volume).

I get volumes that play well with a friend on an acoustic guitar, AND I get loud enough to jam with a drummer out of this amp.

The Katana's effects are WAY better. The Vox doesn't have an app, and only has a reverb, delay, and a modulator (and the delay and mod are not great). But for a quick-and-easy dial-it-in-and-play amp with good edge-of-breakup tones, no digital artifacts, and a wide volume range, I think it's great.
 
My son worked with the producer Flood on a project, and got the chance to hear the Audio Kitchen Little Chopper, a 7 Watt, UK-made studio amp. I'm told it's fantastic sounding, and the demos of the amp do sound great. It's expensive, but seems like it's the real deal.

I'm still that guy who puts a microphone in front of a speaker cab to record, and likes the tone of amps with bigger iron. But I'd happily check out any one of these smaller amps, because...why wouldn't I?

:D:D:cool: .. same here. I needed a low wattage combo for messing around with outside the studio, and landed a Bad Cat Cub IV HW 15W. Very pleased with it. I've owned LOUD Matchless and Bad Cats before now, but these K Master circuits are truely excellent at taming big iron. Keeps tone integrity "intact" at lower volumes using wizzardry I don't understand, but as ever, they sound best pushed
 
:D:D:cool: .. same here. I needed a low wattage combo for messing around with outside the studio, and landed a Bad Cat Cub IV HW 15W. Very pleased with it. I've owned LOUD Matchless and Bad Cats before now, but these K Master circuits are truely excellent at taming big iron. Keeps tone integrity "intact" at lower volumes using wizzardry I don't understand, but as ever, they sound best pushed

I'm a big fan of Bad Cat and Matchless amps. One I had was an early Hot Cat 30. Man, it sounded great. And yeah, LOUD!

Yet another piece of gear I wish I still had. The story of my life! :rolleyes:
 
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