The Vox Amplug V2 Bass Headphone Amplifier REVIEW

HarveyRobertson

HarveyRobertson

Lowdown Showdown
Apr 3, 2018
458
694
4,831
Benton Kentucky
#1
Purchased the Vox Amplug V2 Bass Headphone Amplifier yesterday and didn’t get a chance to use it till this morning.

Wow! This little guy has a cool swivel plug with detents to fit most basses.super simple to use too. Has a volume and tone control.

3 gain settings. A vintage low output, a standard output and a hot output (no distortion) just a really hard hitting and very strong setting. Has some very light built in compression.

Really cool built in drummer with a small variety of samples that you can control the tempo of. Has an auxiliary in (pink wire you see in my picture) I just plugged my desktop into the Vox, jammed away to my favorite somgs at 5am this morning while my wife slept ;)

Honestly tho it sounds good! A very nice design but the plastic feels cheap and the plug feel cheap but if you’re like me and treat all your stuff as if it is high end gear (very gently) it dhould last long enough to justify buying another if it breaks.

B7E1B164-2D17-45F1-9258-35C5EB54B2A9.jpeg
 
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#4
HarveyRobertson said:
Purchased the Vox Amplug V2 Bass Headphone Amplifier yesterday and didn’t get a chance to use it till this morning.

Wow! This little guy has a cool swivel plug with detents to fit most basses.super simple to use too. Has a volume and tone control.

3 gain settings. A vintage low output, a standard output and a hot output (no distortion) just a really hard hitting and very strong setting. Has some very light built in compression.

Really cool built in drummer with a small variety of samples that you can control the tempo of. Has an auxiliary in (pink wire you see in my picture) I just plugged my desktop into the Vox, jammed away to my favorite somgs at 5am this morning while my wife slept ;)

Honestly tho it sounds good! A very nice design but the plastic feels cheap and the plug feel cheap but if you’re like me and treat all your stuff as if it is high end gear (very gently) it dhould last long enough to justify buying another if it breaks.

View attachment 3087407
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Thanks for the review; if there’s no distortion that would be a big improvement over the one I have, which I suppose is v1.
 
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#5
cavemanbass said:
Thanks for the review; if there’s no distortion that would be a big improvement over the one I have, which I suppose is v1.
Click to expand...

Well, I even tried to get mine to distort just to see if that was possible. I played my Michael Kelly Element 5 and my Ibanez TMB300 (which has hot pups and pre) no distortion, just clear clean tone. Keep in mind that I’m using a pair of high end headphones with 50mm. Drivers. I dont know if that makes a difference or not ?
 
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#6
I was not super impressed with any of these plug-in units due to hiss, lousy dynamics, and just generally poor sound quality. I thought headphone impedance might have been the issue with my Sony VR's but this was not the case.
Does it sound as good as plugging a bass into a quality mixer and monitoring throught the headphone jack?
 
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#7
Jim C said:
I was not super impressed with any of these plug-in units due to hiss, lousy dynamics, and just generally poor sound quality. I thought headphone impedance might have been the issue with my Sony VR's but this was not the case.
Does it sound as good as plugging a bass into a quality mixer and monitoring throught the headphone jack?
Click to expand...

Personally I think it sounds every but as good as plugging it into a mixer. There is no hiss or artifacts coming out of this one. The sound is slightly compressed, but not squelched. I looked up a few videos on youtube and the vids were spot on with the sound. Keep in mind that it is not some kind of tone monster. You’re not going to get a studio quality sound out of it. Whatever you put i to it, you should get back out. It’s a headphone amp. A tool to allow you to play without bothering anyone. I was using a Zoom B3n as a practice amp w phones. But this sounds better, louder, and with the built in drums w tempo control it’s great.. like I said, no hiss, no dropping out when feeding music through the aux. since this morning I’ve put about 3 hrs on it and no issues. Check out some videos.
 
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#8
Thanks for the video link. The drum machine / metronome sounds decent and makes tons of sense for practicing.
I had the big dog SWR headphone amp and the tone was OK and the hiss was managable.
Many hear liked it but not so much for me.
The Tascam CD thingy was also not good for me.
 
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#10
Been using my AmpliTube for a couple years now. Works great. I thought I had left it at a gig last night, but found it in my briefcase this morning. Whew. It’s been really handy for me since I live in a @28 ft. RV and space is at a premium. Great for learning songs on breaks for “special guests”!
 
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#11
If anyone is ever looking for the manual for the Vox Amplug V2 Bass manual in English...

If you need one of the other languages, drop me a line.
 

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#14
HarveyRobertson said:
Purchased the Vox Amplug V2 Bass Headphone Amplifier yesterday and didn’t get a chance to use it till this morning.

Wow! This little guy has a cool swivel plug with detents to fit most basses.super simple to use too. Has a volume and tone control.

3 gain settings. A vintage low output, a standard output and a hot output (no distortion) just a really hard hitting and very strong setting. Has some very light built in compression.

Really cool built in drummer with a small variety of samples that you can control the tempo of. Has an auxiliary in (pink wire you see in my picture) I just plugged my desktop into the Vox, jammed away to my favorite somgs at 5am this morning while my wife slept ;)

Honestly tho it sounds good! A very nice design but the plastic feels cheap and the plug feel cheap but if you’re like me and treat all your stuff as if it is high end gear (very gently) it dhould last long enough to justify buying another if it breaks.

View attachment 3087407
Click to expand...


I just received mine after sending back the Blackstar Amplug2 (it was cheap and the volume controls crackled). I had the first VOX and always loved the tone. I STILL LOVED the tone, but this is a let down sadly. It cannot handle an active five string at all, its farting like mad. I adjust the bass and tone on the bass and dial down the volume, using high quality Shure SRH 440 headphones - it just fails

I am confident it will be great for a passive four string bass however but that’s not what I bought it for. Bummed
Spector Euro Five LX- Aguilar pickups
Share SRH440 headphones
 
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