Attention! The accuracy of the information and the results of the ranking is subjective and is not an advertisement.
Top 5 home combo amps
Pros and cons of popular guitar kombik
Author: Stepan Kagner
For amateur musicians, the question “how to play at home” is always relevant. Playing through the sound card of a computer with an installed program like Guitar Rig is, of course, the easiest and cheapest option, but two problems arise here: first, “disturbing” high-quality sound becomes another task, and “secondly” it occurs when you try to turn on the guitar at the rehearsal point - all the errors of the game's technique, which the computer masked during processing, “crawl out” when playing through the amplifier. So, if the electric guitar for you has become a serious hobby, the acquisition of a good combo for the house will be the best solution.
On the merits and demerits of the best combo amps, read our review.
| Category | A place | Name | Rating | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top transistor combos | 1 | Yamaha GA-15II | 9.7 / 10 | 6 490 |
| 2 | Marshall MG10CF | 9.5 / 10 | 7 100 | |
| Top tube combos | 1 | Yerasov GTA-15 | 9.6 / 10 | 17 000 |
| Top Bass Amplifiers | 1 | Marshall MB15 | 9.6 / 10 | 15 600 |
| 2 | Behringer BT108 | 9.0 / 10 | 7 350 |
Top transistor combos
|
Yamaha GA-15II
6 490
Although for most people, the Yamaha brand has long been firmly associated with motorcycles, the history of the company's music division is much longer - not for nothing is not something depicted on the Yamaha emblem itself, but three crossed tuning forks. Based on the requirements laid down in the search (prevalence, affordability, flexibility of settings and overall quality), it is precisely the combo created by Yamaha that we will give first place in the ranking of the best of its category.
Judge for yourself: with its 15 W output power (watts are honest, not Chinese, so this will be more than enough for an apartment) this combo has a speaker with a diameter of 6.5 ", which can be considered the optimal combination: the amplitude-frequency characteristic of the speaker is quite suitable It transmits to the specific requirements of guitarists, clear sound (including the famous Fender’s “glass”) correctly and at the same time does not pollute the music during reloading. Overloading itself is more suited to light styles like garage punk. If desired, the three-band equalizer can be tuned to the truest raw black. Heavier styles will already require a certain amount of witchcraft with settings - yet overdrive here is more crunch than “meat”. The volume control on each of the two channels is separate. It is possible to connect the recording with lots of other instruments via the AUX-input, next to which there is a jack under the 3.5 mm headphone jack. Main advantages:
Minuses:
|
 9.7 / 10
Rating
Reviews
After the game “in line”, I realized how many shoals I actually have in the technique: the sound extraction is transmitted very clearly. |
|
Marshall MG10CF
7 100
For music of various genres (right up to hard rock) this combo will be a good choice: the integrated amplifier on the TDA2030A microcircuit “swings” the 6.5 ”speaker without side distortion up to the maximum volume (although talking about distortions applied to a guitar amplifier whose sound signal distortions caused by overloading of the terminal stage or its imitation are quite funny), the owner has two channels of pure (Clean) and overloaded (Overdrive) sound.
On both channels, the adjustments are separate: by selecting a clear sound channel, you can only adjust the overall volume with the Volume knob, and when you select the overdrive channel, you can adjust the degree of overload and sound volume. Frequency correction is available for both channels (single band EQ is controlled by the Contour knob).The overload channel is assembled according to the traditional scheme on operational amplifiers, “sand”, which is a known scourge of transistor circuits, is quite moderate here. Of course, for aggressive styles on low pitch, you will have to experiment with effect pedals: it’s impossible to give out a brutal sound to a 10-watt Marshall. Among the important details for a home game, we note the presence of two 3.5 mm audio jacks for connecting headphones and an external audio signal (a stereo signal is fed through a simple resistor adder directly to the terminal amplifier, there is no balance control). So you can always start a batch of drums from a player or laptop connected to a combo amplifier, and not experience the nerves of your neighbors playing with headphones. Main advantages:
Minuses:
|
 9.5 / 10
Rating
Reviews
Inexpensive price, loud brand, quite "tasty" sound. The best home or small base combo, I think. |
Top tube combos
|
Yerasov GTA-15
17 000
You can have different attitudes to products of the Penza company, but the fact remains: if you want to buy a good affordable combo amplifier, you can buy Yerasov ... or Yerasov - for this money, foreign brands will offer at best an amplifier with digital signal processing, a real "lamp" will cost much higher. So what does the manufacturer offer us? Finally, instead of domestic 6P14P, more reliable EL84 lamps appeared here (the sound became better or worse - let's not talk, bearing in mind the color and taste differentiation of the felt-tip pens), the maximum power of the tip is 15W. For a full-fledged lampovik installed in an apartment, this is not so little as it may seem: the division into “transistor watts” and “lamp watts” among guitarists is quite justified by the fact that at maximum power the tube amplifier begins to produce the same ™ sound, while the transistor, on the contrary, significantly loses in sound quality. Turning on the Yerasov GT-15 at full volume in an average apartment is worth it as a vengeance for the neighbors for the prolonged repair. An interesting offer from the manufacturer is the ability to choose the configuration when ordering on the official website: in addition to 6 colors of finish (the most "budget" is light brown, the rest will require a small surcharge), you can choose the type of speaker. In addition to the 10- or 12-inch Jensen, you can order a combo with a 10-inch Celestion Vintage or Eminence Legend. The difference in the sound of them is really noticeable, so configuring a more suitable amplifier for your style will be a good opportunity. Unfortunately, the line input is not implemented in the best way: when the jack is connected, the guitar preamp is turned off from the terminal amplifier on the 12AX7 lamp, on which the volume and tone controls also work. Of course, with certain knowledge in radio electronics, it is not difficult to add the ability to fully play the "minus" during the game, but still immediately go into the new combo with a soldering iron ... Main advantages:
Minuses:
|
 9.6 / 10
Rating
Reviews
This, of course, is far from Mesa Boogie, but still a real “lamp” - for such money and a new one. |
Top Bass Amplifiers
|
Marshall MB15
15 600
If, when choosing the best home combo for an electric guitar, we deliberately set the bar at a maximum price of 10 thousand rubles, since this price segment is most in demand by guitarists, then the bass players once again had to be discriminated slightly: alas, the bass sound will require a different body , and another speaker, so a 15-watt Marshall for bass will cost almost twice as much as a similar power combo of the same company, but for an electric guitar.
If we push aside the annoyingly cracking joke from an extensive cycle of jokes about bassists that the number of pens in the combo compensates for the lack of strings, then we can rejoice at the fine tuning of many parameters: in addition to the three-band equalizer, there is a compressor and a limiter, as well as two channels different sound (Modern and Classic) - the sound can be wound almost as your heart desires. By the standards of bassists, the speaker here is not the largest - only 8 inches. However, for home use this is more than enough, but it starts to distort the sound noticeably closer to the maximum volume. The presence in addition to the line-in and headphone outputs of a line-out (for a mixer, for example) is also a definite plus. Main advantages:
Minuses:
|
 9.6 / 10
Rating
Reviews
Quickly weaned the neighbors to listen to Verka Serduchka and drill the walls. Now you can play with headphones in good conscience. |
|
Behringer BT108
7 350
The radio lamp drawn on the faceplate of the combo should not be misleading: naturally, the device for this money can only be assembled on integrated circuits. However, the manufacturer has implemented a rather curious scheme, defined by him as Virtual Tube Circuit - imitation of the sound of a tube amplifier. Not the most successful (about the same can be screwed in some Amplitube, and this is not the best digital emulator), but not bad for one of the most inexpensive bass combo.
A four-band equalizer with two settings for mid frequencies is a good suggestion for a budget device. The sound can be set at will within fairly wide limits, but the speaker quickly reminds us that we are not “Marshall”: with the same 8 inches as the MB15, with the BT108 it starts to choke much earlier. But taking into account the difference in price, this is expected, and, in the end, the Behringer is a purely domestic apparatus, while Marshall will work well on the rehearsal base. Main advantages:
Minuses:
|
 9.0 / 10
Rating
Reviews
After the purchase, the device was terrified with a crash, but it was decided to use a banal re-laying the wiring inside. It would be better to have a speaker ... Although this is already a completely different money. |
Criteria for choosing the best combo
To embrace the immense in a limited volume of the article would not work out anyway, so we stopped at the most relevant category of combo amplifiers available to most novice guitarists. In the end, with a set of specific experience playing the instrument, you yourself can already give advice on which amplifier is better to buy - well, it’s foolish for a beginner to recommend a premium-class combo. Therefore, the following conditional categories were adopted for the sample: a transistor amplifier for an electric guitar no more than 10 thousand rubles, with lamp technology and bass combo, we tried to fit the budget to 18-20 thousand.
The author strongly recommends that you take a soldering iron in your hands and replace all operational amplifiers in the combi of this class with OPA2134. With a very budgetary investment you can improve the sound of an order.
And, of course, the opinion about the sound of each amplifier is, first of all, the opinion of the author of the article. It is quite possible that you will like a completely different sound - so the last adviser will always be your own ears.
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Updated: 04.10.2017
Rating in categories:
