Mini Stacks: legitimate amps or gimmicks.
 

Acoustic came out with the new 260 mkii mini stack and Ampeg has the VR micro mini stack. Are these just fancy practice amps or legitimate amps to gig with? Any thoughts?

Don't know the Acoustic but I'd gig with the Ampeg. Great sounding little rig. It all depends o how much stage volume you need or the size of the rooms, etc.

Both of them sound very nice. Attached to a larger cab, you could gig with them. In fact, if they have xlr direct outs (I'm not sure if they do), you could probably gig them as is, if you had PA support.

Cute for the practice room, but the Ampeg would be too quiet for all but the smallest gigs.

Excuse my ignorance but with these being only 100W, if you attached it to a larger cab, wouldn't you still be putting out 100W, that constant doesn't change (does it)?

You'd still be delivering 100W to the cabs but more of those watts will be converted into sound and fewer of them into heat. Same power + higher efficiency = more volume.

More speaker surface area = louder

Fixed that for you.

Exactly. Novelty items. Why carry 2 pieces when a nice, louder, lighter combo is easily accessible?

I cranked the Ampeg - it is rated 100w but I doubt you can squeeze that out of it and it stinks for 5 string. They should at least use decent drivers.

Haven't heard/played the Acoustic but have no reason to believe it would be any different if not worse.

The Ampeg micro VR is 200w @4ohm. Definitely giggable in many situations, even though we all know what Ampeg watts really mean. It does have an XLR out, too. The micro CL, the mini svt-looking stack is the 100w one, and it is more a practice amp. I guess you could call them novelties, but they do a great job of capturing the tone of the big fridges.

I'm reminded of the Stonehenge scene in Spinal Tap.

If you're playing in a metal band without PA support, then they are a gimmick.

OTOH, if you're playing in a jazz trio or with good PA support, then they're a legitimate option. Of course there are varying degrees in between these examples. YMMV.

I love my Acoustic 260 as a bedroom practice amp. It sounds pretty good when I'm practicing by myself.

I hate when I have to use it on coffeehouse style gigs or private parties. If our drummer uses hot rods, the thing is actually plenty loud enough. What I dislike is that I can only get deep lows from the cab. I cut bass, boost treble and mids and it's still all deep bass as soon as I use it in a band setting. I imagine it's because of the cabs strange design- a single 10" in a ported box that could fit two 10's.

I haven't played the Ampeg micro stacks but I have to say i was very impressed with it when I saw a band gigging one a while back.

I have ampeg micro cl for practise, yes it is better than combos i have use. Good sounding and looking litle amp.. me like !!

Ask JimmyM how many people he's played to using microVR stack.

With everything else being completely equal, a 15" speaker would be louder than a 10" speaker, right?

You know, one of the items in the Micro VR's feature/spec list actually reads "Much smaller than Stonehenge". I have to say it made me feel really good about clicking the "buy now" button.

I own and gig my micro vr. 150 watts at 8 ohms (the 1 matching 210 cab) is pretty good volume. It also has an xlr out. It's light, toneful, and it looks good :)

I wouldn't gig the acoustic micro- te ones I've seen are 100 watts and have 1x10.

EDIT: mine keeps up with one guitar and a dynamic drummer indoors, and for loud outdoor gigs I've seen them pushed through big cabs- even an 8x10 fridge (I haven't tried that, so ymmv)

Ampeg is generally very honest about their wattage ratings.

The ampeg is 150 at 8 ohms, 200 at 4.