Street price is right around $525.
Bob Gollihur's Micro 300 page states that EA has raised the MSRP from $695 to $795 as of June 1st. Consequently, Bob's price has increased from $529 to $596 w/ free shipping.
Anyway, on to more important things...
I had to work late tonight so I wasn't able to test mine out, but I will give you my initial impressions as I unpacked the boxes...
First, I can't emphasize enough that both the cabinet and the head are
tiny and light (very very light). Both the head and the backpack were packed in one shipping box while the Wizzy was in another. Upon opening the Micro/backpack box, I was treated to another box that the iAmp was in which was about 8.5"x11" (pretty small). But the real shocker was when I opened that box and found that the iAmp only took up half the space in that box! It really is a technological marvel... Even the Markbass LMII and Eden WTX-260 heads seem almost huge by comparison.
My first impression when I lifted the iAmp (serial# 10037) out of that box was... Wow, it feels like a toy! Now, don't take that the wrong way, it's just that it's so small and light, you can't possibly believe that this is a 325 watt amplifier. If I didn't know better, I would have thought it is just a preamp. The build seems solid enough but I am going to have to either velcro or find another way to anchor this baby to the cabinet so it doesn't get yanked off it's perch.
A few personal nits about the pots/knobs... There are no center detents on the pots
, and while the shafts aren't abnormally long, the knobs give the illusion of sticking out too far because the box itself is so diminutive. With this head being so light, I'd be afraid of what would happen to the pots if it got yanked off of the cabinet and took a nose dive onto a hard surface. On the plus side however the pots do feel solid and are silky smooth. The channel switching/mute push buttons confused me at first because they don't stay pushed in when you press them, but upon reading the manual I realized that they are really more electronic rather than mechanical as a footswitch can be used to affect both channel switching and mute.
The quality of the backpack is very impressive. It's a pretty heavy duty padded bag with two small side pockets (one for the head and one for cables, etc.) and a large red embroidered "EA" on the front. The interior of the bag is lined in red and is velvety to the touch. The zippers don't seem to be particulary heavy duty, but they don't feel chinzy either. There are plastic/rubber skids on the bottom of the bag and two shoulder straps for wearing it as a backpack as well as a top mounted strap handle for carrying with one hand.
I haven't unpacked the Wizzy yet, but I plan on getting some quality playing time with both tomorrow after work. I'm looking forward to doing a comparison with my GK-MB150E combo, as well as comparing it to my GK-1001RB/Schroeder-1212 rig.
Oh, I almost forgot... The package included a two foot 14ga Hosa Speakon to Speakon cable.
Stay tuned... More details to follow.
- Ugly.
