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There is little doubt that the VTX150 Pro Neodynium is the finest Valvetronix amp ever created by Vox. For those that love the amp but prefer the strength and durability of a 13 ply baltic plywood enclosure and long for the traditional 1960's Vox cosmetics, North Coast Music offers the Vox VTX150 Limited Edition amp. The traditonally styled, 13 ply baltic birch enclosure is hand crafted in the wood works at North Coast Music.
North Coast Music removes the chassis and 12" neodynium speaker from a stock VTX150 and installs both into the new hand crafted cabinet. The manufacturer's warranty is not affected by this modification.
The Original Vox Valve Reactor Power Amp
The original Vox Valve Reactor power amp has its origins in the Japanese keyboard design laboratory of Korg in the late 1980s. An electronic engineer at Korg started the development of a new hybrid power amp design. His concept was to develop a one watt power tube circuit to be used as the "driver" for a high powered solid state output stage. While this was a unique concept, it was shelved after some development. It just didn't sound right.
Many years later, this original hybrid amp circuit was shown to an amplifier engineer at Vox. After some revisions and circuit redesign, the Vox Valve Reactor power amp circuit was born.
The heart of the original Valvetronix Valve Reactor power amp circuit was a 12AX7 "twin triode" tube. The 12AX7 has two complete amplification or "triode" circuits inside it's glass envelope. Ordinarily, these "twin triode" amplification circuits are used in series, or cascaded, in the gain stages of the preamp of a guitar amp. One would normally not expect to find a 12AX7 as part of an output amp. However, this is exactly how the 12AX7 was used in the original Valvetronix Valve Reactor power amp circuit.
Stated simply, the Valvetronix "Valve Reactor" circuit converts what would normally be a preamp tube to a one watt tube power amp. The one watt output from this small tube power amp was then directed through a small output transformer and then into a completely transparent, high powered solid state amp to boost the RMS output to the speakers to performance levels. This unique and patented hybrid power amp stage offered true tube tone without all the weight and cost of a complete tube output stage.
The Valvetronix Pro Valve Reactor Power Amp
Much of the tone of the original Vox AC-15 and AC-30 combo amps was created by the use of EL84 power tubes in the output amp stage using a "Class A" self biased, no negative feedback circuit. This electronic jargon may sound complicated, but you don't need to be an engineer to hear how the EL84 affected the tone of the amp. Vox amps using EL84 power tubes were bright and chimey and would break into a very smooth and harmonic distortion when overdriven. Just listen to any of the early Beatle recordings to hear this tone.
The VTX150 Valvetronix Pro Neodynium improves and updates the original Vox Valve Reactor power amp circuit by replacing the 12AX7 tube with an EL84, the same tube used in the output stage of all of the legendary 60's Vox combo amps. This EL84 based Valve Reactor is coupled to a 150 watt RMS solid state power amp, offering an unparalled power reserve for an amp in this size and price range.
Expanded Control and Effects Features
The VTX150 Valvetronix Pro amplifier features 132 voiced presets. It also offers an additional 44 song presets that offer spot on recreations of guitar tones on classic rock recordings. Also offered are 44 amp models, 11 foot pedal effects, 11 modulation effects, and three types of reverb.
External Control
A Vox VFS5 foot switch may be used to control many of the features of the VTX150. Vox also offers the VC12SV floor controller which virtually puts the entire VTX150 control panel at your feet. The VC12SV also offers additional sound storage and patches for the VTX150.
Specifications:
Dimensions: (W x D x H): 19 x 19 x 10.24 inches
Weight: 32 lbs.
Options (sold separately): VOX VC-12SV, VOX VFS5
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