navicator: VOX jams guitar amps into Audio-Technica headphones, dubs them Amphones (ears-on)

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

VOX jams guitar amps into Audio-Technica headphones, dubs them Amphones (ears-on)

VOX jams guitar amps into Audio-Technica headphones, dubs them Amphones (ears-on):

VOX jams 'guitar amps' into Audio Technica headphones, dubs them Amphones keep the shredding to your ears for $100

Guitarists and Bassists have many tools at their disposal for practicing fresh news licks without disturbing others around them. One of our favorites has been Vox's AmPlug -- a guitar amp-modeling dongle that plugs into your instrument's 1/4-inch jack, allowing you to connect headphones and an MP3 player to practive privately. Building upon the idea, Vox has worked with Audio-Technica to simply embed the AmPlug in a new line of headphones, dubbing them Amphones. The company quietly put the cans up on its site recently, and it's now officially ready to shout out load about them.
Guitarists can choose from AC-30 (British crunch), Lead (hi-gain) and Twin (clean) variants, and bassists can snag the Bass version, which is based on Vox's AC100. Just like the AmPlug, each Amphone features volume dials -- sadly, these don't go to 11 -- for setting gain, volume and tone, along with a fourth for a built-in effect (compression for the Bass and reverb with the AC30, for example). A duo of triple AAs to power the cans and, as you'd expect, the 'phones has a 3.5mm jack for hooking in external sources as well as a 1/4 adapter for its cable to plug into your axe. While these Vox-styled will be available in the US sometime in October for $100 a pop (double the cost of an AmPlug). Hungering for more already? We were able to give a pre-production version of the AC30 model a brief run, and you'll find our initial impressions after the break.

Gallery: Vox Amphones ears-on