Spark GO from Positive Grid pre-announced

[Lysander]

 

[paisleywookiee]

Some of their stuff is cool, but they’re on the edge of being another Neural DSP to me, with how they run their company. I spent SO MUCH money with them, and yet instead of fix problems with existing shit, they release more shit.

 

[dronerstone]

Meh, big time.

It's not that their stuff is all crap, but at this point it seems there'd be absolutely zero impact if they didn't exist anymore.

 

[sleewell]

Local band declares: big things coming!!!

 

[luckymethod]

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I'm not buying anything from them ever again. There's very little value considering the alternatives in the market, their stuff sounds worse than most and it's expensive cause everything is unlockable. Hard pass.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Bias Head says hello

 

[Fireproof]

I'm not buying anything from them ever again. There's very little value considering the alternatives in the market, their stuff sounds worse than most and it's expensive cause everything is unlockable. Hard pass.

I hate their kickstarter way of launching products…

 

[Foxmeister]

And there we have it...

 

[Lysander]

Interesting.

I may be tempted to grab one of these if they're cheap enough.

EDIT: "Preorders for the Positive Grid Spark GO begin at positivegrid.com in late March with a special price of $109 (MSRP will be $149)."

 

[Lysander]

PSA: Preorders are up now. "Starts shipping worldwide in late May"... in typical Positive Grid fashion

Then again, it sells for 99 EUR here in Europe. Couldn't really pass the offer by.

 

[Lysander]

So, i did preorder, paid 99 EUR... and my Spark Go was delivered today. Everything exactly as promised

I'll share some impressions after playing with it a while.

 

[Fireproof]

So, i did preorder, paid 99 EUR... and my Spark Go was delivered today. Everything exactly as promised

I'll share some impressions after playing with it a while.

Curious if it sounds better than my Blackstar Fly which is currently the arm of the couch casual jamming toy.

 

[dronerstone]

The more read, the more this actually seemed like a nice toy for 100 bucks, UNTIL... some reviews mentioned speaker farts from excessive bass frequencies.

Pass.

 

[Lysander]

Curious if it sounds better than my Blackstar Fly which is currently the arm of the couch casual jamming toy.

Why, funny you should ask! The Fly 3 has been my portable amp of choice for a while now.

Spent some time playing both side-to-side yesterday. tl;dr, i think the Spark GO sounds great for a battery powered practice amp. The Fly 3 sounds a bit bigger, like there's more actual air being moved, but it is also definitely boxier. Whereas the Spark Go is more like a finely tuned general purpose speaker, and can thus cover way more ground. One of the presets it ships with is Dual Recto-inspired, and it is remarkably convincing.

The Spark Go is also smaller, and feels very very solid. They packed a lot of things into a tiny volume, including a tweeter and a small full-range transducer. The Fly 3 has a more classic, single-speaker-in-a-cabinet approach, and it's bigger - but lighter without batteries.

Both can get quite loud. I haven't driven the Spark GO full volume, but i got it loud enough to annoy the wife next door, and i couldn't get the speakers to fart at all.

Feature wise, the Spark Go wins hands down. Even if you never care about using the app, the fact that it can recharge over USB-C, doubles as a Bluetooth speaker, and has a (not great, but serviceable) tuner makes it IMHO a much better portable solution than the Fly. The stock presets are quite good, and you can easily just get by with those. The USB audio/headphone out is also on a different league than the Fly; i'm not too fond of Positive Grid tones in general, but you could record these just fine. Effects are quite good though, and sound great through this amp.

Overall, i think it's a winner - at least for my use cases. And at a hundred bucks, it's a steal overall. I've already listed my Fly 3 for sale.

 

[Fireproof]

Why, funny you should ask! The Fly 3 has been my portable amp of choice for a while now.

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Spent some time playing both side-to-side yesterday. tl;dr, i think the Spark GO sounds great for a battery powered practice amp. The Fly 3 sounds a bit bigger, like there's more actual air being moved, but it is also definitely boxier. Whereas the Spark Go is more like a finely tuned general purpose speaker, and can thus cover way more ground. One of the presets it ships with is Dual Recto-inspired, and it is remarkably convincing.

The Spark Go is also smaller, and feels very very solid. They packed a lot of things into a tiny volume, including a tweeter and a small full-range transducer. The Fly 3 has a more classic, single-speaker-in-a-cabinet approach, and it's bigger - but lighter without batteries.

Both can get quite loud. I haven't driven the Spark GO full volume, but i got it loud enough to annoy the wife next door, and i couldn't get the speakers to fart at all.

Feature wise, the Spark Go wins hands down. Even if you never care about using the app, the fact that it can recharge over USB-C, doubles as a Bluetooth speaker, and has a (not great, but serviceable) tuner makes it IMHO a much better portable solution than the Fly. The stock presets are quite good, and you can easily just get by with those. The USB audio/headphone out is also on a different league than the Fly; i'm not too fond of Positive Grid tones in general, but you could record these just fine. Effects are quite good though, and sound great through this amp.

Overall, i think it's a winner - at least for my use cases. And at a hundred bucks, it's a steal overall. I've already listed my Fly 3 for sale.

That’s cool to hear!

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Tempted. This could easily replace my Nu-X Mighty Plug attached to the latent Aux input of a Bluetooth speaker as a travel rig. Flying out for the holiday season coming up. Disappointed to see that there basicly isn't a cab section? Probably a good thing as I went a little crazy with IRs in the MP.

 

[Lysander]

Tempted. This could easily replace my Nu-X Mighty Plug attached to the latent Aux input of a Bluetooth speaker as a travel rig. Flying out for the holiday season coming up.

I came this close to pulling the plug on a Nux Mighty Lite BT a couple months ago. It's essentially the same form factor as the Fly 3, but has multiple effects/amps, BT connectivity, drum machine, and the works. It can also be powered via USB; no rechargeable battery though.

Disappointed to see that there basicly isn't a cab section? Probably a good thing as I went a little crazy with IRs in the MP.

There is not. The cab cannot be modified, and it is paired to the amp for the preset.

In fact, the signal chain in the Spark Go is fixed:

Noise Gate -> Comp/Wah -> Drive -> Amp (and cab) -> Mod/EQ -> Delay -> Reverb

You can change enable/disable individual blocks, and modify their settings, but these cannot be shuffled around. Honestly, whichever cab they chose for every amp seems to work just fine in my experience. I'm also pretty sure this is how the Mighty Lite BT works as well.