Roland CUBE Street Battery Powered Stereo Guitar Combo Amp  

It's got some good features for such a small amp. The ability to do both vocals and guitar is outstanding considering the size of this little guy. Having separate channels for each is a nice touch. Perhaps the one thing I would have liked to have on this amp is an effects send/return loop.

Again, you cannot do better for the luxury of size and portability. I had read some complaints about the durability of this and similar amps, and was a little concerned. But, now having received the amp and played with it a bit, it appears to be fine. I would simply treat it with the same gentleness and care I would any of my guitars, and I suspect it will last a very long time.

Perhaps others are right, it seems expensive considering size, but have you priced any good effects pedals lately? I don't think it is overly priced considering what you get. Prior to seeing a friend play with one of these, my experience was with the old, small Pignose. This amp is a Pignose brought into the 21st century. The difference is night and day.

Overall, I am very satisfied with this amp. It is absolutely perfect for its intended use: decent volume, multiple input (voice, guitar, etc), and battery powered -- a street performer's dream come true.

Sound and features are all great, as usual for Roland.

Roland (almost) always does it right.

A touch expensive, but probably worth it.

The only problem is the control panel is upside down when  the unit is in front of or beside you pointing out toward the audience.  You can get used to it, but it would be so much easier for Roland to  simply flip it around.

Great tones.  Easy to use. Little pricey.  1st amp tone was too weak and thin but the other amp tones are great, esp the Black and Classic.  I've been playing professionally for over 40 years and bought the amp to take camping.  It fits that purpose very well.  Batteries worked well but I wish it also included an onboard rechargeable battery like the old Taxi amp did, for extended play.  But using extra batteries solves that.  I enjoyed it a lot.  The only real complaint was the volume level was much too low, even with both Volumes turned to max 10 and the EQs all set to max.  It is sorta loud when max out.  Good enough for the back of my jeep or truck with camper shell, so not a major major issue.  But for home practice or a large room etc, it is too soft on the Volume.  If you add Gain, it will get louder too but distorts.  Overall for a small portable it works quite well.  Afterall, it beats nothing when camping, unless you have a generator etc.  So all in all, not a bad little amp.

Great for portability and its use of small batteries (would have like an onboard rechargeable battery to supplement the small AAs - want both).  Tone excellent except for the first thin amp setting.  Overall Volume could have been louder but is doable when out in the woods.  I liked its ease of use.  Its tilt back was unexpected but good for getting its sound out to a larger area, so no stand really needed.  The old Crate Taxi amp was comparable.  It beats all the other smaller portable amps in tone, plus it has line and phones out, to allow silent play or to get extra volume through an external amp or mixer etc.  It is also a little larger in size and heavier than expected, but that's okay and probably had to occur to get all its features and tones in it.  I like the larger speaker it has, more like a real sounding amp, than the trebly tone all small ones had (micros).  I would recommend it for its use camping, at the beach etc or within a small music venue (esp if miked or line out etc).  No real regreats in buying it except the higher price.

I was at a music store when I first saw this lil thing. I asked one of the store guys to `demo' what this street cube amp could deliver. First, I got hooked with how cool it sounds on clean tone and got impressed when he added the stereo chorus fx, nice! Plus it has a mic input with tone eq and delay/reverb on it. Then I asked him if it could do metal type of tone amp thing and to my surprise, he was shredding metal licks throughout!

When I got home, I ordered one and was very happy when I got it. I also found out that the tuner works in manual or chromatic settings. Also, the amp works great on metal tunes if ur using EMGs.

For a practice amp, this cube street amp delivers!

Nice!

I visited a local music store in the Denver metro area in hopes of trying out a Roland CUBE 40XL.  However, the only Roland CUBE models the store had in stock were the small ones, the Roland Street CUBE being the largest.

The artwork on the box in which the Street CUBE is packaged suggests the unit is something of a toy.  I nonetheless assumed that, despite the small speakers, I could at least get an idea of the quality of EFX relative to the larger, more powerful 40-watt CUBE I was considering.  A salesman plugged in a lower end Strat for me to test out the unit.

Despite the GAIN and VOLUME controls being turned up, we he had to turn up the EQUALIZER settings before we could hear much of anything.  Once we did that, I was surprised at how much volume the thing could put out. I found the EFX to be quite decent, particularly the chorus.

After giving the guitar input a short test run, the salesman plug in a mic so I could hear what that sounded like.  Quite good actually.  The Delay on the voice did not sound particularly great, but the Reverb was fine.  I immediately found myself thinking this little unit would have been ideal for a large home fellowship meeting I attended just two weeks prior.  Lots of practicality, particularly in consideration of its specified weight of 11.5 lbs. (with batteries).

There would nonetheless be tradeoffs in going with a Street CUBE for at least the following reasons (cited by other reviewers):  1) controls situated on a slant make adjusting them awkward,

2) no stereo-balanced outputs, 3) minimal wattage and 6.5” speakers minimize headroom,

3) non-chromatic tuner requires positioning a knob for tuning each string and in standard tuning only, 4) the unit is overpriced.

An effects loop would be useful, as would a Tap Delay.  While I didn't hear anything in the way of 'bad digital artifacts' as one reviewer put it (though I wasn't in ideal testing conditions), I did hear, as another reviewer noted, a hum with the unit running via the AC Adaptor instead of AA batteries, albeit a hum with static that began only after testing out the mic input.  Neither I or the salesman could readily determine the source of the hum.

The Street CUBE is a great idea, but I concur with at least one other reviewer in that in light of the price, the model should be improved.  Even if it resulted in the amp weighing 10 more lbs., were Roland to seriously address the above-noted deficiencies without raising the price, the Street CUBE would be a tremendous little amp.

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The biggest tradeoff in wattage is the ability to run a relatively long  time on AA batteries, which are readibly obtainable and relatively  inexpensive.  This unit was obviously designed for use on the street as  its name implies.  Not overly laden with features but enough to help a  street musician be heard over ambient noise and without need for a power  outlet, a few effects to play with as well.  It's a great concept in  need of just a few improvements.