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MGR/Dave « Zoom A2 »
Published on 05/07/09 at 15:00The product is a multi-fx stomp box--replacing the old 504 unit in the product line-up. it has a footprint of about 9" x 9". It has four rotary knobs, 5 solenoid (soft-touch) buttons and two heavy contact foot switches for scrolling between patches.
The construction appears to be some type of anodized aluminum with a green finish.
I have been playing guitar for almost forty years. While I gigged some in my high school and college days 30-35 years ago, since then my playing has been more limited to special music at church and musical programs in nursing homes.
I purchased this from Sweetwater Sound to replace a Digitech multi-FX unit I was less than pleased with. I paid $100 for it. In shopping, I compared it with previous units I had owned from DigiTech, Alesis, and DOD. I also field compared it to similar units from Line 6, Behringer, and Boss.
First off, this unit is very easy to use in terms of editing and storing user patches. As with any Multi-FX unit, you will have to have some idea of what sounds you want to have stored. All in all, I had created 20 user-edited patches in about an hour.
A second major plus is that this unit has the capability of 6-band EQ. The best the other manufacturers can offer in this price range is 4-band EQ.
The sound is virtually noise-free. While it comes with a Noise reduction component, I have not noticed as much noise compared to Alesis and DigiTech units, which produce a lot of hiss.
The unit can be powered by either battery (4-AA cells) or AC. By using rechargeable L-Ion batteries, there is no need to be tied to a wall wart with the wimpy spaghetti cord again.
Finally, Zoom builds their units with an on/off switch--something only Boss does.
The negatives on this are relatively minor:
The first negative is that it has a single 1/4" TRS (stereo) output -- dual (L/R) 1/4" TS outputs would be better.
A second negative is that Zoom arranged the FX so that the reverse delay and tape echo FX are located in the Modulation FX cluster with phaser, flanger, chorus and tremolo instead of being located with the delay/reverb cluster. It would be better to move reverse delay and echo functions to the delay/reverb cluster so that they can be used in conjunction with the phase/flange/chorus FX (for some of those Beatlesque mid-60s psychedelic FX)
The construction appears to be very sturdy.
Except for the battery compartment cover, the top, back and bottom appear to be made of some type of anodized metal (probably aluminum. The sides appear to have some sort of rubberized coating on them.
The knobs for adjusting the settings/parameters are very sturdy as well.
The 1/4" inputs and outputs are anchored to the casing with reinforcing collars instead of being anchored internally to the circuit board.
The footswitches are heavy contact switches (like on MXR stomp boxes).
This has many other features I didn't examine because I don't use them--such as acoustic guitar modeling (11 different models). For what it offers that I do use, it was worth cost.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
The construction appears to be some type of anodized aluminum with a green finish.
I have been playing guitar for almost forty years. While I gigged some in my high school and college days 30-35 years ago, since then my playing has been more limited to special music at church and musical programs in nursing homes.
I purchased this from Sweetwater Sound to replace a Digitech multi-FX unit I was less than pleased with. I paid $100 for it. In shopping, I compared it with previous units I had owned from DigiTech, Alesis, and DOD. I also field compared it to similar units from Line 6, Behringer, and Boss.
First off, this unit is very easy to use in terms of editing and storing user patches. As with any Multi-FX unit, you will have to have some idea of what sounds you want to have stored. All in all, I had created 20 user-edited patches in about an hour.
A second major plus is that this unit has the capability of 6-band EQ. The best the other manufacturers can offer in this price range is 4-band EQ.
The sound is virtually noise-free. While it comes with a Noise reduction component, I have not noticed as much noise compared to Alesis and DigiTech units, which produce a lot of hiss.
The unit can be powered by either battery (4-AA cells) or AC. By using rechargeable L-Ion batteries, there is no need to be tied to a wall wart with the wimpy spaghetti cord again.
Finally, Zoom builds their units with an on/off switch--something only Boss does.
The negatives on this are relatively minor:
The first negative is that it has a single 1/4" TRS (stereo) output -- dual (L/R) 1/4" TS outputs would be better.
A second negative is that Zoom arranged the FX so that the reverse delay and tape echo FX are located in the Modulation FX cluster with phaser, flanger, chorus and tremolo instead of being located with the delay/reverb cluster. It would be better to move reverse delay and echo functions to the delay/reverb cluster so that they can be used in conjunction with the phase/flange/chorus FX (for some of those Beatlesque mid-60s psychedelic FX)
The construction appears to be very sturdy.
Except for the battery compartment cover, the top, back and bottom appear to be made of some type of anodized metal (probably aluminum. The sides appear to have some sort of rubberized coating on them.
The knobs for adjusting the settings/parameters are very sturdy as well.
The 1/4" inputs and outputs are anchored to the casing with reinforcing collars instead of being anchored internally to the circuit board.
The footswitches are heavy contact switches (like on MXR stomp boxes).
This has many other features I didn't examine because I don't use them--such as acoustic guitar modeling (11 different models). For what it offers that I do use, it was worth cost.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com