Review: Randall RX15M Practice Guitar Amplifier

Aloha!

There is no shortage of modern practice amplifiers on the market for around $100, and pretty much all of them sound good and have a ton of features for the price. Randall has entered this market with what they call the RX15MBC, or the RX15M, as it says on the front of the amp. I had the chance to examine and try one out at this year’s Winter NAMM show, and it will pretty much get the job done. You know, this is the first time I have ever reviewed any Randall product on my blog…

The RX15M is a nice-looking piece of equipment, with black Tolex covering and macho black-chrome steel grille. It is super-portable, measuring around 13x13x8 inches, and weighing in at around 14 pounds; there is a beefy handle on top for toting it around. I have no idea what the cabinet is made of, but at this price I would assume MDF (and if it was solid wood Randall surely would include that in their literature).

Looking at the controls on the front, there is nothing for this segment except for it being equipped with dual channels. The clean channel gets a level control and the overdrive channel gets a gain control, a level control, and a boost switch. The two channels are switched by a button on the front (but no footswitch). The rest of the control include a 3-band EQ and a master volume control. There is not much to report other than a ¼-inch headphone jack and the illuminated power switch.

The back side of the RX15M is fairly barren, with the exception of Tape/CD RCA input jacks. Really – Tape and CD? “1985 called and they want to know why this amp has such an anachronistic label.” Jesus.

Performance-wise, this Randall puts out 15 watts into a 6.5-inch 8-Ohm“Jaguar-voiced” speaker. This combo does not get super loud, nor should it, and it is pretty much limited to bedroom use. That being said, it does sound really good, with a warm clean channel and an especially crunchy distortion channel. This is a metalhead teenaged kid’s dream, and it would be awesome for jamming out to Metallica while watching your brother play Call of Duty.

Randall describes the RX15M as “delightful,” which might be a tad ambitious. It is nice and seems well-built, and it sounds great which are all pluses in my book. Downsides are that there is no footswitch (or even a jack for one), RCA jacks are ridiculous choice for an auxiliary input, and there is no onboard signal processing. There is a lot of competition in the market at this price range, so if you are in the market you will need to compare features and decide if it is worth the $99.99 street price to pick one up. Maybe they will be on sale for Christmas like everything else at Guitar Center.

Mahalo!

Pyle PDMIC58 Budget Microphone Review

Aloha!

I got a box full of stuff to try out a while back and was kind of surprised to find a dead-on knock-off of the Shure 58 microphone. This dynamic microphone is made by Pyle: the PDMIC58. Get it? They used the same last two numbers to try to confuse you…

You may remember Pyle as the company that made those mediocre yet big, thumpy, and cheap car speakers back in the 1980s. Well, it turns out that nowadays they crank out mediocre yet amazingly low priced pro audio equipment that is generally good enough to get the job done.

Well, it sure looks like an SM58, as it has the same barrel shape and copies its distinctive head and grill. But when you pluck it out of the box, the first impression is that it is quite a bit lighter than its doppelganger. It is not plastic, but is some sort of lighter alloy than Shure uses.

Pyle gives some specs on their website, but god only knows if they are accurate: “Frequency Response: 50HZ to 15kHz” and “-54db (+/-) 3db(0db=1v/pa @ 1khz).” If any of you get around to doing in-depth testing on one of these, let me know.

Does it sound like an SM58? Actually, it is really close, and for an outdoor gig with a crummy band you will never notice a difference. They are definitely usable. These are amazingly cheap microphones, yet they get the job done and they do have a place in my kind of snobby world. See, Shure mics cost about $100 each, and many times it is not worth the risk of putting them out there for the unwashed masses to grab.

You’ve seen it before. The drunk lady tries the Roger Daltrey microphone swing during karaoke, or the best man fumbles the mic while making announcements, or the mic stand gets kicked over as young bands are hustling while loading or unloading during a festival or party. And do you need high fidelity for any of these gigs? Most likely not.

The list price on the Pyle PDMIC58 is a ho-hum $39.99, but these things sell all day long for 12 bucks on Amazon, which is pretty much an unbeatable deal. For this you get the microphone and a terrible quality 15-foot XLR to ¼-inch cable that you will end up throwing away after trying to use it once. No stand clip or carry bag is included. I recommend picking a couple of these microphones up for situations where you are not going to want to put your good stuff on the line. Let me know what you think!

Mahalo!

Pyle PDMIC78 Microphone Review: The 10 Dollar Wonder

Aloha!

I got a box full of stuff to try out a while back and was slightly taken aback by one of the items inside – a dead-on knock-off of the Shure 57 microphone. This dynamic microphone is made by Pyle: the PDMIC78. Get it? They changed the model numbers so you do not think they are trying to pass it off as a real SM57…

You may remember Pyle as the company that made those mediocre yet big, thumpy, and cheap car speakers back in the 1980s. Well, it turns out that nowadays they crank out mediocre yet amazingly low priced pro audio equipment that is generally good enough to get the job done.

Well, it sure looks like an SM57, as it has the same barrel shape and copies its distinctive head and grill. But when you pluck it out of the box, the first impression is that it is quite a bit lighter than its doppelganger. It is not plastic, but is some sort of lighter alloy than Shure uses. Another difference is that there is no transformer in this microphone, so that cuts down on the weight too.

Pyle gives some specs on their website, but god only knows if they are accurate: “Frequency Response: 50HZ to 15kHz” and “-54db (+/-) 3db(0db=1v/pa @ 1khz).” If any of you get around to doing in-depth testing on one of these, let me know. I can tell you that this thing is wired out of phase with Shure mics, so you will want to rewire this thing if you are running the real things on the stage at the same time. And while you are rewiring stuff, you might as well put some normal gauge wire in there, as they really cheaped out on the guts of these things.

Does it sound like an SM57? Not really, but it is actually not bad either. It has a little lower output (no transformer, remember?), and the sound is a bit more boomy on the low end and ringy on the top end. They scooped the crap out of these things as the midrange is a bit lacking. There is definitely a proximity effect with these , but it lessens predictably with distance. They are definitely usable.

These are amazingly cheap microphones, yet they get the job done and they do have a place in my kind of snobby world. See, Shure mics cost about $100 each, and many times it is not worth the risk of putting them out there for the unwashed masses to grab.

You’ve seen it before. The drunk lady tries the Roger Daltrey microphone swing during karaoke, or the best man fumbles the mic while making announcements, or the mic stand gets kicked over as young bands are hustling while loading or unloading during a festival or party. And do you need high fidelity for any of these gigs? Most likely not.

The list price on the Pyle PDMIC78 is a ho-hum $37.99, but these things sell all day long for 10 bucks on Amazon, which is pretty much an unbeatable deal. For this you get the microphone and a terrible quality 15-foot XLR to ¼-inch cable that you will end up throwing away after trying to use it once. No stand clip or carry bag is included. I recommend picking a couple of these microphones up for situations where you are not going to want to put your good stuff on the line. Let me know what you think!

Mahalo!