Some competition for the Boss Waza-Air-B...Positive Grid Spark NEO Wireless Guitar Headphone Amp

[jd56hawk]

The price is right, not sure about how good it sounds with a bass.

Hard time finding a bass video.

[songofthewind]

Colour me interested

[tauzero]

Couldn't find any reviews of it on bass on Youtube but did watch a comparison video, this versus the Boss. Boss wins out slightly on sound quality and VR gimmick, Spark NEO on comfort, the app, and the fact it uses USB-C not Micro-USB to charge. I would also point out that as the Boss has a TRS dongle (I assume that's for charging), that probably means that certain active basses will have issues with it - the ones that don't follow the convention of battery negative to ring, ground to sleeve.

[fretmeister]

I have the Boss ones and they are ace. Not had a problem with my active basses - they are all EMG so I suppose other types might.

The charging on the dongle is via Micro USB as well.

 

I got the guitar ones rather than bass just because I play both instruments and the guitar version can do a good enough bass sound with a clean amp, compressor and some EQ.

 

It does annoy me though that Boss decided to do different versions when the only difference is the firmware. Now that there is some competition I hope they change that. The Boss bass version has a drum machine which would be nice to have. Amazing that Boss decided that guitarists don't want to play with a drummer... eijits.

 

I use them a lot though, I practice far more now that I have them. My apprehension at spending that much on a practice tool went in about 5 mins.

 

 

[tauzero]

A bit more on the Positive Grid one, seeing as I've just got one.

 

So far (and this could be user error), it's completely and utterly useless. When I got it, I downloaded the Spark app onto my Android phone (Google Pixel 8 Pro) and initially paired the Neo. The Spark app recommended a firmware update, which I did via Windows (note: you can only do firmware upgrades with Windows or Mac) which was successful. I then tried to pair the Neo with a second Android device, a Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+, which was unsuccessful. I tried with another Android device, a Nokia T20, again unsuccessfully. I tried these pairings both with the Bluetooth on the phone turned on and turned off, which made no difference. Following Positive Grid's suggestion on their website, I went into settings on the phone and forgot the Neo Audio from the paired devices. I tried again on each of the tablets, also unsuccessfully, and was also unable to re-pair from the phone as it gives an error "incorrect PIN or passkey". I've tried doing the pairing both from within the Spark app and from the Android Bluetooth settings. So now, with no ability to connect via Bluetooth, it is completely useless to me.

 

I've put in a support request to Positive Grid.