Car Amplifier User Manual

Welcome to VOX
Many thanks for adding the VOX VR30 amplifier to your sonic arsenal. It was designed by our UK based VOX engineering
team and built by our state of the art, vertically integrated manufacturing facility and we’re sure it’ll give you countless
hours of great guitar tones that will feel as good as they sound! To insure a long and happy relationship with your amplifier,
please read this manual at least once, and (as they say), “use the product as directed.” Keep the manual for future
reference after you’ve read it.
WHAT IS VR?
The VR series of amplifiers are designed, as to what we
believe are the next generation of “hybrid” guitar amplifi-
ers.
What does HYBRID mean, you may ask? Well, basically
“hybrid” means that it utilizes a mixture of technologies —
in this case those technologies are Tube and Solid State.
The Preamp stages consist of discrete transistors for sound
generation, and integrated circuits (op-amps) to do signal
management that would not be done effectively with tran-
sistors alone — i.e. channel switching, etc.
The Power amp stage uses a 12AX7 vacuum tube (or valve,
depending where you live in the world) in a configuration
that we at VOX call Valve Reactor.
The patented Valve Reactor power amp technology is used
in all Valvetronix products. It was originally designed for
the award winning VOX Valvetronix modelling guitar ampli-
fier range, and now we have taken that same technology
and further revised it into the format that is built into your
VR30 amplifier.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
It basically works by having each half of the 12AX7 (the
12AX7 tube is actually two identical tubes in one glass tube
a.k.a. dual triode) and configuring it to work as a small tube
power amplifier. This circuit provides all the tonality and
feel of an all-tube power amp. Obviously this “small” power
amp would not be very loud if it was connected directly to a
loudspeaker — therefore the tube circuit is connected to a
larger, completely transparent solid-state power amplifier,
that is run very cleanly so that it does not add its own
colouration to the tube signal.
This power output amplifier also has some special circuits
that feed the loudspeaker impedance information back to
the tube power amplifier in order to give it the loose sound
& feel that an all-tube amp does.
SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
We think that the VOX VR amplifier range brings you su-
perb tone (vintage & modern) that includes the high har-
monic content and compression that goes all the way back
to the original VOX AC15 & 30 amplifiers that were created
more than 40 years ago, and are still revered to this day.