Amazon.com.au is having a sale on these now.
$278 posted- I pulled the trigger and now just have to wait
Positive Grid Spark NEO Wireless Guitar Headphone Amp & AI-Powered Guitar Rig with Custom Audio Drivers, Noise-Isolation, Bluetooth Streaming & Smart App for Electric, Acoustic and Bass Guitar : Amazon.com.au: Electronics
$70 off normal retail, just enough for me to open the wallet
Well, it arrived today, just have to wait 5 hours until I get home to look at it.
Jumping in with my experience:
I picked these up at Guitar Center after receiving a 15% of coupon code via email. They were $179ish out the door. I should note that I also recently bought the Spark 2 as a practice amp but was thinking wireless would be great to have. I bought the Neo to compare and the plan was to return whichever I liked less. The wireless function is amazing. Having just the dongle hanging out of the guitar and headphones is fantastic! That said, I have a big head. These were too tight even at the biggest setting. I think for short sessions theyâd be doable. But a 1 hr session (going through the B2B course 30 day) was too much.
The other thing I found annoying was how quiet they were compared to headphones directly connected to the Spark 2. Even after disabling the âhearing protectionâ function in the app, it was still weirdly quiet to me. And I found it much harder to find a good balance between lesson audio vs my bass volume. Where as on the Spark 2, I have two physical knobs, one for âMusicâ (tuning so I can hear Joshâs voice and playing) and âGuitarâ (so I can hear myself fumbling). There might be someway to do it within the Spark app itself, but that seems inconvenient since Iâm taking the class through a web browser and would need to toggle back and forth between it and the app to get the levels right.
For now Iâm using the Spark 2 with headphones. Not as convenient, but the Bose QC are far more comfortable (albeit not the best for bass).
Iâd say if these caveats donât disqualify the Neo for you (average sized melon and youâre just jamming rather than taking some lessons) they are fantastic. Very cool tech overall. But I returned them and will stick with the Spark 2.
I might expand this later-I am getting ready for work right now.
Iâve been using mine for a couple of days now, ironically more for guitar than bass.
So far no issues and I am even using it preferentially over my usual Zoom,amp and laptop setup (possibly because I was working from home yesterday and sick of being in that room).
My head is medium (57 hat size) and I have no problems with the earphones, they are snug and secure but not tight.
Connectivity is good, I did have trouble at one stage connecting the phone but I think that was a ID.10T error and I got it sorted.
Sound is really good (I even had my daughter using it on the keyboard last nite), I have no problem with the volume, I tend to like things loud and need to monitor how much I turn them up with headphones.
Sound clarity is great too and no latency.
The presets are mostly a bit crunchy and distorted but I am sure some regard that as a feature, when I have clean or âacousticâ presets they are wonderfully crystaly clear.
I do need to give the bass a run through it as I have been doing a bit of guitar recently for, er ,reasons.
The AI feature is interesting, I have only briefly played with it; essentially you tell it what you want and it gives pedalboard suggestions. This is what I used to get an acoustic preset which sounds pretty much like an acoustic guitar.
I havenât used the play-alongs as I am not really that good on guitar yet
The only minor downside is that I canât use the Spark app on the laptop to control settings but that is really minor and not really what it is designed for.
I was running the app on my phone and simultaneously using either YouTube or doing lessons with no dramas.
For a tight bastard like myself I think this was a great buy.
For those interested I also lashed out and got a case from Amazon which fits perfectly:
A bump of a topic from February(!) Did the Spark NEO work OK with your active pre-amp basses? I only understand enough in my short time owning a bass to know that my active bass needs to be disconnected from my on-the-floor amp when not in use in order to not drain the batteries in the bassâŚbeyond that - /shrug emoji
Not clear to me if playing a bass with an active pre-amp not wired to a âtraditionalâ amp is a problem / possibility / drain on the battery
I used it with my active basses both passive pickup and active pickup no problems.
nice. thanks!
For active basses, the input jack works like a switch. When a plug is inserted into it - basically any 1/4" plug, could be a device, a cable, whatever - it completes the circuit and the on-board preamp is connected to the 9v battery. It will eventually drain if left like this. It has nothing to do with what is plugged in to it, merely the fact that something is plugged in.
Thanks @fennario! This clicks for meâŚmuch appreciated!
I have a question about these headphones. Perhaps @Al1885 knows.
Can you play a backing track via the phone and hear it through the headphones to play along with?
Itâs a long thread and I didnât see it at the beginning of the thread.
Also, anyone who wears glasses, how do they feel?
Yes, you can do this. It can connect via bluetooth to your phone or laptop and you can jam along with songs. It is a pretty cool device.
Last thing first, it feels find wearing glasses. No bother at all.
Like @macshark said, once you connect to the Spark app you donât need to stay there you can go anywhere on your phone or tablet, I usually just go to Moises or Photo app for my save tracks, because I use the Boss FS-1-WL foot switch.
Wonderful, Thanks for the replies! That is one feature I canât do without.
I use Youtube and find bass-less backing tracks, or build my own with Moises if I canât find one I like.
I have a bad knockoff pedal that for some reason works well with my Sheets app, but wonât scroll Ultimate Guitar pro tabs. I usually just save the UG tabs as a PDF and load it into Sheets.
I have these headphones and they work just fine with my fishman fluence pickups. Its nice for playing at 1am without annoying the neighbors. Also you can easily listen to the instrcutional videos here while you play along
