This thing is great. $50 for a NAM loader is a steal on it's own, but add the playback ability and 50 preset slots (when using the app you have 50, there are 9 onboard when not connected), and you've got a solid practice/travel solution. Can't speak to the quality of using it as an audio interface. Docking 1 star because distortion tends to be a too fizzy for my taste. That is probably due to the super high impedance which i do not have matched woth my IEMs, something to keep in mind. Cleans sound great, though.
R
Ruth Ben
★★★★★
“This is really great “
This blew my old one away!!
J
Justin in Florida
★★★★★
5* Sonicake strikes again, with a great product!
The Sonicake headphone amp is an outstanding value in the electric guitar effects world. Despite costing less than 45 dollars this thing is pretty amazing. It's nice to get more than you were expecting these days and I definitely got more than i expected with this little headphone dongle.
I'm not even getting into the IRs you can load, because i havent messed with that. This headphone amp is great just as a battery powered mobile headphone practice solution. It's loaded with 50 built in preset effects, and they sound quite good generally. I'm sure with the right cable you could even hook up to a mixer and play a small live event. There is also a tuner and drum machine built in. My favorite preset is the sweet clean setting, the heavier sounds arent as great as the cleaner sounds imo... so maybe this is not the best solution for a metal player. Of course you can modify the presets and create your own sounds in the app. Most things are controlled via the SONICLINK app, because there's only a few controls on the device itself; power button and some preset control. The app works great, with no lag and a clean and clear interface to interact with the amp. Battery life has been good to great. I like that you can use the headphone amp connected to your phone via Bluetooth to play along with your music. It also has the ability to hook up to a phone or computer and allow you to capture your playing, ideas, etc. The size isnt much bigger than a credit card and the weight is only a few oz. It's made of plastic but it feels sturdy enough to last and I've already dropped it a few times accidently and it's no worse for the wear. This is a great option for beginners to even advanced guitarists that need a headphone practice solution with extra features and versatility!
C
Customer
★★★★★
Great Portable Guitar Amp with Tons of Features
This little guitar headphone amp is impressive for its size. The number of built-in presets and effects gives you plenty of tones to experiment with, whether you’re practicing rock, blues, or just trying different sounds. The app control is a nice addition and makes adjusting settings much easier.
Bluetooth playback works well for playing along with backing tracks, and the USB recording feature is very convenient for capturing ideas or practice sessions. The compact size and rechargeable battery also make it easy to take anywhere.
A great practice tool for guitar players who want a lot of features without carrying around a full amplifier setup.
Dan & Mel Lundmark
★★★★★
Amazingly flexible little amp! Upload your own neural amp model tones via the app!
This thing is a powerhouse when you use the app with it, so many options to adjust every aspect of the sound, eq, amp presets (35 different amp simulations built in), distortion, driver, gates, delay, reverb, and more! It has some quick button presets on the unit itself, including a volume rocker, and 3 distortion presets, and with .NAM file support you can upload any neural amp model from sites like tone 3000 and basically try out all kinds of classic amps! Insane level of flexibility, and it's easy to use, I got it working on my Pixel 10 Pro and ran the headphone out as a line in to an amp to play clean audio out. The Soniclink app also has metranome and a lot of pretty good drum track accompaniments in a variety of styles. Its small and fits in your pocket! It's a standard jack and is compatible with any guitar that has a pickup, very versatile. I think this is pretty neat as a headphone amp but when used with the amp it becomes a musical force to recon with! Pretty cool tech and I think it's a great value. Recommended.
Jay HQ
★★★★★
Incredible Little Headphone Amp for Late Night Sessions
This thing is seriously impressive for the size and price. I’ve been using it mainly for late night guitar practice and it absolutely nails what it’s designed to do.
Setup is incredibly simple. Plug it into your guitar, connect your headphones through the 3.5mm jack, and you’re basically ready to go immediately. The audio quality coming through this thing is genuinely excellent depending on the headphones you pair with it.
Latency is basically nonexistent while playing, which is huge because even slight delay completely ruins the feel when practicing guitar. Playing through this still feels responsive and natural.
The effects are also surprisingly good. You get distortion, reverb, modulation effects, different amp styles, presets, and a ton of options to experiment with. I had a lot of fun just scrolling through sounds and building different tones.
Battery life is decent too. The 1000mAh battery is not massive, but one charge easily gets through a full practice session for me. USB-C charging is a huge plus and it charges fairly quickly.
I also love the modern design and little LED accents on it. Feels like an actual polished music device instead of some cheap throwaway gadget.
Bluetooth functionality and recording support are nice additions as well. Recording while monitoring yourself can take a little experimenting depending on your setup, but it absolutely works and opens up a lot of possibilities for practicing and home recording.
For around fifty bucks, this is one of the coolest guitar practice tools I’ve picked up in a long time. If you play electric guitar and want something compact for silent practice, travel, or casual recording, this thing is 100% worth it, highly recommended.
Seattle guitar dad
★★★★★
Holy forking shirtballs, this thing plays NAMs (Neural Amp Models) for under $50!
That’s right, you can load whatever NAM captures you can download from tone3000.com - or captures of your own rig! Insane value to tone quality ratio here. And the effects cover a ton of ground - and I say that as a Helix user! You can load IRs, too. Wild. They sound great, of course.
I’m sure this thing comes with presets but whatever. NAM and IR practice rig with USB-C interface for $50 is madness. Get it.
T
The Kevster
★★★★★
Great Functionality / Needs Better Documentation
The prospect of having 50 different amps to practice with in a simple form factor that plugs directly into your instrument sounded amazing. I used their other multi-effects pedal and looper and after some playing around with it got the hang of having some tremendous versatility after a somewhat steep learning curve I thought this could be a kind of plug and play version.
Instantly I will say this had the same problem their other device had - lack of included documentation. Sure it had a little piece of paper saying what each button was but that was it so if you got this thing expecting to just plug and play you might be in for a little bit of a rude awakening.
At first I thought mine wasn’t working right. Headphones in and device plugged in. Device lit up “green” but the paper did not list a green color. No sound. Stupid me though - I didn’t think to try the volume button.
Pressing the volume button got some sound! The three buttons on the side change colors, with each color coinciding with a preset. Some were more prevalent than others but I did find them to be very similar to one another. It sounded good but if you do the math, 3x3=9. Where are the 50 presets?
This is where a manual would come in handy. If you find the website and manual there is mention of what each button does and how to get those other presets - you need an app (I will note that the listing does mention the app for fine tuning parameters but how does this feature work?) Before I get to the app I will note that while the listing does state the Bluetooth connectivity is for streaming audio playback, it does not work with headphones. The “playback” refers to streaming backing tracks. For private listening, this is what the 1/8” headphone jack is for. I fully expected to use headphones but if someone thought they can link to some Air Pods, the would be sorely mistaken.
Once I downloaded the app on my phone I saw the familiar appearance of what was on my multi effects pedal, but instead of buttons I had a menu to select a preset, a list of the various stacking effects, slide bars to modify, switches to turn on or off, all from the simple touch of my phone screen. The minute I pressed the power button on the device the app recognized it!
Once I was playing around with the presets, I believe that the 3 buttons on the side cycled through the 9 preset slots you could modify and save using the app so if you make something you like you can set it up and have it readily available without wasting any time or having to set up your phone.
I will say that there were some presets and effects I would slide around and have a hard time hearing any change as I moved the sliders around or on some the sliders seemed very sensitive and the slightest increase would result in heavy clipping and overwhelming crunchy sounds. This feature might work better on bigger screens than a phone. The sound may also have been faint on my inexpensive set of headphones, as all my better quality ones are wireless.
Overall this device is cool. It seemed to last a while on a single charge and even after non use for prolonged periods of time still had battery life. It was small and can swivel and move around so should work with a variety of guitar setups (or other instruments). It can provide for some good variation and provides a lot of flexibility but the documentation is lacking and feels like it just needs a little more in-depth instructions, especially if the setup is not as intuitive as one would expect to get the most out of it. I think some of the features, while pretty good feel like they need slight adjustments to make them great. Perhaps a firmware update in the future could make this an absolute beast but for now it is just a really good portable amp.
Scott
★★★★★
Keep It Simple.
I have a bass and a guitar headphone amps from another company. They offer a lot of features.
Spending more time setting up tone, effects, etc. that playing gets a little frustrating.
Enter the Sonicake Amphonix. Volume, Headphones, USB for charging/recording on computer of mobile device, Bluetooth for backing music, and 9 presets.
Simple. Easy. Good Tones.
Charge it, plug it in, plug in headphones and cycle through the nine presets, pick one and play.
I appreciate that.
When I record, or want to spend time with effects, I do that with a loaded pedalboard. The headphone amp I use for quick practices when I only have ten to thirty minutes to pluck strings. It is easy to use, and you can carry it in your gig bag.
The geometry and pivoting plug work well with most guitars. Typical straight-in jack or the "boat" (strat) style, it doesn't matter. It will fit and be out of your way.
Great, simple headphone amp.
Fatso
★★★★★
Great value alternative to the big name brands!!
Okay Sonicake—you’re nailing it.
First off, I adore their guitar pedals, especially the Portal. I’ve also reviewed their Sax, which is very nice!!
Now, here’s their mini headphone amp. Just like the katana, it is for wired headphones. This is due to Bluetooth latency. No fixing that friends! So get with the program and plug this into your axe!
The three presets were nice. 1 sounded like distortion (not filthy, but good enough to say “yep, that’s electric guitar”), 2 is clean.. sounds.. clean. And I think 3 is crunch. A bit of British attitude in there, but could be mistaken for overdriven blues… either way you press, all three sound damn good.
Oh, if you plug your crappy airline freebie earbuds in and don’t like it, that’s on you.. get a quality set of headphones and you’ll be VERY pleased, especially for the money!
