Boss Katana-Air EX Wireless Guitar Amp by Sounds Easy

This unit is all about shaping sounds. I've tried two Fenders Pro and Ultra and an Ibanez Artcore Jazz with amazing sound and effects to cover many playing styles. Six of these can be saved (3 on A and 3 on B channel) as livesets and dialed up as needed. With the line out send to the front mix or stage amp/cab setup. Lots of livesets can be downloaded from Boss. For me I wanted to shape the sounds of harmonicas and this more than fits the bill. Going wireless required a small harmonica dynamic mic, Lekato MW-1 5.8Ghz wireless mic setup (really small) and a Shure A85F matching transformer into the wired guitar input. I'm wondering if the Boss WL-30XLR mic wireless system transmitter (or others) would connect with the built-in receiver but didn't want to purchase them ... MoreThis unit is all about shaping sounds. I've tried two Fenders Pro and Ultra and an Ibanez Artcore Jazz with amazing sound and effects to cover many playing styles. Six of these can be saved (3 on A and 3 on B channel) as livesets and dialed up as needed. With the line out send to the front mix or stage amp/cab setup. Lots of livesets can be downloaded from Boss. For me I wanted to shape the sounds of harmonicas and this more than fits the bill. Going wireless required a small harmonica dynamic mic, Lekato MW-1 5.8Ghz wireless mic setup (really small) and a Shure A85F matching transformer into the wired guitar input. I'm wondering if the Boss WL-30XLR mic wireless system transmitter (or others) would connect with the built-in receiver but didn't want to purchase them just to find out. Note that the wireless system and wired guitar input cannot be used at the same time. The wired guitar input disables wireless and charging the wireless transmitter in the unit disables the wired guitar input. Bluetooth adds a lot of abilities with wireless pedals, backing tracks or just going to a party and playing tunes from a smart phone or an MP3 player connected to the Aux in. Steely Dan's Deacon Blues sounds great. Note that Bluetooth and Aux bypass the preamp and effects only available with the wireless system, wired guitar input and USB computer connections. This is as it should be when dialing in an instrument. Effects can be adjusted from the Bluetooth device. OK, it is expensive. I get it. Then it comes with essentially the Boss WL-20L guitar wireless system built-in which isn't cheap. Add in high quality effects that other small portable practice amps rarely have. If one breaks or loses the transmitter hopefully the Boss WL-T transmitter sold separately would connect. There are no wired inputs for a pedal to switch livesets so it's an A/B button press, smart phone software or Bluetooth hardware to do this. Note Boss has not yet listed a Boss Tone Studio app for PC or Mac specifically for this unit. It is a brand new unit so questions will eventually be answered. Overall a high quality setup in a small well built package with loud dual 5in speakers for playing anywhere. If it is easy to setup and use it is going to be used a lot!

The bigger, badder brother to the original Katana Air. tl;dr - Fits a niche, and does it like Boss is known for. It's a great little amp, but for the money, there are some other really great options you may want to consider.Let's do some pros and cons:Pros:* Sounds much fuller than the original Air. It sounds comparable to a Yamaha THR30ii, and that's high praise in my book. The 5" speakers and wood cabinet are doing some good work over the 3" speakers and plastic body of the original.* New line-outs are a welcome addition.* Compatibility with Roland's rechargeable battery pack is nice, and having the option to use normal AA batteries gives me more faith in the longevity of the device.* Auto wake-up and sleep is honestly one of my favorite features. Pick up ... MoreThe bigger, badder brother to the original Katana Air. tl;dr - Fits a niche, and does it like Boss is known for. It's a great little amp, but for the money, there are some other really great options you may want to consider.Let's do some pros and cons:Pros:* Sounds much fuller than the original Air. It sounds comparable to a Yamaha THR30ii, and that's high praise in my book. The 5" speakers and wood cabinet are doing some good work over the 3" speakers and plastic body of the original.* New line-outs are a welcome addition.* Compatibility with Roland's rechargeable battery pack is nice, and having the option to use normal AA batteries gives me more faith in the longevity of the device.* Auto wake-up and sleep is honestly one of my favorite features. Pick up my guitar, jam for a bit, put it back down. No fiddling with cables, to turning things on and off... just right to playing.Cons:* Size - it's much bigger than the original Air. It's still "portable", but any planning for taking it on a trip or something and it's going to take a lot more space. It's about the size of half a Katana 50mkii.* For this premium price, the fit and finish is less than I'd expected. There's a gap I can slide a playing card under all around where the recess for the controls are, the logo's look cheap, the knobs look like cheap plastic (and they are... to be fair).* I wish the charging port for the wireless transmitter was recessed in the body like it was on the original Air. It makes the transmitter stick up a lot more.* Built for the "desktop", and thus lacks some of the more rugged features on other Boss amps.* Why is this TWICE the price of the Katana 100-watt head?!- Comparing the two: The AIR EX has battery power (at 20w), bluetooth, and a wireless receiver built in. The Katana 100-watt head has everything ELSE the AIR EX does, except only 3" speakers (if you aren't powering a Cab... which the AIR EX can't do in stock form), no battery, no bluetooth, and no wireless receiver built in. Instead you get all the other goodies I wish the AIR EX had. 100-watts (or 50w, or .5w), more portable size, effects loop, Stereo Expand, Power Amp In, can use the GA-FC controllers, and can use standard Expression pedals.In a space where you've got NUX, Yamaha, Boss, and Positive Grid (and probably others) competing for your "desktop" space, this brings brings the "Boss" flavor like only they can. But the competition is heating up with their modeling, pricing, features, and (for those of us not afraid to poke around in an App) other companies are innovating more in the software realm than Boss. Maybe this will be exactly what you're looking for, and if that's the case, then I can solidly recommend this amp. Dial it in and it just works. It sounds good, looks decent, it's "portable", and wireless.