Harley Benton MA-5 Miniamp

This tiny amplifier is a VERY close copy of the Marshall MS-2, cosmetically, and electronically. The circuit is almost identical, using a LA4140 power amp IC driving a 8 Ohm 3 inch speaker. Three identically functioning knobs and a rear mounted pocket clip. Construction is very much in line with the price, rigid injection molded plastic. Sound is pretty one dimensional, lo-fi and distorted and not much more. The Power knob is a three position switch, Off, On, and OD, presumably for "Overdrive". The On position is somewhat clean-ish at best. The OD position is pretty distorted. The amp is fairly quiet overall, even inOD mode with the volume cranked. Loud enough to annoy a roommate, but that's about all. The On setting I find not very useful. Better to just use OD, crank the Volume control all the way up, and use the guitar's volume control to control the amount of distortion-simple and effective. The Tone knob isn't all that useful. Despite the published rating of 5 Watts, this amp is nowhere near that. Maybe 0.5 Watts at most, fully distorted. Versatile this amp is not. It does one thing. And it does it cheaply. That's what you pay for, and that's what you'll get. Whether that one thing is useful is entirely up to you. If you're in the market for the Marshall MS-2, buy this one instead. If you're looking for a tiny bit more versatility and clean sounds to drive a small loudspeaker, you'll have to look elsewhere and probably have to pay significantly more.

This mini-amp is the champ. Seriously. Not because of it's sound quality (which isn't bad for what you get, but also not great), but because of it's build quality. This miniamp expects an inverted barrel jack connector (voltage on outer sleeve rather than ground), and it does say it on the side, though it's not easily apparent (part of the molded plastic so it has to catch the light correctly to see it). Well, I didn't know that, plugged a standard barrel jack A/C adapter in, and got the wonderful magic smoke. I thought it was done, but when I reversed the polarity, the amp STILL WORKED. Amazing. It only blew up one diode (probably responsible for protecting the 9v from being charged on A/C power). Line out doesn't seem to work, but I did smoke mine, so it might have before then. Oh well, still impressive for what you pay.

Great miniamp for practicing in the house for when I can't be bothered setting up my full size amp, also good to use on your porch or in the yard/garden and especially for jamming along with an acoustic guitar.
The sound quality on either clean or overdrive is pretty good & surprisingly loud for this price point. Like anything else there'll be a lot better out there but you'll have to pay a substantial amount to better it.
Would be great for anyone to go with their first electric guitar if you are on a tight budget.
It does look & feel cheap but it's the sound that matters.

The amp Which is just a little amp i will be using for a few months until i get back home, where i will store this and use it sometimes going outside and attach it to my guitar strap.

The sound overall is Okay, for the few bucks you can get it for it sounds good, there are not real features, and the overdrive is very poor when you do not want to blast out your own ears while it is hooked onto your guitar strap.

Pro's:
-Small size
-Battery life is pretty good

Con's:
-sound is pretty okay but not great.
-feels cheap

Would i recommend it? Depends, if you are just going to use it as a fun little amp you can easily take with you to amuse some friends, yeah sure, as a little practice amp you can take on the road? No, you're better off getting a Boss Katana Air in that case.