bass!!! Fortunately weight is the only thing you lose with this little guy - the Clarus ROCKS in every other department. This amp is only the size of a large book, but will drive loads of down to 2ohms and gives a wonderfully crystal-clear, pure tone that makes other amps sound heavy and muddy by comparison. The high and low gain inputs are seperately bufferred so you can plug in two basses at once and even play them together! Construction is top notch - the metal case is built like a tank - my Clarus has fallen off tables while in use and not even noticed it. Knobs all turn smoothly and the included padded case make it 'travel ready'. Even inside its case it is still small - I get asked, "What's in the handbag?"

There are so many things that this amp will do that it might be easier to say what it will NOT do. For one, the Clarus will not colour your tone like other amps will. If your tone consists of your bass and preamp working together, this amp is not for you. It is designed to make the acoustic sound of your instrument louder, and that is EXACTLY what it will do. Secondly, if you use a lot of amp EQ to achieve your sound, note that the EQ on the Clarus is quite subtle, and is more designed to deal with room acoustics than to do any major tone shaping. Similarly, the Clarus has no built in compression/limiting, reverb, clip indicators deep/bright switches etc. This may be too simple for some people - I love it!

Finally, I would like to dispel the idea that this amp is in any way soft or underpowered - my main rig is two 1X15 with horn PA cabs. This only takes the amp up to 200W, but with my bass plugged into the high gain input the result is LOUD. While I'm on the subject, the ability of the Clarus to plug into virtually any PA cab means it is very easy to achieve a good sound with very little equipment - all I have to do is bring my bass and the Clarus: when I get to the gig I grab the nearest full range monitor speaker I see, plug in, and my sound jumps out at me! Sure beats that 8X10 stack!!! And with the amp DI, I never have to worry about going through the house.

If you want an amp that is good, clear and loud, fits in your briefcase, can handle both electric and upright basses and takes a load of both your mind and your back, the Clarus is for you.

Construction	100%
(Like a tank)
Clarity	100%
Versatility	100%
(What goes in comes out... louder)
Volume	90%
(This is not a 1000W bi-amped head!)
Customer Service	100%
(Acoustic Image answer emails in hours)
Value	90%
(Expensive but worth it)
Overall	95%
(Perfect for me, but try it before you buy it)