Review: Orange Micro Terror and Cab

Tiny Terror's little bro.   13-Aug-12

Orange Micro Terror

Honey, I shrank the amp!

The Tiny Terror from British amp makers Orange was in the vanguard of the relatively recent trend for modestly-sized mini-amps, and has carved a bit of a name for itself on the pillars of the Temple of Tone... hewn from the living rock ;-]

Now, snapping at it’s heels comes the Tiny Terror’s latest dimensionally-challenged sibling, the Micro Terror. 
It’s certainly emerged from the Terror gene-pool, with the same signature lo-tech styling - a teeny tiny version, weighing at just 850g (1lb 14oz).

The steel case must take up a bunch of that weight, and the amp does feel reassuringly tough, so to get to a fighting weight of under 2 pounds, a Class D power section is used to amplify the single ECC83/12AX7 pre-amp tube. Yes folks, this thing does has a real valve (tube) in it... but does it really make it a valve amp?
And is it worthy of carrying the Terror moniker?

As a bit of a self-confessed Orange fanboy, our guitar reviewer Rob Hicks was the natural choice to kick its tyres - here’s some of his review comments...

“Before I start I need to make myself clear on where I stand with Orange, I love them. I own both a Tiny Terror and a Rocker 30 and I love them to pieces I do...

Playing both the Rocker 30 and the Tiny Terror has spoiled me somewhat so going into this review I had pretty high expectations and I realise now that that was the wrong tact. I assumed that it would sound like its big brother the TT... looks can be deceiving. This little thing will blow your socks off if you’re not careful - a point, which is difficult to convey in video, I feel. For example, when I attempted to demonstrate a clean sound whilst playing along to an audio file - it’s possible - but you have to turn the amp volume up to the point at which you couldn’t get away with playing it your bedroom without the neighbours three streets down complaining! It’s a great concept, which could, with a few tweaks, have been brilliant, but as it stands it I couldn’t really get on with it.

It’s a cool little valve (hybrid) amp which would be great fun for some people and totally useless to others (myself included). I think had Orange put a valve in the preamp section of something like the Crush series then they would have been onto a real winner, or as a pedal it would have been great. I guess it’s just not for me.”

So, a die-hard Orange owner might not feel there’s a place in their setup for a MicroTerror, fair enough - but someone who is after a small practice amp, or a beginner hankering for their first Orange amp, might just find enough to tempt them.


Head
http://www.orangeamps.com/micro-terror/
Average Price: £99

Cab
http://www.orangeamps.com/ppc108-closed-back-speaker-cabinet-2/
Average Price: £59