Boss RRV-10 (micro rack) and RV-2 comparison

[The_Doc]

All set up and ready to plug in and play …

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[The_Doc]

Controls for comparison.

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[Pepe]

Oh, your micro rack model is a later one with the darker front plate and single-coloured knobs. Thanks in advance for your information!

[The_Doc]

Oh, your micro rack model is a later one with the darker front plate and single-coloured knobs. Thanks in advance for your information!

The other one I have does have the coloured knobs and the lighter grey front plate Pepe. Now I remember that’s why I bought two. It wasn’t to use them in stereo because the RRV-10 has two outputs already - i just wanted coloured knobs to match the rest of the series ! Doh

[The_Doc]

Here’s a comparison of the modes before I get into the sonic differences…

RV-2

1 Room
2 and 3 Hall
4 Plate
5 Delay
6 Gate

RRV-10

1 Room Small (1)
2 Room Large (2)
3 Hall Small (1)
4 Hall Large (1)
5 Plate (1)
6 Plate (2)
7 Multi Tap 1 (delay)
8 Multi Tap 2 (reverse)
9 Gated Reverb

[The_Doc]

Overall, with everything set flat, I had to turn up the fx level on the RV-2 to match the level of the RRV-10. The pedal did, initially, sound fuller and better defined in all modes. However, after I had played around with the output mixer controls, with the RRV-10 input set to -10 dBm (otherwise it would overload very quickly), I got it sounding pretty close to the pedal.

Onto the modes.

The Room, Hall and Plate modes all sound very similar to me and the controls on both units do the same things. Perhaps, again with everything set flat, the rack unit reverbs are slightly duller but that’s easily corrected with the Pre EQ. Every mode sounds slightly grungy with a distinctly analogue feel. Very pleasant to my old ears !

The RRV-10 has an extra delay mode - ‘reverse’. This is a very strange sounding thing ! It sounds more like a gated delay rather than a reversed delay but it is really cool and a bit weird. It definitely does not sound like the reverse delays on some of the later Boss delays. I liked this mode. Both the rack and pedal sound similar in the other, more standard, delay mode.

Finally, the gated mode. This is just what you would expect and there is some control over it with the Time control. I can remember using this for that classic 80’s snare drum blow your brains out sound but would I use it with a guitar ? Probably not. Lots of fun though.

I’ve only scratched the surface here and if you want me to dive deeper into anything, please let me know.

[Pepe]

Thanks a ton!

[Old_Iron]

Thanks for the review Doc.

Before that I would bet that the rack would beat the hell out of the pedal.

Nice to know that this is not the case.

[Dirk]

Microracks are great. I still have an RDD-10 set up between one output of my interface to the mixer for stereo delay and chorus.
And I also keep an RCL-10 in storage, it's great with the bass guitar.

[The_Doc]

Hopefully, tomorrow, I’ll get the chance to put the RRV-10 through the stereo Fx loop in a JC-40. I have a hunch that it will shine when used like that. The RV-2 should also be good in that set up.

I’m expecting a wide stereo spread from both. My benchmark for exceptional stereo width is the Boss DD-20 which is superb (especially in the ‘modulated’ mode).