Orange Micro Dark 20-watt Hybrid Head Reviews

This thing is called the Micro Dark and that may lead you to believe it is for Metal, Thrash, Doom, etc… I want to assure you that's not the case. I've been playing guitar for 40 years. Performing live for 30. Been through a lot of gear. Lots. Found this thing a few years ago and I'm hooked on it. I don't need a channel switching amp, I need one that cleans up when you roll the volume back. It actually cleans up with out loosing much volume and that's what I'm looking for. Just gotta find the sweet spot with the gain and tone that suits the sound you're looking for. The Dark cleans up better than the Micro Terror when you roll back on the guitar's volume. I have and love the Terror. The dealbreaker for me is the absence of an effects loop. Micro Dark has an effects loop. It's perfect for what I need. I play guitar (mainly humbucker loaded Gibsons) into modulation, into boost/drive/fuzz (for soloing), into front of dirty amp. Out from fx loop to delay, to verb, then back to power amp. Even on stage (mic'ed through house system) I rarely turn up passed the 3rd notch. Roll back the guitar volume knob for cleans and this rig does all I need it to do. Disappointed (wasn't expecting much anyways…) by the 8" cab sold as a companion. It sounds small, no other way to describe it. But the Micro Dark shines through a 1x12 Vox cab or something similar. 1x12 Celestion or Jensen loaded open back cab won't disappoint. I hear it's great through a closed back 4x12 cab as well, but that's not really my thing anymore. Apparently this tiny amp is a jack of all trades. Don't let its diminutive size fool you, if you give it a chance you'll probably find it's all you really need.

Quite enough the wife doesn't wake, and loud enough the neighbors call the cops. The micro dark sounds awesome regardless what I run through it. Solid choice.

I grabbed one of these because I wanted to try running two amps in stereo (already had an Egnater Tweaker 15 head going into an Egnater Rebel 1×12" cab), paired it with a Fender 15" bass cabinet w/ HF horn, sounds absolutely killer! Only 3 knobs, Volume, (Shape?= EQ/tone control) and Gain, you can get anything from beautiful cleans to brutal Distortion, or anywhere in between. Effects loop is an absolute must for me, and why I chose the Micro Dark over the Micro Terror. Works great with pedals, either before the amp or in the loop. Just a great amp for not a lot of money! I'm just gonna run through this amp for now, maybe try it with the Egnater 1 × 12" cab (and get the Tweaker fixed properly). You can't really go wrong with this amp!

The Micro Dark is an impressive amp. I've owned several Orange amps through the years and this one has that classic Orange tone. It has more volume than its size might lead you to believe. It will definitely keep up with a drummer. There are a lot of tonal variations as you turn the Shape knob. The cleans are decent. A nice amount of gain as well. It's a little heavy on the mids so it doesn't really nail high gain metal, but with an overdrive pedal it certainly will. Nice that it has an effects loop. All my pedals sound very nice through it. I play it through a 2x12" cab with a Celestion V30 and a Greenback. Sounds terrific! I've got that Orange tone in a small package and at a great price. A great little amp!

Let me preface this: Is it a $3000 all-tube head? No. Is it an amazing amp with tube response for $ and in a tiny enclosure? Yes.

I needed a portable guitar rig that I could move around the house and take to small gigs, so I grabbed this and some supplies for a diy 1x12. The amp has all the gain you could ever want, plenty of volume in most situations, and is tiny. The shape control is surprisingly versatile, and just a slight turn to the left or right will give you quite different sounds without any loss of clarity or too much bass rolloff. The tube preamp? Well, it's only one tube, but it still has that tube response, running a dirt or boost pedal into the front end with the gain down can still get you some sick tones. It also pairs great with a Rat. Now, is it the same as a 100 watt $3000 tube head? No. But it's amazing for being $ and so powerful and small. It also seems to be fairly well built, and despite some bumps doesn't have any loose jacks or major dents/scratches, and still works perfectly. My only real complaint is that the emulated headphone out is a little weak.

Overall this amp is great, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

This little thing is great. Plenty loud, very responsive with some great crunch, thanks to the preamp tube, tone knob is very unique and retains clarity, sounds nearly as good as my all-tube Marshall. FX loop is handy. A few gripes:

-Headphone out is a bit weak
-8 inch cabinet that's meant for it sounds tinny, 10 times better with a 1x12
-1 tone knob just doesn't cut it, although orange did a great job with it

I can't think of anything else, this thing is tiny and light but plenty loud and great sound. (preamp tube!)
Wish there was a two channel version, but it sounds great with a Klone for some crunchy OD, or a Rat for some heavier tones.

This is one awesome little amp!
From cleans to crunchy this thing rocks. I am using it with a peavey 4x12 cab and a tube screamer, and it sounds fantastic.
People are blown away at the sound and volume when I plug into this tiny amp.
I would buy this again if anything were to happen to it.

As the title suggests, this review is going to be a little different. I don't play metal and I use the Orange Micro Dark exclusively as a headphone amp for clean tones.

I have 5 tube amps, only one of which has a headphone jack, it's a great amp, but the headphone out is kinda weak. I have roommates, so I wanted a GOOD headphone amp for practicing at night. A friend of mine loaned me this amp a few weeks ago and I was blown away at how good it sounds through phones. With the gain at 10 o'clock, shape/tone at noon and the volume about 3, I'm getting the best cleans that I've ever heard through headphones. Fat, full, bright, chimey, crisp & articulate. All the adjectives are there. Seriously, I never dreamed that I could ever get clean tones this good out of a headphone jack. The solid state power amp means that I can safely run it without a cab and use it as a headphone-only amp. The 12AX7 preamp provides genuine tube dynamics and sounds just as good as any other amp in my collection. Sounds great with all of my pedals as well, either in front or through the effects loop.
(Btw, the phones I'm using are just a $100 pair of Sennheiser HD 280 Pro. Nothing fancy).

In just a few weeks I was so impressed with this tiny thing that I ordered my own from Sweetwater (ALWAYS Sweetwater, a no-brainer there). I'll probably pair it with a good 2X12 cab eventually. But for now, it is well worth the money just to have a really great practice amp with professional-grade sound quality.

The Micro Dark is the high gain alternative to the Micro Terror, but it provides better tones at all gain levels in my opinion. The tube preamp helps overcome the usually stale tones of a solid state amp, but you should not expect tube-like tones. Still this little guy produces some nice tones with the versatile shape control. The best mini amp on the market and a great starting point for a beginner like me.

This little Amp head is incredible. Albeit I should have bought the Orange Terror Stamp(Apologies Sweetwater team for being ignorant about what sounds good with what guitar.) because I don't play any kind of heavy metal or heavy anything and have a Gibson SG Standard 61'. All my fault. But when I turned the gain down for cleans it sounded great and when I did try out anything "dark", it really sounded awesome. So I'm trying to take the "advice" of one of the employees at Sweetwater today and go "….SING the Praises of Sweetwater to (my) friends…" when ever I can… Buy the Amp head..

I can't say enough about how great this thing sounds and performs. And yeah, it's cute and fun too. With very little effort, you can get a wide range of tones with not a bad one in the bunch. Highly recommend.

Great little amp. I hope I get more chances to use it.

solid. i use it with a orange ppc112 cab.
I would buy this amp over and over again.

I've tried several micro amp heads on the market just for fun. The Hotone amps, Joyo Bantamps, etc and so far this is the only one that actually has a legitimately great sound. The others are just toys in comparison. And this thing gets STUPID loud. Works amazing with pedals in both the front and the loop. Surprisingly versatile too especially if you put an EQ in the loop

If you're considering buying one of these, just do it.

Good little amp. Very fun and portable with a true tube sound;)

The Micro Dark is one of the neatest inventions since sliced bread. It is a very nice balance of tube/hybrid. The timbres and textures available within the gain and shape controls are vast. I like being able to go between an extremely resonant upright bass to something that gnashes the edges. I find the pre-amp to be highly serviceable with the ability to change your vacuum tube with minimal effort.

Great for when you have to wait a few months for your other amp to be fixed and also it sounds great through a large cab.

This little lunch box amp is a killer, I play doom and melodic heavy metal. this amp has an insane amount of gain and blends well with pedals. if you have a budget get this head or if you don't have a budget get this head it's awesome and beyond loud I use to have a mindset of the more watts the better but you don't need an insane amount of watts. I'm going to buy the dark terror head next the gain structure on this amp is awsome

This isn't just a hybrid Dark Terror, its also a headphone amp, it can drive a 4x12 for a rehearsal situation, its an ampless send to board in a pinch. Rub send to your DI and load a cab IR to record.It can turn any amp into a Dark Terror using the send to front or return of the power amp of the slave amp you get stuck with as a backline! You can run it in a loop pedal as a tube distortion pedal, and, its an amp!
Sounds great, I bought a Dark Terror after getting the Micro Dark a couple weeks later as it sounded amazing and they are very close. High Gain Orange tone for Doom, Rock, Thrash, Death METAL, Punk, and indie. It cleans up well by turning down the gain and dimeing the volume and using gain as volume. The shape control has a very usable and wide range of tones. Its the best Hybrid Lunch Box Amp on Earth!

This is an amazing little amp. Enough power to push a cabinet and surprising head room and oomph. Excellent tone.

Great little head! I also purchased the matching cab. The little cab is great for low volume practice. If you want to play louder, use a bigger cab. It sounds great through a 4x12!

This little amp is great for rehearsals and small venue gigs.I use my 2 twelve orange cab with it,And its a great Choice for studio use. Just connect it straight to the interface and you're good to go.

I cannot believe how amazing this tiny 20w amp sounds. A single preamp tube crushes out more gain than my 6505+ and has a better tone. Still trying to figure out why I didn't buy this amp sooner, I would have saved so much money tone chasing.

Cheap, 20 watts, part of a long history of great amps….there is no way this little thing could sound good. This thing will blow your mind! Small, compact, and full of tone that any metal head would appreciate. The sound is so big, that is sounds like you are lugging a 1960 Lincoln Continental Convertible weighted amp around. The thing weighs less than 2bls which is less than the sandwich you just ate. This thing needs a 12in speaker to get all the tone out of it. With 20 watts, it can power it, no problems. If you have this incredible, insatiable appetite to head bang with a British monster of tone and not a lot of money. This thing rocks. It also has a headphone jack, just in case you like your neighbors.

I've been using this as a bedside amp with the Orange 8 inch cabinet for a while and I've been happy with it. You can get everything from a decent clean to fuzz out of the amp with no additional pedals. Recently I took it to a rehearsal space and hooked it up to Mesa 4x12 as a joke. My friend that plays through a Sunn amp laughed when he saw it. I let him try it out first with everything set at noon. He played the first chord and we all just stopped, turned our heads and looked back at the amp and cabinet. It was very loud. Not a ton of low end, but it sounded pretty good. My friend kept playing through it having a good time for a while then he said he was going to switch over to his Sunn amp and fuzz pedal, because the micro dark didn't have the right sound. I turned the gain and tone almost all the way to the right and volume to about the 3 o'clock position and told him to try it again. He played a chord
then stopped and turned his head back to the amp and cabinet and said, "what the hell. I can't believe that little thing is driving that 4x12 that well.". He played the Micro Dark for about an hour more afterward. We were all impressed. It's a great little bedroom practice amp, and amazingly can drive 4x12 cabinet in a pinch

Just do it!! It'll probably be the best amp you've ever played for practicing and recording. I have an Orange AD30 with a 1x12" cab and a 2x12" cab, insanely sweet sounding, but I feared my neighbors would complain, so I bought the Micro Dark for practicing. Holy crap does it sound good!!
I feel like a chump for not getting one sooner.
You will not be disappointed, in fact, you won't want to stop playing, EVER. Do you want to feel connected to your guitar and practice more? Then get one of these amps.
I got the 8 inch speaker to match it and it sounds like 1 million bucks, takes up very little space, It weighs close to nothing and the controls are super easy to use and every little adjustment makes a difference in tone. I did a couple music videos using this amp and the most frequent comments I got was how insanely good the tone is; Telecaster straight into amp,no effects, no reverb, nothing just a pure tone machine.

I bought this for a back up in case by boogie ever went out on a gig. I can't believe how clean this is. I've actually used it in a big venue and it is simply mind blowing! . It doesn't have two channels but the clean is so good I can just use my pedals for crunch or high gain. (It has an effects loop! What!!!!)
The dirty sounds are very plexi,you will be happy no questions!
Just have to know exactly how to dial in quickly if using live to change from clean to the amps dirty,which is actually easy.
For the price this little tiny thing can be a full on pro gigging amp.
Definitely needs a mic on it for bigger venues.

I got this bad mamma jamma last August and haven't been able to stop using it scince and I've even recorded with it scince then. It's a great addition to my rig!

I am currently running the Micro Dark as a tube preamp through a Boss Katana Artist 100 (1x12). I'm basically using the Orange tube preamp and running it into the power amp section of the katana (effects return), so I can utilize all of the built in Boss fx programmed in the Katana. It's honestly a perfect and incredibly versatile setup.

The Orange Micro Dark is an absolute behemoth in a laughably tiny package. The tone is very, very hairy/wooly, very British. It borders on full-on fuzz when the gain is cranked, and there is gain for DAYS. The "shape" knob functions differently that I am used to, as it's bit very clear exactly how it shapes the sound, it's not just some simple filter or mids-scooper. The tone of this is very grindy and sludgy with the gain maxed, if you want it to "djent", use an overdrive pedal as a boost in front, then it'll give you the thickest, crunchiest and tightest palm mutes you can imagine. This also has incredibly good cleans, and can totally sound vintage and very warm with the right settings. Yes it's meant to be a metal heads dream come true, but don't underestimate this as a one trick pony, it can do any genre of rock. My active seven string schecter sounds more brutal than ever through this, as it has immense bottom end and seems to be made for downtuning, but my Gibson Les Paul sounds incredible as well, super warm and resonates in all the right frequencies, even the single coil tones of a Fender Strat sound amazing through this. If you're considering it, it's easily the best tube head with an FX loop you can purchase at this price. Shockingly amazing

I've only owned this for a week and honestly wasn't sure I completely liked it or not. Well, now that I'm used to it and have experimented with this amp I actually love it! I just finished playing some bell like tones with my Fender Eric Johnson strat. In my opinion this amp is MUCH BETTER with reverb in the FX loop. It's worth the extra bucks if you don't have one.
I'm actually running an EVH Chorus with a Holy Grail Nano through the FX loop and it sounds AWESOME!!! I thought it was ever so slightly harsh without the pedals, but still like it with pedals off. BTW, I'm running it through the Orange 1 x 8" cab but might upgrade to 1 x 12".

This amp produces a amazing dirty Fuzz tone. And takes all pedals well. But this amp sounds good without any effects on it as well. I used to have a Vox combo amp I hated, because it just never got the sound I truly wanted from it. It always sounded muddy, and the wah never fully worked on it. But now I happy to have an amp which I can get an actual good sound from.

This little amp is insane. I threw a tube screamer in my chain and my tone is unbelievable for coming out of such a tiny amp. Highly recommend to anyone who wants a tube head on a budget. Running it out of my orange 2x12 you could definitely take this thing to practice or a gig and would not be disappointed. I think you can even cab sim it. Great value and serious tone

I have this hooked up to a blackstar 12 cab with celestion seventy80, sounds great if setup with gain about half way so theres a little dirt, then add a tube screamer or proco rat pedal to send it over the edge. Using the amp by itself for heavy tones really depends on the guitar, humbuckers sound good for the most part, strat or tele its better to lay off the gain for classic rock kinda tones. it would be nice to have another tone control, but the whole point of this amp is compact and simple.

I got this in a trade yesterday and I'm pretty surprised. It was never on my radar but I plugged it in and it was pretty much everything I was looking for. It's extremely loud, even at bedroom levels. It takes a really delicate hand to adjust the volume knob sometimes but it has several really good "sweet spots." For context, I play ambient music and punk. The clean sound is really glassy and complex and keeps up with my big Fender tube amp in that aspect. The overdrive has more of a "fuzz" sound than I'm really looking for, but backing off the gain and adjusting the Shape knob to something a little more crunchy really helps out. Since the overdrive is pretty fuzzy, bass and treble frequencies aren't as tight as a lot of people would like. Especially in punk, where I use a lot of palm mutes. I tried to solve that with an overdrive but didn't quite work the way I wanted but that's probably just user error. It takes pedals really well, both in the effects loop and into the front end. I play some 2nd wave black metal and some doom too and it really nails those sounds. The fuzziness really helps facilitate tremolo picking but retains clarity in the mids while having pronounced highs and a lot of saturation. I'm using it with a 1 12" speaker and AKG K52 studio headphones. I'm not sure if it's my cheap headphones or the amp, but I'm not a huge fan of the way this thing sounds through headphones. However, I am thankful that it has a tube preamp, an effects loop, and a headphone jack because I was about to spend $700-900 on a new amp that fit most of this criteria. But this amp is so good that I don't really have to worry about that for a long time, if ever. Plus it's only like $5 dude lol

So good that I gave my first one to a friend that helped me record tracks, and have now bought another one for myself. These little amps kick it! I plug in an 1x8" cab for bedroom practice, and use cab sim out for recording. I also have the all-tube Dark Terror, it's a masterpiece, but this is almost perfect in itself. Much better tone to me, than the Micro Terror (white case) version. Anyway, do yourself a favor and get one of these, do yourself another favor and get it from Sweetwater... The best instrument group in the world. You'll be glad that you did both.

This amp head...a 2×12 or 4×12, and a nice OD pedal...all you need to get heavy and loud. And obviously, easy to carry around. Well worth it.

very good quality sound.

I've been through a few cheap tone solutions in my time, and this has to be the best one. I am a big fan of hybrid tech. Not so much when it's a DSP preamp in front of a tube power amp section (i.e. Super Champ X2), but a tube preamp in front of a solid state power amp is truly the best hybrid solution to preserve tube tone.

The amp by itself is great for cleans and hi gain, but becomes amazing when you add an overdrive in front of it. An overdrive in front of this amp tightens up the sag so well, that I would say it wouldn't be as fun without one. This of course means buying more gear, but since this unit is so barebones I think you have to go in expecting that if you're going to use this as your main rig. While I would say the overdrive is a must buy when getting this unit, especially for metal and hi gain tight tones (which it achieves flawlessly), putting a reverb and delay in the effects loop really does seal the deal. I run mine through a 1x12" cab with a V30 and I must say, for the money, it is a great simple rig that can do bedroom and small gigging. It can get very loud. I've read that guys run these through 4x12" and can use them for big gigs as well.

One thing I would have loved to see is a two channel version of this so I could go from squeaky clean to hi gain in one button push, so there is a very good chance I am going to AB this thing in the future. However, on its own the cleans are top notch and rich. At under $200, I don't think I've bought an amp head this good for the money. I've tried the Vox MV50 series, and while that was good for vintage tones, this Micro Dark really is a more modern solution with its versatility of tone and effects loop.

Every time I play an Orange product, it is amazing. Even their solid state line of amps sound very good, a feat that many other manufacturers can't achieve in my opinion. Again, I recommend getting an overdrive pedal and playing this amp through a 1x12" cabinet. I think this set up beats any other cheap fully tube amp out there, and trust me I've tried them all. The 6505 Pirahna is a disappointment, the other 6505s are more expensive than this option, and every small tube amp that's 5w-15w that I've tried cannot achieve this quality of tone for hi gain. Get this, and save yourself a lot of time and money tone searching.

I chose the micro dark along with the orange 20 watt cabinet speaker. They make a good combo. The "dark" is very clear and packs a punch.

I have had my Micro Dark for a while now. I remember when it first arrived and I pulled it out of the box and thought to myself, it's so small. What the hell am I going to do with this tiny thing!! Oh well, I bought it to be a practice amp. I hooked it up to my 120 watt Marshall half stack. And holy crap, it rocked!! I was completely impressed. Impressed enough to take it over to a buddies house to jam. It had NO problem keeping up with the drums or another guitar. Just when I thought I have a great practice amp I found out I have a great band practice amp too. If i ever play live I can't wait to pull up with this and my half stack with a smile on my face. This thing has the trademark Orange sound I love with the a great price. I highly recommend it.

I picked this up because I felt like my YAMAHA THR10C didn't like pedals. I plugged my board into this little amp and heard so many new tones. This amp is amazing. The crunchy tones are so good.

This thing bumps. Dont be fooled by its size. I cant wait to try it into a larger cab.

The only negative I can think of it only has 1 channel, and I like to switch between clean and dirty quickly without having to change settings.

Alas, in the midst of the days when "Rona" seemed to have the World in its clench and seemed to be squeezing tighter to make a significant case for it's "end of the world campaign".... I was so lost in confusion and disparity, I had nowhere to go for the answers to the questions rattling my cage unbearably.

Thats when I got laid off, the world gasped for air and coughed a weakness you could see in the air it was so thick.

So I did the only thing I knew would help.. I got on sweetwater.
I'm the proud owner of a PURE HOME GROWN GRASS FED TONE MACHINE, GAIN CAPSULE, A BEAST OF ALL BEASTS, if you will.

Buy a micro dark terror, you need this. Make earth great again. Through this valve charged hybrid being, now my son through adoption (signed and notarized today in fact.) you'll love this amp so much that you'll become a spontaneous author, such as the one you've witnessed here today. I'm Jake John, singer of the group JustJake. And I'm telling you if you're a riff runner, orange humper, and breakdown dumper like me then you'll be the next review that reads as crazy as this one. I'll be waiting to read!

This amp has changed my entire life. I can go for hours now if ya know what I mean

Tiny little amp with lots of power and bass.

This lil guy is great. I am pushing a 10" Eminence British speaker in a custom cab and it sounds great. Low noise and lots of volume from such a wee little thing. Very glad I bought this one. Also have to throw a thank you to Mac Hatton, my sales rep. He puts in a lot of effort to make sure I get the right stuff even though I am not one for big ticket items. Definitely speak to Mac if you need anything.

Picked this up today for my '61 SG Special with P90s. When first trying it out, I was surprised by the volume. Sort of like everyone else. More than loud enough for home use, disturbing the neighbors use and playing in small to medium rooms. But as I played with it a bit more, I became totally amazed at the versatility in tone. In just a few hours, I heard the stinging clean notes that came from Johnny Winters albums. Turn a few knobs and I got a strong Jerry Cantrell vibe. Turn the shape knob and you've got Dickie Betts' tone from back in the day. I had a blast discovering tones from Tommy Iommi to Peter Buck. I haven't had this much fun playing guitar in a long time. Now, it's easy to believe I'm no where near as good as the folks listed above. But, dang it, after a few hours, I was sounding pretty good. Ordered 2 12" Celestion speakers and will be building a cabinet. Here tell it will more than carry its weight. Loud, or soft. Sharp or muddled. You've got to try this amp. And give it some time. You'll be richly rewarded.

I read every review. I watched every video demo online. I prayed. Then I finally decided to pull the trigger. It arrived in no time, but when I unboxed it and pulled out this tiny, toy-sized parody of an amplifier, I instantly had buyer's remorse. I just wasn't prepared for how small it was. It seemed so delicate.
Obviously, my initial impression was wrong. Just wrong in every way. I plugged in to a 2X12 cab with Celestion V 30s and put all the dials at 12 o'clock. Powerful. Clear. Surprise! This is not a toy. This is the real deal. You can play with the controls and dial in your favorite setting. It sounds great at any volume from "my wife has to wake up early in the morning " low to "my neighbors aren't home so we're going to see what this thing is made of" high.
I only plan on using this around the house. It is going to be fun to practice with this, and to jam when friends come over. But I can see this being part of your rig for small gigs, when you want to downsize without sacrificing sound quality. Don't be afraid to add some effects.
The bottom line: don't be fooled by it's comical size. Just buy it.

I am impressed! This little amp is jam-packed with tone and volume. When I purchased this head, I also purchased the Orange 112 (12 inch vintage 30 speaker cab). This was an awesome decision as it really opens up the dynamic range and cuts back on sound limitations. No matter where I have the knobs set at, the tone is incredible to my ears. I've compared this amp and cab side by side with my guitarist's Bugera 333XL tube head with a 4x12 Crate cab and this little sucker is easily just as loud. I think my favorite thing about it is that you can dial in your tone and it will maintain that same tone and saturation no matter how much you crank the volume up. The Orange Micro Dark is my first tube amp that I've personally owned. I use to only ever own solid state amps as it was all I could afford and they all seem to get to a certain volume after the tone has been set and it only "fills" the speaker instead of making it any louder once it is passed that threshold.

I recommend this amp to anybody as it is good for any genre! I play metal so I threw an Ibanez Tube Screamer down in front of it and it sounds incredible!

This is a review update since owning this little jewel with Huge sound and character,
for a while now. This thing will hang with amps 2 to 3 times its size and power. I changed
out the preamp tube to a Chinese 12AX7B ( I think it is also known as "The Silver Dragon" and
this thing, paired with an old Johnson Marquis JM60 112 combo amp cab that a our other guitar
player gave to me because the amp was acting up and noisy, will ROCK THE HOUSE. I installed
a good quality 12" speaker into the open back cab and was pleasantly surprised in the sound and
tone that the micro dark puts out.

When I first saw this thing, I almost had to laugh and thought, "Orange, you can't be serious, this
thing looks like a toy." Boy, did it ever show me! I don't remember the exact tube that comes stock
in it but a Tung-Sol 12AX7 seems to give it a little more headroom and it even sounds louder at the
same volume level than with the stock tube to me. I like the classic rock British sound and to my ears
it will get u there and has plenty of gain also.

A good quality 112 or 212 cab will make this thing sound way bigger than its actual size. I still haven't
been able to figure out how they made room to put an effects loop into such a small head but they did
it and it actually works quite well I might add.

Just for cosmetic reasons, I turned the top part around backwards after changing out the preamp tube
to give it a cool 'Black Out' look plus you get to see the preamp tube lit up through the holes in the top when it is operating.

There is good reason why 80 people give this little amp a 5 star rating. Also love the cool blue jewel
power on indicator. This thing will light up my whole Mancave at night!

Lets face it, its quite a bargain folks. Better get one from Sweetwater NOW, before the price goes up or they discontinue this model.

I love mine and as always, 'Keep On Rockin' and get it here from Ted Hunter and Sweetwater. Peace
Out!

Kenny H

Wasn't feelin' the stock JJ preamp tube in the Micro Dark. My ear felt the gain was a bit harsh/tinny and the cleans were lacking sparkle. I popped in a Genalex Gold Lion 12ax7 and HO-CHI MAMA!! Cleans have more sparkle and clarity. Gain is super smooth, rich and creamy. You can set the gain at 3/4 and dial in whatever tone you want with your guitar's volume knob. This amp sends all the Lunch Boxes back to school. Just needed the best 12ax7 on the market to bring out it's full potential...

I live in an appartment and was looking for something that i could just plug some headphones into and this works great for that

This little amp packs a powerful punch,, sounds amazing, i use it for metal riffs, but it also can be used for clean tones., its an incredible value at its price,. I would honestly pay triple for an amp this good. I love it because it"s simple. Not too many knobs or settings, or not too complicated,. I use an Orange single cab, with a celestion vintage 30 and it sounds amazing.

My main rig is a Marshall JVM 210H 100 watt head & cabinet. After having a dead amp gig surprise due to a tube(s) dying without warning I realized I needed a backup. I did not have space to haul another amp or 2k for another JVM. I also wanted something that if needed was going to be a quick set up.
ENTER THE ORANGE MICO DARK. The key for me is the effects loop. So I have all the sounds I normally have. This thing gets plenty loud & stays clear. I can gig with it if needed. It will drive a 4 x 12 just fine. Yes it gets over the drums (using the PA or not using it for guitars) & I can use my effects to put me over the top for leads. It really shines with a (always on) compressor in front of it. The Gain sound is very similar to what I use on the JVM. Probably due to this having a pre amp tube. We play covers lots of 70s, 80s (Journey type stuff) so I don"t need super high gain but the Micro Dark can do that too. I can adjust my guitar volume & it cleans up as well as the Marshal. Not Fender clean but Marshall clean.
It is as long as my cell phone & about 4 inches wide so I can keep it in a lunch cooler bag. This thing rocks & solves a huge issue I had. It is simple to use just 3 very responsive controls.
I keep the shape button about 10 or 11 o clock but it is really responsive & fun to mess with getting that really scooped out sound even if I am a set it & forget it kind of person.
I"m going to save some wear on my JVM (& my back) by using the Orange Micro Dark for band rehearsal & home practice.
The only down side I found is I would like a little more robust power switch & it would be cool to have a foot switchable option to change from a clean to a crunch channel. I will use my effects to get that.
This was WELL worth the cost. Thanks to my sales guy Paul Rowan for the quick order placement. I would highly recommend the Orange Micro Dark.

dude....dude...this thing rips...from Jeff the Brotherhood, Sleep, any tone you want

This thing is a killer. You can dial in some really nice clean tones and crank it up to OMG level nastiness! It fits what I like and it's super loud. ...how can you pass it up?

This is a flipping MONSTER of an amp! This baby delivers the goods,and then some. I have an Orange solid-state combo amp for practice and I really love it. I started using it as mono block w/8" speaker to go along with a BOSS Katana head and it's 5" speaker for the other mono side. Mic'd up it is beyond sweet, also an inexpensive stereo set up. The Katana is my main thang, and I dig it's ability to do a very close emulation of any amp I sit beside it. I can match it with about any small combo and get really close to an exact duplicate. Thing is, I needed an amp head to match with the Katana when using a stereo 2-12" cab with Celestions. There are several available... that are great options. I have access to a low wattage DSL and a low wattage Bugera, gave the both a try and they are awesome options...But when a friend suggested I try her Micro Dark w/FX loop, the clouds parted, the Guitar Heavens shined down on me; I was converted on the spot. AMAZING AMP! I feel like an idiot for not having one of these sooner, especially for using with my Katana head in the stereo 2-12" set-up. I can run my Keeley Mod-Workstation, an amazing delay/reverb/phase pedal BTW, in the loop to match the Katana head and it's software effects control...OR in front of both amps (pedal board) set on a matching clean set and it is equally amazing. I use one of those big 'ol inexpensive Behringer tube pedals, modded of course, with the solid -state Katana to add a bit of tube harmonics. I can say I have found the perfect match; those other heads are great, but this Orange Micro Dark is heads and tails better for my needs. I could write for hours about this amp's tone,versatility, etc, but what blows my mind is the thing is the size of a toy. There be some serious Tone-Mojo Magic in this here tiny lunch-box sized amp. This amp is more like an All-Star 10 rating but Sweetwater only has a 5-Star rating. Truly one of the best amps ever made on planet Earth, and I suggest you get one sooner than later. I wish I would have...All good now,though! Thanks,Orange.

I have to say that this tiny amp has blown me away! I have always been curious about the orange brand, they have made a believer out of me. HUGE sound!!! I would definitely recommend this amp!

A couple of things- I'm a tone guru, I had an endorsement with Paul Rivera back in the day and left the business to raise my kids, just recently I got into putting some projects together and was looking to create a unique sound for our Metal Core/EMOish sounding band... Mind you, I'm doing this with my 14 year old son who is a prodigy screamer, but my background is heavy pop so my songs, my voice with his screaming is pretty epic.. Enough of that.. Anyway, being the tone guy I am I wanted something heavy as hell, but I also wanted a unique sound. The first head I bought was a PEAVY JSX, I did a few modifications to it and loved the sound I was getting out of my vintage marshall cabs. If I'm being honest this JSX sounded better than my rivera m60 that Paul sooped up for me.. Anyway, even though I loved the jsx and its loud as all get out, I felt I needed another head to pair it with... I don't run things like most guys, I run two heads out of a left and right pedal board because I learned at a young age the art of making two amps sing together. After listening to the mids on the orange micro terror and the small size I decided to pick one up and pair it with my JSX... Well, needless to say, with some tweaking I dialed in a tone from the Gods.. For those of you who say it's not loud enough to gig, I disagree 100%. You could gig with this as long as you have it miked through a 4x12 easily.. But the real secret is pairing it with another amp. The micro is loud as heck and sounds amazing. Some of my long time musician friends whom are gear snobs who only play through, soldanos, boogies, diezel, ETC, were blown away by the sound I got with these two amps paired.. The mid punch when cranked up is Godlike, this mixed with the mids lower on my JSX is tone on tone. I don't like the effects loop and found it noisy, so I don't use it, but if you want to run two amps at shows this is an incredible find honestly and if you would of shown me this 10 years ago I wouldn't of believed it was possible... Honestly, the way I run my rig there is no reason to step up to a orange dark terror or rockeverb.... It's just not needed because I use the clean channel on the JSX.... The one thing you need to understand about my review, is that I'm a bit of a rebel when it comes to gear.. I've always been the guy that looks for stuff no one is using, or hidden gems... The real threat of this setup is combination of the orange with other tones... I think the orange micro dark may be one of the most important purchases I've made in a long long time....

Incredible amp in a tiny package and at 20 watts it can purr like a kitten or roar like a lion! You can dial a clean non-distorted tone or you can dial a well overdriven tone with great sounding natural distortion. The middle "Shape"dial is basically your Tone Control allowing you to increase more mid tones or decrease the mid tones. Also, important is that it comes with a headphone jack. So, if you don't have a speaker cabinet, you can use headphones as speakers. This amp has the classic "Orange Sound". If you like Orange amps then this is great amp for the value. And, later in time if you want to add an Orange speaker cabinet instead of always using headphones, it will sound great! In fact, I've connected mine to an Orange PPC108 20-watt 1x8" Speaker Cabinet and it just sounds awesome! No regrets!

Incredible for such a small amp head and price point.
This screams rock and metal. You can dial in
clean tones BUT WHY!!! Paired with the ppc 112 and
rattling the windows. Can"t say enough about service
From Sweetwater. Reassuring in this day and age.

Can't say enough good about this lil monster. I'm a novice player but I know my gear. That being said I knew what I was looking for.. HIGH GAIN! without the high price! Delivers in every way, and "cleans up" for bluesy tones just fine in my opinion, I'm not after "pristine cleans". Never have I experienced a "practice amp" with such an inspiring sound. Since plugging into this tiny beast I can't put my guitar down and getting better daily because of it. If you're thinking about picking one up or even picking up guitar for the first time and enjoy heavier genres GET ONE!! And get it here from Sweetwater! Super helpful, best in the biz service. Hands down.

I just this little amp and it is an absolute beast! It's volume is more like all tube 20 watts than solid state 20 watts. Easily enough to gig clubs with. The gain is amazing, far more gain on tap than you'd need for the heaviest metal but it cleans really nice too. And I love shape control, it sweeps through all the sounds you'd want. It's far more than just a tone control that just rolls off the treble. It fully changes your EQ. This is an amazing amp!

I'll preface this with if you want super tight and punchy this amp can do it but it does it best with an OD in front. If you want sludgy Sabbath sounds and good overall doom this is perfection (middle position on a LP with gain at about 3 O'Clock). Classic rock is the gain knob a little past 12 O'Clock. Blues is gain at 9 o'clock and volume a bit higher (all the others are for volume below 1 tick mark). You can just about do it all with this amp. If the Orange sound is your sound then you can get it for $189. Yeah you can probably tell the difference in an AB with a Dark Terror or Rockerverb but in the mix and to non-guitarists no one will really know the difference. It also is pretty quiet, I don't need a noise gate for it to stay quiet. I am in a single in a dorm and I have the volume a little below 1 for most gain based playing as the gain knob becomes like a volume knob and I don't get complaints. Granted I play it on that setting during the day and there isn't an expectation of quiet but at the same time I wouldn't say it is much more obtrusively loud than any normal speaker system for a computer. This is all using the PPC112 which is absolutely fantastic. I will say it doesn't have the best pure vintage sound like the OR15 and you can tell the difference there but it has also been a while since I looked at the OR and I haven't done an AB. But for $ and little to no maintenance compared to a tube amp how can you go wrong.

Great , tiny amp with a huge sound , buy one you will love it !

Can't say enough. This amp is a keeper. Louder than most 20 watt heads. Great with pedals and the tone is superb.

This thing is way smaller than in person. I had imagined it to be a little bigger? It can practically fit in your pocket it's so small! But holy gee I plugged it into a friedman 1x12 earlier, cranked the gain and couldn't believe the sound coming from this little thing! Costs as much as a stomp box! cool little amp with extreme portability! Did I mention it is loud??!

I first tried this out through the PPC112 and I was sold within minutes. One thing I love about Orange amps is how quickly you can find a killer tone. I then bought the amp from Sweetwater (Mike LaFratte is always great) but I have yet to hook it up to a cab (not going to buy the cab till I get to Chicago for school). I know some people trash on the headphone cabsim and granted it's not 10/10 but it also isn't garbage. In fact after finally finding my perfect settings (volume at 11 o'clock, shape at 11 o'clock and gain at around 1 o'clock) this amp rips. Whole lotta love was begging to be played. Who needs two channels when you have a Les Paul (or similar two volume two tone) and set the neck at full volume and the bridge at 6 and just switch from the middle for your Orange-y gain goodness and then flip the switch to just the bridge and have a beautiful clean tone (not Fender cleans but I also don't want that). Today I tried a Mesa Mini Rec and it just wasn't my thing, so many controls so much to adjust, why go through all that when you can find killer tone almost instantly with this baby. I 100% recommend this amp.

This head was all I could ever want and more. I own a Peavey 6505+ and love it to death. However, the clean channel is lacking. I was hoping to buy this head to make up for Peavey's lack of clean channel. IT DOES AND MORE. This Orange rips with both clean and distorted tones. I highly suggest you buy this amp. Don't let the 20-wattage fool you, this thing gets loud as heck! All in all, I love this amp head and you will too.

I am so impressed with this amp. Clean or over driven, it has an awesome sound that can compete with larger amps. Highly recommended!!

I read every review here and watched a ton of YouTube videos on this amp and was convinced I had nothing to lose. ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! This thing has such a sweet tone and is super easy to get a great sound out of. It drives my PPC112 with ease. Ditto for the 1960A. Effects loop is beautifully clear and no buzzes or other weird noises that often plague effects loops on other amps. People said it was loud and it REALLY is! I don't think I've gotten it past 1 without my dogs and cats ears bleeding! Could easily do clubs and small to medium sized venues. This thing rocks, AND it weighs less than a lunch box does. WAY easier on my old broken back and makes me forget about lugging around my JVM210 half stack or DSL40C.

This little head is worth every penny you pay for it. Sounds awesome thru a 2x12 bottom. But thru a 4x12 cab you would swear you are playing thru a $2000 head.

Got my little Micro Dark after grabbing a Peavey 1x8 cab to put together a good home and small jam setup. Since I play both bass and guitar but lean towards bass a little my bass rig took priority, so I wanted to get something that had good tone to it but wouldn't be super expensive and didn't need anything physically big. So, I bought this little monster. It packs such a punch despite it's size, and even through my little Peavey cab it easily gets loud enough for a full band jam! As far as tone goes the Micro Dark sounds amazing, it does get bassy the farther to the right you turn your Shape knob but I personally like that a little. It's​ got some serious gain to it too, but be aware that it is pretty fuzzy. But it is an Orange. I use it to get some great Nine Inch Nails inspired tones, but what it also does well is some good, sorta dirty clean stuff. I roll my gain to just past noon, then roll my guitar's volume back for some fantastic cleans that break up a little, which is great considering my play style. The FX loop is what makes this little box so great, my pedals just sound so much better through the loop rather than straight into the amp's input. I can't get over how much my tone improved with my getting this amp. Get one, every guitarist could use one of these! Thanks Josh Strid for your being such an understanding sales guy!

I could not be happier with this lunchbox sized amp. It is the ultimate practice amp. It pushes my Marshall 1x12 nicely and can handle my Recto 2x12 when necessary. Snag a couple of your favorite pedals to throw on the FX loop and you are good to go. Headphones option is nice if your wife and kid want to sleep.

I purchased a Jet City 2x12 cab, hooked up the Micro Dark to it and it sounds sublime! With this cab I'm able to get good sounds on the middle pickup as well as the bridge. I guess the eminence speakers made the difference. I also put my Zoom CDR pedal in the effects loop and it also improves the sound! This one channel amplifier does some great dirty cleans with a little tweaking which I really love! I'm taking it to gigs in case my Mesa blows a tube I can plug this in for a backup. For nice clean headroom turn the volume up pretty high and the gain low and it sounds great! With the Jet City cab it's in a different league altogether!

This thing will decimate everything in its path with the volume and gain above halfway. Put a 4x12 under it and you will be able to keep up with a decently loud drummer. Just get the 1x12 or a 2x12 cabinet with it. The 8" cab is okay but who wants to be subtle? Not me! :)

If you aren't familiar with the simplified dial layout, it's very easy to find a great sound. With it being a lower wattage amp, I like my volume around 3 o'clock, the gain around 12 o'clock, and the tone between 1-2ish. That gives me a nice crunch that cleans up with the volume knob and it also provides a great platform for overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedals.

The effects loop is great and rivals the bigger brothers to this line, the Dual Dark 50/100. All in all a great amp, I'm in the process of setting up a stereo rig with 2 of these. It will be absolute chaos, but I'm ready! Are you?

I was skeptical as to whether this head could do what I wanted, which was great distortion sound at low volumes so I can play in my apartment.
I play this through my open back orange 2-12 cabinet.

The sound is immaculate, as happy with this head as I can possibly be. I play metal, or hardcore music usually so it was of great importance for me to have a good distorted tone and I can get this with this head without my pedals even.

100% would recommend this head to anyone for low volume metal guitar playing.
Also, good enough for small venues!

Hard to believe the sound and tones that come out of such a small package! Definitely glad I made this purchase.

Whether you're looking for a nice bedroom amp or something for rehearsal/small gig,look no further ladies and gents. Right now I'm playing it through 2 1x12 cabs and it sounds great. The eq on this amp is very responsive as,well as the gain and especially the volume. Lots of that nice fuzzy Orange gain. If you're wanting to play death metal type tones, just put an overdrive in front and you're set. This is by far the best guitar related purchase that I've ever made, bar none. Sweetwater's customer service is above and beyond, definitely the best in the industry!

5 stars and 5 reasons why you should buy this monster, mini, Orange head! Volume... It's unreal how loud the micro dark is. My guitar player uses a 4x12 Marshall cab with ad 45 watt Randall tube head. With him and our thrashin drummer, I have no problem keeping up. Really, crank it to 11 and see what happens! Versatility... I play anything from technical death metal to the blues, this head may be dark but it's can also groove with excellent note clarity and definition. Fuzz, clean and brutality, this head can hang. Sustain... In all the videos I saw and articles I read, I didn't hear much about sustain, it was the first thing noticed. You can ring notes until arthritis sets in. Effects loop... I'm running three peddles through the effects loops when I'm playing the blues and grooves. My Cry Baby, phaser and a delay. The fact that this weighs about as much as a pint of beer and can power my Orange open back 2x12 and has built in effects loop AND and cab emulating headphone jack absolutely blows me away. Price... I'm 29 and have been playing guitars since I was big enough to hold one. There is not other head that can compete with the Orange Micro Dark head for the price. Less than 200 bucks and you're set for the stage, studio or the living room. Screw it, reason 6 and 7! You're buying and Orange head and you're getting top notch customer service from Sweetwater. You can say Sweetwater is the Orange Amplifiers of musical instrument suppliers and their customer service is unmatched. Shout out to Tommy Winter from Sweetwater!

I just received this yesterday and I was BLOWN AWAY!! I am running it through my 2 x 12 at 8 ohms stereo cab and it is better sounding and seems louder than my Fender Champion 40. Much easier to get the tone you want between blues to metal. With the pre-amp being tube driven it is very responsive to pick attack also. Since most gigs are mic'd this is for sure gig worthy. Great response to drop D tuning too!!

i bought this amp for a birthday present for one of my daughters. she has been playing guitar & piano for 8 years & very good i might add. she couldn't believe the size & the different sounds that it produced. i also purchased the orange 1-12 black speaker cab plus the carrying case for the head. she is just blown away with this setup. i would like to give credit to my sales person zach garrison who was extremely helpful with my purchase. i've been dealing with zach with several of my purchases for a number of years. he is always a gentleman & very knowledgeable . he rocks !!!! i really enjoy dealing with sweet water your store is the best .i don't go anywhere else .! you have the best prices, @ sales personal going. again i would like to thank zach for his valued help . larry

Got this head to power a Sovtek 4x12 I keep at the practice space. Very impressed with the sound of this amp, especially for under $200. I can get nice, chimey clean tones out of it with my strat very easily. Of course, it has tons of gain, too, more than I'll ever use. Enough volume by miles to compete with a particularly hard-hitting drummer, as well as another guitarist and a bassist. I put comp and OD out front and use the effects loop for my tuner, delay, flanger, trem, and reverb. I'm still amazed every time I pack up that this fits in my gear bag with room to spare. I also paired it with an Orange 1x12 at home and that sounds amazing, too. I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for a super-portable, single-channel bare-bones head for practice or even for small gigs. You will not be disappointed!

I bought this as a back up in case my "go to" 25 year old workhorse 1x12 tube combo ever let me down. Since my amp is mic'd, I figured it could get me thru a tight spot.
I finally got the opportunity to find out if it would cut it. I plugged in the speaker from the combo, and plugged my pedal board into the FX loop. After a few moments of tweaking, I was able to get a very good tone. So much so that I wouldnt hesitate to do an entire gig with this amp. This amp saved the day!

I purchased the microdark along with the small 8" cab. I fired it up and was surprised how loud it was especially for an 8". However, when I hooked it up to my Marshall 1x12 cab I was totally blown away. The sound opens up. The controls are very simple. I thought i was buying a practice amp to toy around with. This thing sounds so good i might gig with it

I have only had this little TONE monster for a few days. I am powering (2) Jet City 1X12 cabs with it and it sounds great! I just tried out the effects loop last night and it works fine. The only thing that I noticed was a pop when turning my Mesa Toneburst boost pedal on or off. It does not have the silent switching system like my boss pedals, otherwise, I haven't had any other issues. I just ran my pedals through the front input jack and the pop noise was gone. Other reviewers on other sites have complained about this amp being overly noisey especially the effects loop. FYI - The input jack is on the right side so be careful not to plug your guitar into the headphone jack. Don't know if this can cause damage to the amp but there is a chance that it might. If you purchase a demo unit, there is a possibility that this may have already happened so be careful. Also make sure you have good quality shielded guitar cables. I have tried out my RP360 with this amp and it seems really quiet to my ears and it can get loud. Hope my review will help others. This is my second Orange product purchase and have NOT got a bad one yet. ROCK ON ORANGE!

Epitome of warm. I got this to have a quiet practice amp and it sounds amazing at low volumes
Cranked up it blows me away.

This little amp looks like a toy. Everyone whos seen mine and doesn't know what it is ...laughs. They quickly stop laughing when I fire it up. In fact they all want to buy one (and have). I'm not too sure about the headset jack, never used it...but the amp plugged into an Orange PPC112 closed back cab???...sweet lord look out. I have a big Orange amp ..RV50 and it is mean, even brutal at times. I absolutely love it. But this small Micro Dark is my at-home amp and I love it just as much. I plugged it into my practice area 412 cab and it rocks that cab too, without any issue. It sounds very much like my big Orange Rockerverb, and actually does scooped compressed metal tones even better at the far 5:00 end of the shape knob. It's thick sounding, and has nice cleans...surprisingly nice cleans. But crank her up turn up some gain and that's just pure awesomeness wrapped in bacon. Really I think 90% of most guitarist could live with just this amp as their only amp. Really? Yes, it's that good. If you are wondering whether to buy it or not, just buy it and enjoy the smiles.

Most everything has been stated about this wonderful little amp except that the Shape control isn't a traditional Tone control. This control is somewhat analogous to the Enhance control on an Eden bass amp in that it moves a midrange notch through the frequencies as it is adjusted. It is also rather interactive with the Gain control. Simply stated, the further the Shape control is adjusted clockwise, the higher the gain may be set with less distortion. With the Shape control set to, say, nine o'clock, the low midrange will be thick and heavy, and a pristine clean sound will be difficult to achieve. With the Shape control at around three o'clock, higher gain may be used without distortion Between the Shape and Gain controls, the Micro Dark is tonally highly flexible.

I have this tiny thing pumping a 1x12 Mesa widebody cab and man it is loud! I chuckled a little bit when I unpacked it I just couldn't believe how small it really is, sure I've seen the videos and stuff but wow it's a tiny little thing! Small but mighty, i've heard people say that the shape knob doesn't do much but I beg to differ. You can really hear the difference in tone when you have the gain cranked. This is my first amp with an effects loops and I love the difference it makes, especially with delay. Now that I have delay set after the gain I'm not getting that shrill feedback delay on high notes when I'm playing with a lot of distortion. I love the dynamics of how the gain really affects the overall volume level. I have a different hybrid amp from Vox and it doesn't do that, the volume stays more or less the same no matter where you set the gain. It's fun to play with the volume and gain on the Micro Dark to find you personal sweet spot. I have a Maxon OD 808 overdrive pedal in front of it and a TC flashback delay behind it (effects loop). I can play with this thing all day and just get a whole array of tones, I'm very happy and satisfied with this small but mighty amp!

So I have a main amp that I use in our church band, which is an Egnater Rebel 30 (2 channel amp with an FX loop), but I wanted something to use as a back-up in case I ever blow a tube before service or something. I had run across this and the demos sounded promising. The only thing I was worried about was if it would have enough headroom, as I mostly run the Egnater on the clean channel (rather clean) and use pedals for dirt. It's not that I'd never use the gain on the Micro Dark, but it wasn't how I would normally use it with my pedal board. However, I saw a guy's YouTube video where he swapped the tube out and got more headroom, so I figured it worth a shot.

When I got it, even with the stock tube, it could get loud and still retain some headroom. I thought it was nice and clear sounding and had less amp noise than my Egnater has. The FX loop sounded great for my reverb and delay pedals. The tone shape knob is actually so simple but rather useful for a quick tweak. Since most of my drive/distortion pedals have 2 if not 3 band EQ and I have a 10 band MXR EQ pedal, I wasn't needing a ton of EQ on the amp itself. I tried the amp through my Rebel 112 cab and it sounded just fine. I might get the small speaker some day just to mess around on, but didn't see an immediate need.

The gain stages are nice and varied, and with the tube pre-amp, it allows you to use the guitar volume knob to back off some gain. I swapped the tube out with a Mullard tube, as I had heard those could get more clean headroom. That really did make a big difference on headroom, so if you are looking for something with more headroom because your main amp is a cleaner Fender type, or you just rely on pedals for dirt, I highly recommend that tube. It is now loud enough that I was able to use it at a small church I play occasionally where we can crank the guitars, bass, and drums pretty loud, so plenty in the tank to handle that.

I actually plan to try it out at my church this coming week as my main amp, as long as it sounds okay through the mic I use on my cab backstage. I would love to have a smaller, simpler, lighter head to haul there each Sunday. The tube was so easy to swap, I could even just buy the same tube as a backup and only take the one amp to church. However, when bringing it as a back-up, it easily fits in my back-pack with my cables and supplies.

A brief mention of the headphone out jack is this. I find it adequate, and actually above average for a cleaner sound. When used with dirt pedals in front of it, it can start to sound a little too can-like IMO, but that is somewhat remedied by lowering the gain on all the pedals to a lower level than you'd set them if going through an actual cab. Still useful for going through parts quietly at night, but might not be the best solution for recording stuff with a decent amount of gain. It is cool that you could both mic the cab and send the headphone output to your DAW to blend the 2. If you detach the cab cable, it is silent and only goes to the phones.

I just can't think of any good reason not to get this amp as either a back-up or just a portable alternative to your main rig, unless you dial in a very specific overdrive/distortion on your amp that this one doesn't match exactly.

I was looking for a amp that had aome nice gain and nice cleans and the dark terror is it
Im very happy with this amp must buy

This little amp blew my expectations away. You can get some incredible tones out of this thing. Since this is a hybrid amp, you get the tube sound, but the solid state power, which means that this thing can get really loud! I run this through an orange 212 cab, and it's so loud that I keep the volume under the second mark. It's incredible. The effects loop on the back is a wonderful addition to the amp, which is something that the Micro Terror did not have. You could definitely play this at a gig, although it might need to be mic'd up. I highly recommend this amp! Very solid and incredibly small.

Very loud through my Acoustic 4x12 cab. Very touch sensitive to my picking attack. I plan to take this to out of town gigs in case my Mesa blows a tube during a performance. I love the high gain and think I can get sounds from it that I've been unable to from other setups.


Very cool amp! Very loud and is sensitive to my picking attack at all gain levels. Played it through my Acoustic 4x12 cab and was able to get some very nice dirty cleans as well as great high gain classic rock. I think it sounds best if I stay on the bridge pickup for both clean and dirty sounds with my Prs guitar. It has a volume and a tone knob which makes it much easier to dial in with this single channel amp. Turn up the gain and backoff the volume for cleaner sounds to taste. For songs like "The Story in your Eyes" by the Moody Blues or "Listen to the Music" by the Doobie Brothers it sounds fantastic! Nice effects loop, line out for recording, its got it all. As always Sweetwater ensured prompt delivery, thanks John! My rep Dylan Driscoll is always great to work with as well. I love the Micro Dark and highly recommend!

very small , but plenty of power

Being meh, about the Micro Terror, I wasn't expecting much, but tried since everyone was going nuts about it. Immediately fell in love. Easy to dial in some good times, from clean to modern metal. I never got so much variety from a gain knob.
I could only afford the head at first (experiment had shown that a crappy cab didn't do it justice), so I used the cab sim out to my mixer, and it was pretty good for an included freebie. Then later, I added a PPC112 cab, while leaving the cab sim out to the mixer. A nice Wet Dry rig on the cheap, and it sounds amazing. With the gain one notch past the top, my Epi LP Custom PRO can go from clean, to crunch and have about 8 differ sounds in between, all controlled by my picking and guitar volume.
My poor CrushPix 20W combo has been gathering dust.

I am simply stunned by this little monster! I read tons of reviews and watched many videos before parting with the modest amount of cash. Just about the best two hundred bucks I can remember spending.

Not only is this thing very, very, loud, it sounds incredible and is extremely easy to dial in a great tone. I ran it through my Avatar Contemporary 2x12 8 ohm open back cab (hellatone 30's) and was blown away. Dialed at about 10 o'clock it had more than enough meat and taters to keep up with my 3 piece band. At noon it was too loud. Anywhere beyond that hurt my ears. Mind you it doesn't have the bass heavy unbridled power and grunt of my Mesa Reborn Dual Rec, but it is more than adequate for practice and club venues...and it fits in my hand! I intend to give it a go on our next album.

I have owned all types of different amps in my 25 years of playing. This little Orange dynamo is the best value for an amp that I can remember. It's value goes beyond the tiny price tag.

I have to say, this is an awesome amp! I owned a Marshall 30th Anniversary head, but had to part with it 15 years ago and wanted a replacement. The Orange amp head was a great choice. My only issue with it is that it's a single channel, but knew this going into the purchase.

I went with a Marshall MX112, instead of the Orange 8 inch cabinet. Vey happy with my choice!

Very happy with the purchase!

blown away this is an amazing little amp that offers so much potential
so I can experiment with different cabinets and effects through the effect loop
can't wait to discover all it is capable of also love the idea of how portable it is and what a loud
sound the comes from something so small also love the headphone option

Was expecting to only use for practice, but it's actually a great little amp. Definitely using it in my grab n' go rig!

Love this little powerhouse! Simple, solid and awesome! Just buy it already!

With all the features packed into this little unit, you'd be surprised by the low price/great value. Great quality construction. Simple controls make it easy to dial in tones across the spectrum of distortion/gain. The cab simulation in the headphone is a nice touch for recording. I love being able to place my modulation effects in the FX loop. It's my new favorite amp!

The new Orange Micro Dark is an Amazing little amp. From Clean to very high gain it works for all the music I play. The effect loop is great a nice added new feature that the other Micro didn't have. The Shape control is great for dialing in a perfect sound. I haven't used the line out with Cab simulation I have no use for it yet but nice to know it is available if I do need it. The day I got this head I plugged it into my 4-12 MESA rectifier cab and it sounded amazing really loud to. It sounded great through a 1-12 cab as well. Orange did an awesome job with this head.

Amazing tone on this amp. Clean is really good, heavy gain tones are even better. PLUS an effects loop?! Awesome! You can gig with this and plug into almost any back line most venues have. Amazing.

Having bought a Miro Terror recently--and loving it--I was excited to see this. Arrived super quickly from Sweetwater and tried last night with a 35 year old Carvin 2x12 cab. Gorgeous tone... test driving it with Mogami cable and a number of guitars using hummer and single coil pups. I'd love to shake the hands of the people designing these units. The sophistication of the tonal range is wonderful--rich and creamy with tube pulsing waves. Hard to imagine a 12AX7 giving any more. The effx loop very impressive. The first time i've been able to use a distorted tone on my hard wired EHX Deluxe Memory Man and not have it sound squashy. Band for the buck an understatement.

I ordered this amp after seeing one demo. I have historically owned a Orange Micro Terror with several mods as my backup amp, which is great, but there is no effects loop. This amp is an amazing improvement on the original micro. With plenty of gain on tap, it is less enherntly gainy stock. There is enough clean headroom with the right set up. Playing through a smaller wattage speaker setup is going to get a little hairy quick, but paired with a 2x12 or larger, you can get enough clean headroom to run from bluesy clean on up. As with all lower wattage amps your tone is much more affected by guitar and effect choice. Too much volume from an effect and you'll sound grainy quicker. Hot hot pickups will also clip earlier, and the clipping from this monster can be harsh if things aren't dialed in correctly. With that said, I could use this as a main amp with some tweaking, or be very very happy as a back up amp for anything I might be using. The effects loop is dead silent. Do watch out for loop effects that have too much gain.

Loudness, this thing is crazy loud. During last practice I was able to get the drummer to ask me to turn down running through a 2x12 cab, with 2 celestion vintage 30's. After laughing he asked where my amp was.

The only thing I don't like about these is the power cord. I get that putting the transformer in the amp will be a heat issue, but the cord reminds me of a laptop cord just asking for someone to pull it trip etc... This is mostly a be very aware where your stuff is issue.

This thing is sick! Plain and simple. Beyond the fact that it is a great practice amp, it doubles as a universal tool kit for one to dial in a killer tone with ease! Not to mention it can serve as a viable backup for most live applications. Get one! You won't regret it.

This little thing is awesome! Bought a Micro Terror right before this came out, and liked it. Went ahead and bought this shortly after and LOVE it! Micro Terror went back promptly. You can get every sound out of this as you can the Micro Terror and then some, and the effects loop works perfectly with my Firehawk FX and the 4 cable method. The tone shape knob I find more useful than the treble cut on the MT as well. This little guy is better in every way, and gives much more expensive amps a run for their money!

Whether you have the Micro Dark or the Micro Terror, do yourself a favor and look for a vintage Mullard Blackburn 12ax7 (mine is a '59), really opens this thing up and SOOO much louder it's unreal. Gives you more clean headroom too since you don't have to turn the gain up nearly as much to get loud, and still tons of gain on tap! To get the same volume as the stock JJ tube dimed out I can now run the volume knob at noon with the Blackburn, with much more on tap. Try it, you'll thank me!

Had the best of the best amps since 1980, Aero to Zep covers, and everything in between. Bought this as a practice amp because I'm hooked on tube amps. Good thing they didn't put this monster in a bigger combo package and charge $600.00 bucks, because after playing this amp for 2 hours I would have paid that. I'm going to save my 50 watt vintage combo for just gigs, and use this as a backup and rehearsal. Maybe its that classic rock sound I'm getting, and like, but this thing screams, and will punch you in the face. Best money I've ever spent on an amp. Dynamite!

I was looking for a practice amp that sounded decent. Considered Marshall Class 5 and some other class A amps ... was looking at a video for the Micro Terror, stumbled on a review by a guy who just bought a Dark Micro and was blown away by the gain staging. Now that I've heard it in person, I'm ... extra blown away.

To me this amp sounds like a cross between a Vox and a Marshall ... sort of a chimey Marshall or a gainey Vox. I'm running it through an extra 4x10 loaded with 30w Celestions. I tend to play everything from classic rock (Zeppelin, Petty, et al) to blues to more current stuff (Foo Fighters). The Dark Micro can handle all of it and then some. My son came over and started playing metal on it and the amp was still more than articulate enough. BTW ... you can get a great modern country crunch out of this thing in a matter of seconds. Easy to set up, easy to use, and, at this price point, easy to own.

I play a dual amp rig (Orange and Cornford) ... after hearing this little thing I'm tempted to buy another Dark Micro and mount them both to my pedalboard ... especially for smaller gigs ... I'd lose two cases and more than 60lbs of weight while maintaining 85% to 90% of my tone!

The service from Sweetwater was fantastic, as always. Everybody I talk with down there seems to actually enjoy their jobs and helping people out. What more could you ask for?

For the price you can't go wrong! I have been loving this amp!
I have this paired with a Victory 2x12 and have been mostly using it as a pedal slave. With single coils around 9 to 10 o'clock with the gain, sounds clean to my ear. There is plenty of gain for the Metal head in me as well, many reviews mention you need a drive to tighten it up a bit.
The only issue is that super BRIGHT blue power led! It will haunt your dreams! I found it super easy to swap out and it made this amp 100% Better!
The cab Sim on the headphone out sounds just as good as my cab! I don't think I am losing much, stereo insert cable to mixer.

If you are looking for heavy, chunky sound that chugs, then look no further! This is an incredible little amp with huge sound, at a very decent price. It is great for any small venues, practicing at home, or just jamming with friends. I paired this with the Orange PPC108 20-watt 1x8" Cabinet and it sounds great! Orange delivers in every way possible do not hesitate to purchase one of these.

I bought this last month as a little BDay gift for myself while my main rig, the Synergy SYN-1 was in the shop for a minor repair (Still is BTW...different story). Anyway, I needed something for a podcast session that I had to play guitar on and the client had paid up so I had to start ASAP. The part needed to be clean but full bodied, warm, jazzy tone. Went to [bleep] shop in town and picked it up. Heard that it did clean "well enough" for the session. While setting up for the session, I played around with the volume and gain. Was able to easily dial in a sufficiently rich, full and natural clean tone on my '87 Japanese Fender Strat (SSH). Got lost in getting tones for about 30 minutes before even tuning up (only slight out anyway).

After doing the session, I started to try some heavier tones with the Strat's humbucker. Very nice. The single tone knob is remarkably flexible and seems to compress the sound as well.

I'm now doing a 70's Santana-meets-Fania All-Stars type of instrumental with a trumpet soloist, horn section, electric bass, electric piano, drum kit, and Afro-Latin percussion. Using my vintage '76 Gibson LP Custom with DiMarzio Super Distortions, I was able to dial in a rich and throaty violin-ish Santana sound using both pups, dialing back the volume a hair or two.

It's plenty loud too through my Mesa Boogie 10" cab/Celestion G10 Creamback. The amp represents a wonderful "second" amp for studio use. Having only 1 channel limits the amp's ability to change tones on the fly, particularly from clean to dirty but for studio use -- a no brainer in having this on your guitar tone menu.

The only minor complaint is the power cable. It's a single pin style connector on the amp itself and not the standard IEC power cable. Not a big issue and perfectly understandable to keep the size/cost down. Otherwise I really love this new flavor. Between the Orange and the Synergy, I've got some great tube amp tones for all my projects.

I purchased this amp to have more of a high gain sound than what I normally get out of my usual go-to rig (Peavey ValveKing 20 into an Orange PPC212 for most applications) and honestly just to demo as I was intrigued by reading all of the great reviews on this small, inexpensive SUPPOSED monster. First, I'll give my only negative...the high gain is a bit, uhhh, wooly or fluffy for my taste. This is not necessarily a negative as I know loads of people LOVE the Orange gain sound. As this was my first experience playing through an Orange head, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I guess I'm more of an American-type distortion fan. But now for the positives. There are SO MANY! First of all, I am super impressed with the clean sound this amp produces. Mind you, there needs to be some gain added to get any clean sound at all due to the design of the amp but MAN OH MAN the clean is crispy and articulate! Second, the low gain to mid gain sounds are very satisfying! Very, VERY nice for classic rock to some harder rock. Third, effects loop is nice and functions as it should. Fourth, cab sim/headphone jack is very usable and a great feature for an amp at this price. Would I recommend to a friend? YES. Would I want this as my only amplifier in a live situation? NO. Changing sounds will require some adjustment on the fly and would probably be a pain in a live application. --So, in conclusion, BUY THIS. I believe anyone can get a sound they will like out of this small but mighty fella. If you're not a big fan of the high gain fluff this thing was built for, stick a Tube Screamer in front and it will tighten things right up for you. I will definitely recommend this to friends.

What a great mini head for practice ! The power is there for the loud parts and the gain is monstrous. Best thing is in the garage when she's trying to sleep I can turn it DOWN ! My Marshall wouldn't do that.. And on the back, the send/return loop allows for tuner, chorus, or whatever. Great small amp at a fair price.

I have a 30 Orange combo tube amp, which I love, and I bought this as a backup in case I have problems with my main amp. This micro amp is surprisingly good. It may become a go-to amp for all my rehearsals and I could see using it live in small venues where I don't want to carry a ton of heavy equipment.

The only downside, I wish it had two channels, so I could foot-switch between clean and dirty, like its bigger brother has. I also wish it had a half-power switch, as many Orange amps have, because at the full 20 Watts, it's a challenge to get the volume/gain mix down low enough for a small room. But other than those cons, it's really amazing. It has the true Orange sound and I see now loss in sustain as compared to the all-tube amps, which surprised me, given it has a solid state power end rather than power tubes. There is a slight amount of hum coming from the speaker. I paired it with an Orange speaker cabinet.

Quick warm up - the perfect thing for practicing. but I think it will have a place on stage, too.

Overall, a great little amp

This is my first high gain amp and I couldn't be happier with the sound! With the gain cranked to around 3 o'clock and the mids scooped slightly it sounds so rich and full and nasty with my Epiphone Les Paul Studio. Only thing is, more than any other amp I've played, the sound of this thing changes immensely with the volume setting. I've found the sweet spot for me is around 10 o'clock, which on this thing is really too loud for extended playing in my apartment. So I picked up the JHS Little Black Amp Box and plugged into the effects loop it lets me control the "real" volume of the amp without changing the tone! Cannot recommend that addition enough. Desperately wish it had a clean channel but I guess they gotta make some sacrifices to make an amp that sounds THIS good THIS cheap THIS loud and THIS small!

My old amp died recently and I bought one of these to fill the void until I can save up/decide on a permanent replacement. I"m really blown away with how good this amp sounds through my Creamback loaded cabinet. The clean sound is actually really good (especially at bedroom volumes) and it takes pedals really well. My only gripe is that if you bypass the Preamp by plugging into the effects return the master volume is also bypassed. So if you wanted to us a modeler with it you"d only be able to control the volume via the modeler. Not a deal breaker but it seems like that might be one if he ways they keep he cost so very low.

First, dont be put off by its size. Its incredibly loud! This with the little 8" cab was more powerful than my 75 watt 2x12 Line 6. This is the perfect amp for an in home Sabbath, Sleep, Down sound. I also could see it paired with a crybaby to get a great hendrix tone. The shape control really transforms the sound. I could get early Clash sounding tones from it. Now, the only reason i give this less than a 5 is because it just did not have the clarity for modern metal tones. But thats ok, it was meant for something different. If fuzzy sounds or real dirty tones are what you are after, this is great. However, i am just after a more modern high gain tone.

Picked up one to use at home but will start taking with me as a back up for gigs. No more dragging around a 45lb DSL head. This ROCKs!!!! What a surprise I didn't think it would sound as good as it does. The effects loop is a big bonus. Powers a Marshall 1960 cabinet with no problem and is easy to dial in the perfect tone. Reminds me of the old Marshall AVT amps but much smaller. Love it!

Looked at this amp a long time did all my homework and still can't get past how good this amp sounds and easy to dial in a good tone is 59yrs old had and still have amps that most guitar players will never have the chance to play most of my amps r put in road cases use the micro dark all the time and it cover all music if you play guitar u need this amp I wish I had this amp when I was still living on the road thanks sweetwater

I've been playing this head through the Bugera 112TS and it's been great. Great clean tones and when you crank it this little guy doesn't hold back. I'm excited to try this through some different cabs!

I knew what I was buying before I ordered this.
I've heard a lot about the Micro Terror and I had no doubt that the Micro Dark would be any different.
Love the sound, the clean is clear and once pedals are integrated, it works like a dream.
I still have to research the FX Loop inputs a little more, but other than that, no regrets in this purchase.

Thanks to my Sweetwater Engineer Ken Davis for hooking my up with this micro amp. Frankly, none of the video reviews out there really demo'd what I wanted to hear, which was the flavors of high gain with hum buckers. One thing I noticed out of the box was the power supply, which was similar to a laptop power supply with a small pin connect line going to a transformer, then the three prong cord connecting off the transformer. I could force this shorting out very easy with heavy use. No one to the sound. Cleans were decent but not much headroom. But do you buy this for cleans? No. The gain is where it shines. It's a nice sort of sludgy or grungy gain. You are not going to get the "dents" on this. I tested on a 1 x 12 and 2 x 12 closed back. 2 x 12 won my a mile. Here is my big gripe with this amp. The shape knob which is the eq handles bass, mid, and treble, and not very well. Go to the left and you loose treble, go all the way to the right and you loose bass. So the only useable eq is in the 12 o'clock area give or take. There really needed to be a separate bass control. But here is an easy fix. Put a seven band eq pedal in the effects loop, and bingo! You can open this amp up to more tweakable gain. Hopefully there will be some future mods to rectify what I think is a useless eq curve. But overall, it's a fun amp for the money. And guess what? The power supply is already shorting out after an hour of use.

I was looking for a new practic amp and got an insane Head.....Great Head for a tiny price.. very happy with the effects loop...you can dial in some nice sounds going in dry as well..got mine with the 8" speaker but this little Hulk can push some 12" and not get tinny..
very very happy.. thanks again Chris & Sweetwater for this combo deal..

I am really amazed at how great this cute lil amp sounds. I bought it with the matching 8" cab. It is very loud, yet it sounds really really good cranked up. The sound starts to fizzle out at about 75% max volume, but that's most likely due to the small speaker. If I hooked this up to a 2x12 cab, I'm sure it would remedy that issue. Just like the others have said, you can go from an almost perfectly clean tone to a raunchy garage band with just a small turn of a knob. You can go from John Mayer to Kerry King all with the twist of a knob. Huge value in this amp.

This little baby is small, but packs a punch. Versus the Solid State Marshall I had before rated for 30w, this thing gets WAY louder even if it only has a tube pre-amp. Dialing a clean tone (any position 9' o clock or lower) is super simple and very nice and clean. And I just love the different stages of gain you can get out of it. Especially when you dial this to max. With a simple 10" stage monitor I have, this thing sounds like a demo setup for the NAMM show. Even setting the gain all the way up and the master volume all the way down, you still get a feed through the speaker. Now that screams power. The size of this makes it so easy for me to set up on my desk when I feel like random Jamming. Plus I can take it everywhere, find a speaker to hook up to, and just blare. And the headphone cabsim makes it sound great as well if you got a good even mix set of headphones.

I'd recommend this to any heavy player looking for a good practice amp or something to take for a jam. But there is a seen niche appeal for its higher gain stages. If you're hoping for a super clean tone, I'd recommend the Micro Terror over this. But with the Micro Dark, you can make it scream like you had a fullstack at a Metallica arena show. Just much much smaller.

I haven't seen any real metal reviews of this amp yet, so here goes. Obviously, this is meant for heavier music, but does it have enough gain and does it get nice, tight thumping palm mutes required for modern metal? The answer is no- not by itself anyway. It has significantly less gain than my dark terror and sounds pretty flabby with any tight palm mute riffs. The answer is to stick a good overdrive in front, then put an EQ in the loop. Also a BBE sonic stomp on the end of the loop goes a long way. Only with all three pedals correctly set do I feel this can handle modern metal. You can get a great clear but heavily distorted tone out of it when you do this, but you still won't be able to turn it up that loud with the PPC108 before the mush comes out. This is one of the reasons I bought this amp, just to mess around with at volumes low enough to watch tv and have a conversation while I play. The other is just cause it looks cool. I did hook it up to my PPC112- and yes it does have much more volume and bass, but you lose some of the tight saturation. Also, as you may suspect being a hybrid amp, it doesn't have quite the feel of a tube amp and plays very much solid state. I pretty much knew what to expect buying this, and I am not let down one bit. Will it replace any of my tube amps or would I use this as a backup? Not a chance. If you play modern metal- and your expectations are realistic- this makes a fun little toy to add to your collection

Don't be fooled by how tiny this head is. I plugged it into an alnico blue and it sounded huge. The shape control works really nicely with humbuckers and single coils. Using my 2012 les Paul classic with this head is just stupid good. The ppc108 cabinet works just fine in my bedroom. Some complain about a lack of frequency response, and although that is somewhat true with bass frequencies and lower mids, I don't ever see myself gigging with a 1x8 cab. It works perfect for my bedroom.The effects loop works, nothing magical about it. The only gripe I could have, and this is very minor, is that the headphone out cab simulator sounds a bit fuzzy at higher gain settings, and also it clips very quickly. Very satisfied with this head, and I can't wait to plug it in to a 2x12 or even a 4x12.

I ordered this from Sweetwater on Monday and had it on Tuesday.. Fantastic customer service!
I love the little bag of candy when open my box.. That is a nice touch!
Now on to the amp.. I got everything set up and I played it for about 45 minutes thru the 1x8 cab.
The amp is really limited thru that, there is not a lot of headroom and it preferred single coils and my Les Pauls absolutely beat the crap out of that little speaker and the speaker distorted like crazy on the bridge of all my humbucker guitars and not a cool Greenback breakup, it was like, dang I'm gonna blow that speaker up andI was tuned half step down. I was pleasantly surprised that I without much effort dialed in these sweet clean tones! I mean Tele chicken pickin twang to die for and either Fender scooped blues or Marshall type clean to smokey woody mids. That alone was worth $288. I have an EVH 5150iii for gain. I bought this for a grab and go and quiet practice when everyone is asleep amp.
I plan on experimenting with a 2x12 and a 4x12 and seeing what that does, I am also going to try the cab sim out direct to a board and direct to a PA and headphones and see what that does. I will also see how well it takes pedals in both the effects loop and dirt pedals directly in.
I just got it and I am still playing with it but I am very happy so far.
Selling points
Effects loop.
Cabinet Simulator and Headphone jack.
Variable EQ that actually works, and is much like Blackstars ISF feature.
Tons of Gain Options from cleans to more than you can use.
Small, you smoke and amp and this can live in the gig bag and get you out of trouble during a gig.
$288 for the halfstack is nothing for what you get and like $180 for the head? Unbelievable value here!
I predict this will be one of the number one holiday gifts for guitar players everywhere!
It really does cover all genres, it's that versatile!

It runs at 8 ohms, so it sounds great out of my marshall mxr412..but more impressive is the tone you get out of the 1x8 cab that goes with the micro dark. It's super loud, clean channel sounds great, dirt sounds even better. The price is crazy too you can find it for about $ and the cab for about $. Takes pedals really well but not the full board..it gets muddy..but I run my canyon delay and my oceans 11 reverb and it sounds great.

Sounds like a beast when boosted.....great for practice,great with headphones,thrash metal to doom and even crispy cleans....just get good headphones and a great cab and your good.....not recommended for jamming with the band ....might need to p.a it.... especially if the drummer has ballistic drumming techniques...

This is a fun amp for home use. Not loud enough to compete in any live setting without DI or mic, it still has some great tones and is fun in a home or home studio. Simple and surprisingly "tubish" output. You don't really get a clean clean, but it does clean up and with a puch of the gain it gets gritty without the mud. I am very happy with it as an option but I would never promote it as a main amp or as a good option for stage (other than a lightweight emergency head for the gear bag, which is not a terrible role!).

To start off, this is a very good portable amplifier. It is VERY loud. Even loud enough to play gigs.It takes pedals very well. If you are looking for a good metal amplifier on a minimal budget, this is for you.

Now a few negative things about this amplifier. First of all, it NEEDS an overdrive pedal in front. Without an overdrive pedal, it kinda sounds loose and flubby. Also, beware the headphone jack. One morning, I woke up early and decided to see how this thing sounds through headphones. (Didn't sound very good obviously) Then I realized it was not only coming from the headphones, but through the speaker too. What!? It was early in the morning! This amp's loudness wasn't helping either. If you plan on doing this, just unplug it from the speaker. This is a warning.

In conclusion, if you have an overdrive pedal, and you've read my warning, this is a five star review for you. I can never stop playing metal riffs on this amp. If you're looking for good metal tones in a small package, I highly recommend it.

I grabbed this a month ago and I really like this little guy. Loud and has great tone.

I bought this amp and cab combo mainly for the Micro Dark, because I already picked up a 320 watt Line 6 cab with Vintage 30s for live sound. I figured I'd be able to have a cab for home and a cab for the stage and use the head for both. Well, it's decent for home practice, the shape control just doesn't do it for me though. I prefer to have at the very least a three-band EQ onboard so I can dial in my tone without putting another box on my pedalboard. And because it is only a single-channel head, I don't turn the gain knob past 4. I'm running a Tube Screamer (I have 3 ESP LTD guitars loaded with EMGs and an Afterburner), an Electro-Harmonix Silencer, and an MXR Dyna Comp with reverb and delay pedals and a Phase 90 in the FX loop on the Silencer. This makes it usable for home practice, although it is a definite pain in the neck in a live setting. Live I try to keep my rig as streamlined as possible by only using my Tube Screamer as a boost, channel switcher for my amp and my noise gate going straight into my amp/cab. As for the sound of the Micro Dark, the fuzz is great if all you play is fuzz and the distortion is good, once again, if all you play is distorted. However, I felt that it sounded weak overall, so I put the most expensive 12AX7 tube I could find in it and it cleaned up the sound significantly, but that Shape control is the reason it only gets four stars. I'd recommend it for beginner and intermediate players who are still experimenting with sound, but it's not really suitable for someone like me who knows exactly what settings are needed for their sound.

I purchased this for my nephew and he really digs it for his first amp. After about a week of playing one of his buddies brought over a 1x12 cabinet over since it can drive 8 or 16 ohm speaker man I tell you what this little amp rocks not bad at all. It does what you need plus it offers an effects loop. So, if you want one get one and avoid the little 8 inch speaker and just go for a 1x12.

This amp will not disappoint. It can go from really clean to ear-splitting distortion with the turn of a knob. It is extremely easy to use. Less is more in the case of the Micro Dark. I'm not a huge fan of the high gain territory on this amp. It is definitely not as tight as a Marshall. That being said, this amp takes pedals very well. It handles my big muff, tubescreamer, crayon and others very well. This amp is perfect for nighttime practice with the headphone option. I use it every night to crank out some thrashy riffs before I go to sleep. You can't go wrong with this amp. Replacing the preamp tube can completely change the sound of the amp. Give it a shot!

The little amp is pretty nifty. It doesnt stand a candle to the or100, but definitely in the same family of sound. I put an older valve in it and it seemed to smooth the highs in the gain to a nice effect. I just need something with some growl, to use at night. The headphone out is tolerable, but meh. It goes okay loud on a pair of 2x12 16ohm, but i wouldnt say "get over rock drummer" loud. Definitely adequate for self monitoring or for quieter small bars. Of course, when you mic it up, the game changes. Theres little clean headroom or clean volume (didnt expect any), but its useable clean in a mic'd or studio environ. With a ss output that is meager, it clips easily and doesnt sound good when it does. THere is a sweet spot on the unit, and its limitations arent crippling. I can mic it up with same mics and cab as I do my or100, and come back with a very passable recording. It has a pretty low noise floor with no excess oddities. It doesnt get hot of course. The loop out ( i require loop for my gforce and volumes) makes a great send to the mixer to add a cab IR post processing. It handles my gforce in loop just fine. It also plays just fine with no speaker attached. The size is comical, and would be a great backup amp for bands. If you take the feet and handle off, you can fit it in 1/2 a 2u spot. I foresee people making a tiny stereo rig out of them. The blue light is downright wretched color and blinding bright (WTF orange???). Putting an orange 5w led in it is very simple, but probably kills a warranty?

The pros outweigh the cons, by far, on the little amp. No it doesnt push a 12" with any b**s to get a deep chunky sound, but its not void of bass response. Power tube vs solid state output rules havent been broken here. The knobs work fine and offer a few sonic options. For such small price and such a tiny light weight amp, it does what you expect and pay for. For using as a dirty preamp for a synth, it works out too. I think of it as another preamp/di flavor for the desk, but in a format i can toss in my jacket pocket and power a variety of cabs with. Don't be expecting this to compete with a big pure valve head, but you can count on it being useful in a few ways and not costing you much in maintenance. Valve preamp response and sound is in the box. Even getting that far is a step above many other options. The power out section isnt something to write home about, but the cost and useability keeps it a good deal.

Loud enough for an apt or room , even light drummers . I bought it with the 8" speaker cab . It's a little thin sounding but I need to try it with a 12" speaker . Tons of gain and very clean too !

Small box, big sound!

The perfect backup amp.
Can get decent clean through dirty tones with the guitars volume knob. The effects loop works great and takes pedals well.
It's not going to replace my 50 watt amp but it will come with me everywhere I go and get used for practice.

I mainly invested into this amp for the sake of travel--i once carried around a Tube Combo amp ranging from 55lbs-75lbs...with no casters...not fun. For how small/compact and light it is, it BRINGS THE VOLUME! I had the pleasure of doing a full demo/jam at a recent band practice thru an 80w 112 cab. Not one time did the guys ask me to turn up.

The reason i dont rate the Micro Dark @ a 5 is, for my tastes, it's not the tone i seek. However with the built in Effects Loop im very curious to see what can be dialed in!

Overall, it is a Wonderful invest! I happily recommend

I bought this amp to get an inexpensive taste of the Orange sound. Disappointed in that regard, because it has a class D power amp circuit. Class D amps work well for bass but not for guitar. I think the best video review of this amp was done by Ola England; Will It Chug. It has weird HF tones that are annoying. It does work well used as an overdrive/distortion into a tube amp. Buy the new Fender Champ instead.

I have a HT1R blackstar with a 1x12 cab and thought this might be a step up. Its definitely got way more power and thusly a bit more headroom but there's a fizziness when giving it a lot of gain that I'm not really into. Maybe its an orange thing, idunno, this was kind of a roll of the dice based on reviews. The blackstart has two tubes and a lot more circuitry even though its only 1 watt. I played this maybe less than an hour and it went back in the box. Maybe I'm just not an orange guy.

This amp gets a lot of great reviews and for an amp under $200 you do get a lot for your money. I use this as my practice amp and run it through my Orange PPC 2x12 cab.

As a practice amp there isn't a lot to complain about. It's simple, it's more than loud enough, and it's cheap enough that I don't really worry about it. With that being said, I WOULD NEVER WANT THIS AS MY MAIN AMP. My main amp is a Peavey 6505+ 1x12 combo and that amp is better in every single way. To be fair that amp did cost about 3 1/2 times as much as this Orange. But the 6505+ paired with the Orange PPC 2x12 is a beast.

The bass on the Micro Dark is so loose and flabby, it's all over the place. I use a tube screamer to cut some of it out but it's still pretty bad.
I am also not a big fan of the tone knob. I like amps with a lot of mids and highs, and then just enough bass to make it sound big. I feel with the tone knob, you either get mids or you get highs and lows. There is not a lot of inbetween. With mainly mids it sounds boxy and muffled. With just highs and lows the bass is out of control and it's missing that mid range cut.
And finally I'm don't love the gain on this amp. It's not a thick saturated gain, it's more of a gritty loose gain. I think that might be Orange in general but it's not my favorite type of gain.

As I researched this amp everybody asks if it's loud enough to gig with. I am actually a drummer first and a guitar player second and I can definitely say it's loud enough to keep up with a drummer. But I think a lot of people read the reviews and think they are finding a diamond in the rough. It seems like people are hoping to get a $1000 tube amp sound in a $200 package and that's just not the case.

As I stated previously, as a practice amp this is more than fine. It checks all the boxes for a decent practice amp. But if I had bought this hoping it would be my main amp I would've been very disappointed. If you want that really nice and smooth tube amp sounds you have to pay for it.

If there were a lower rating than 1 i would give it to this amp. I know its a small little cute practice amp and i didnt expect much. But this thing has to be the worst sounding amp i have ever heard. I was suptised it sounded so terrible after all the glowing reviews. Must be like the Kings new clothes...but i dont see them. Bottom line… Terrible tone.IMO