Cheap Amp, Expensive Speaker! - Is It Worth Upgrading? 

They all sound good but I think I'd be happy with the stock speaker

Bought this 3-4 years ago right after the design change. The stock 70-80 speaker is a bit stiff when new but it keeps sounding better and better the older it gets. To speed up the break in you can always hook up a looper pedal too the guitar and Amp play you favorite metal riff before going to work or vacation. The neighborhood will love you 😜

I actually think the stock speaker sounded considerably better in all examples. The amp is definitely voiced to compliment the 70/80! Cool!

Stock or Eminence Cannabis Rex ..... The stocks were fine and not bad. You can upgrade the older 2 spring Reverb to a fuller 3 spring Reverb tank for $20 - "MOD 8Eb2c1b " tank fits and gives more fuller reverb at medium decay. Code = 8 - short tank, E -600ohm input impedance, b - 2250 Ohm output impedance, 2 - medium decay of 1.75 to 3 seconds, c - input insulated / output grounded, 1 - no lock, b - horizontal open side down.

The stock speaker sounded best to me, but speakers also need to break in and they don't always sound as good as they can be right away.

Thumbs up for greed-shaming the amp manufacturers for jacking up the price.

Love this amp. I was able to sell my stock speaker for $50 and pick up a Celestion G12 Vintage 30 UK made(16 ohm) for only $50. The amp roars like a sweet Marshall now. Hard to beat for $250 all in!

The stock leads one sounds pretty good.

I liked the Celestion best on the clean tones, and the Eminence for dirty. The expensive one was my least favorite overall.

I swapped out the speaker in my Stage Right 15W Amp. I took out the Celestron and replaced it with a Yamaha JA-3101 Speaker I removed from a 1980s Harmon Organ. Sounds really good, better than I expected! They are vastly different speaker builds and material.

I thought overall the stock speaker sounded best. Maybe it's better paired....they all sounded good.

I bought this amp after watching your first video. I’ve been using it for a few months now and I’m still really impressed. I run a pedalboard through it , and it sounds amazing. Thanks for this comparison video. I’ve learned quite a bit about new gear, guitar repairs, and maintenance from your channel Darrell. Thanks for great content. Keep it up!

The more expensive one has great clean tones but overall I prefer the Celestion. It's more versatile and I like its overdriven sound.

The magnet type doesn't have much to do with high frequency extension. That's more a function of cone mass, cone material and voice coil design. The alnico will create a weaker magnetic field in the voice coil, which is going to result in weaker lows, which was evident in the sound comparison. There are plenty of affordable ceramic drivers that have clean highs with plenty of extension.

Yeah, it's all the way up to $249. I'm sure it's at least in part because the demand instantly went up after you gave it some loving. It seems like it keeps going up, through. Monoprice has pretty good sales, so I'd suggest anyone who wants one of these to just wait for a sale. I got mine when the introductory price was $189, and I used a first-time buyer's coupon I had so I paid just under $150, with free shipping. They've now raised the price so it has to compete with other amps that are, at most, just a little more. I wonder how many people will pass and get something with a brand name and reputation (and resale value). Which begs the question: "Is Monoprice shooting themselves in the foot?"

I swapped my seventy 80 for a warehouse retro 30. Made all the difference to my ears. It is now very well balanced with nice clear high mids. A lot more articulate.

I took out the Seventy80 from my DSL40C and swapped in a Celestion Creamback from my old amp. Huge, huge difference. Not as warm as my Fender, but definitely the biting Marshall tone I was looking for.

This video made me realize that speakers make things different. Not better. I think I actually really like the sound of the stock speaker.. thank you! Saved me some cash!

That little Monoprice amp is great out of the box. A steal

I bought a MP 15w, and it's soooo darn good...... All JJ tubes, 70/80 great once broken in... TIPS: Plug a Multi-Effect in the FX loop, and switch AMP sim... Your Monoprice can sound like a Fender, Marshall, Orange! So much fun

Some years ago I bought a Fender 25R. It was only 'ok'. I changed out the speaker to a Jensen priced at $70. It blew me away! If you think about it . If an amplifier that has the 'right' specs, if the speaker is cheap, the sound will be too.

From here, the Eminence speaker matched the EL84's best. Nice test!

Ehhh... I didn't think there was a winner... just three different sounds. I expected a more definitive preference. One thing I'd like to hear is the difference (in the room) of the single 12" it comes with and maybe a 2X12" or even a 4X12" or 4X10" external cab.

It's now $250 for the amp. Its hard to decide which speaker I like. I've always swapped out the stock speakers with Jensens. But my Marshalls came with Celestions which I'm not swapping out. Great playing too by the way.

I bought this amp with excellent value for money. I just replaced the Chinese tubes with Sovteck and replaced the HP Celestion G12 seventy 80 100w with the Celestion G12 creamback 75w. Now that's a real wonder! The remaining original materials are only transformers, resistors, diode capacitors... Having little influence on the sound. I will never go back to the original configuration. Greetings from France.

As soon as you upped the gain the WGS Alnico shone, far clearer and much sweeter all round.

The hemp speaker would be good for reagge 🤣

To my ear the stock speaker sounded good! I don’t believe there’s an appreciable amount of difference to justify the extra cost!

The alnico speaker could be put into a speaker cabinent, that way it can be used with any amp

I've watched a few of Darrell's vids on speakers mods. And I'd honestly say I prefer the ceramic speakers better. Especially on the clean tones.

I put Celestion Creamback G12H-75, bias new output tubes, put Mullard NOS in V1, Telefunken and another tube at my discretion, installed bias for V1 position and the amp got more treble, three-wire reverb, it now sounds like $1500.

I'm one of the lucky ones who picked mine up last summer before all the youtube hype on sale for $150. I could hear the difference every time but in at least 2 instances i preferred the stock speaker. I definitely wouldn't be dropping the price of the whole amp just to replace what is actually a pretty nice sounding celestion. And it only gets better sounding after a good break in of 100 hours or so. Really glad you did the comparison.

Didn't notice enough difference to justify the cost of new speaker. Great video as usual. PS: Cool Tele Shirt

i liked the stock speaker the best. but it's a good example to show that most of your tone comes from the speaker, before anything else, and then the amp, in itself, then the pickups. the rest you can probably more or less ignore - as long as you've got electronics good enough, and good sustain - bridge, nut. the cable and the pickup height are both more important than these latter things, tone wise, i can't repeat it enough.

The sparkle and articulation of the alnico speaker cannot be denied! It also seemed slightly louder.I would take that one.but the cannibus is more realistic in a budget amp.Or my go to a Celestion 70th Anniversary is a fine choice.

It would be really cool to see how this thing (the amp and speaker) would sound in a different slightly larger more robust cabinet like just an unfinished $100 wood cabinet that would fit it.

The stock speaker sounds better for all of them.

I think a lot of people are basing their decision on a guitarist mind set. The difference would really be heard in a mix. Normally I don’t think I’d like a v60 but hearing it in a mix it is a metal dominator. The v30 sounds fantastic and is widely used that most other speakers get ignored and even to me most sound terrible to it but it’s those unusual and not well known speakers that can make legendary sounds. Ride the lightning guitars were made with an less known speaker. Very cool video.

stock speaker actually sounds pretty good, but the Eminence won out in my ears.between all 3 and the money involved i'd probably stay with stock and do something in the Eminence range!

I've got the Monoprice amp in front of me looking at it I have the hemp speaker in my right hand they are going to become one and I already know I'm going to love it by the way I use the speaker out on the back into a 4 10 inch PV Bass TNT and it sounds incredible Powers it just fine

So far you have switched tubes and speaker out if this amp. What about putting it into a quality built cabinet? Vintage Fender Champ amps go for $500 to $3000 (depending on which one) However this is more like a Deluxe. So if we put better tubes, speaker and cabinet, we would still be under what a vintage amp would be? Or a Champ amp 57 reissue. But would be it good enough to justify doing all that and not buying a boutique amp?

what we learned. turn your monoprice amp into a head and use it on various cabinets to make it shine.

Honestly, the stock speaker was warm and clean with good control. The second introduced buzz and especially on the clean setting and it was sloppy when driven. Third was somewhere in the middle but still, for me, the stock sounded best. Spent years designing and building speakers for professional use and a 40+ years as a musician. Just my two cents... Love your channel, you're the best at these types of videos, thanks✌

I appreciate the all knobs at noon approach. I'd also appreciate the knobs set at their best sounding position for each speaker, for each sound. A lot of work I know, but this would be the only ACCURATE representation of the speaker, and the amp, in the real world. No one just noons their knobs, and keeps them that way. Each guitar, each amp, each speaker, each mic, each mic pre, each converter, etc... they all sound better in different applications. We always optimize each device to the best of its abilities in each application. In this case, we'd optimize the amp's settings for each speaker, and that is the real world way these speakers would be used, and should be an aspect of your "scientific" (my air quotes) test. Thanks as always!

They all had their unique tone, I preferred the stock Celestion

Strength of the Celestion is that it's free! It comes with the amp! Spending more than the cost of the original combo on another speaker just shows how good the standard combo is!

I finally got the Harley Benton version of this excellent amp last week.I actually like the stock speaker sound but have used it with a VOX and a 2 x 12” Celestion vintage 30s Harley Benton Cabinet and a Orange 4x 12 cabinet.All sound terrific.👍 It works great as a combo and as a head amp.❤👍

It's so easy to replace a speaker in a combo amp or speaker cabinet that even I did it (a month or so ago), in a Jet City Amplification 12S+ ( super inexpensive 1x12). Adding an Eminence Screamin' Eagle was super simple, and took it from "alright" to "amazing" IMO.

The amp is sweet stock. But I agree with Darrell that overall it has a pretty scooped sound and with the gain turned up tends to get a bit fizzy. i found his original video about the amp after I had already bought mine. He changed the tubes in his before me and I agreed that it didn't sound like much of a difference on that video, but still went on to try for myself with some Tungsol pres and Groove Tube power tubes. It made a pretty big difference - taking away any hint of fizziness and made the sound fuller. I then realized that it still had a bit of the scooped sound and decided to try another speaker. I ordered a Hellatone 25 ceramic and of course one day prior to receiving it I see this video posted. Again the difference doesn't come across as being that great here, but when I put the Hellatone in I got a helluva tone coming out! It is now super fat sounding and no scooped sound and absolutely no shrill treble. I will test it out at my gig on Friday! Looking forward to cranking this bad boy up some! With about a total of $450 (amp + tubes + speaker) this is now a SICK AZZ amp!

I greatly preferred the Alnico speaker, but I would never make this upgrade, because of the high additional cost. I'd look for a different amp, with an Alnico speaker as stock. Fitting a much better speaker will tend to expose any weaknesses in the cheap amp, as well as negating any inital price advantage: so why not buy the better amp? I would also worry about 'buying blind'. If you haven't heard the new speaker with your old amp before purchase - and it's likely you haven't - you can't really be certain how it will sound, and higher price alone is no guarantee that it will satisfy your ear. The Eminence speaker, to my ear, barely improved here on the stock speaker, and added a tone quality that I didn't much care for: different, but not better. This video was a valuable demonstration.

I upgraded the tubes and swapped the speaker to a Celestion G12H30. With sale price on the amp, the tubes, and craigslist for the speaker I'm at 260 all in. I LOVE this amp.

Darrell , I have to say i'm so impressed with your channel. I just sit there imagining all the time it takes you to do all the swaps and setup and then the editing. Hope you make a million bucks doing this! Can't thank you enough for all the great informative reviews, Oh the speakers - Honestly I liked them all but id go with the REX if I had to shoose and I was paying the tab.

The biggest effect I have noticed tone wise is between open back vs. closed back cabinets. Some speakers sound great in open back others are too bright too jangly. You have to be happy with what you have to be happy with.

Yesssssss!! A speaker upgrade w/ a WGS American Vintage 8 was definitely worth it in my Fender G-Dec Jr. love that amp.

IMO, the WGS delivered the best cleans and widest range of tones. Wasn't super impressed with any at high gain but I prefer a heavier bottom which in something small amps are not known for. Still a great test. Thanks!

Eminence speaker to my ears and likening definitely

Thank you for showing this simple method of changing the amp tone. I own a Bugera V22 infinium and swapped the tubes for a set of TAD because of ringing EL84s and noisy input stages. The ringing is gone and tone is more stable even at higher volumes. I also swaped the factory 12"Turbosound speaker although is wasn't doing too bad. Went for a Jensen Falcon50 and i am very happy with the overall performance and tone from this amp now. This came with a price tag of additional 240Eur so the total value of my V22 is now at 600. And it's worth it. Would do again.

I own a fender superchamp xd. When I swapped the stock speaker for a Jensen q10 ($50 upgrade), the amp sounded way better. It was a simple upgrade and well worth the money.

I put an Eminence Alnico in my Mono Price amp and as you had described, it made eq’ing the amp more reasonable. I have a Cannabis Rex that’s unused at the moment. I’ll have to give it a try. Thanks for the Demo.

Interesting choice of speakers, although the stock one sounds nice, I would install a green back from Celestion. Thanks for the round up.

Also, you can get 2x12" cabinets at Thonman with Celestion Vintage 30's for about the price of one of those speakers shipped. Sure, it's not as portable, but if you want a bigger (possibly better too), you can plug in the cabinet while still keeping the stock speaker.

Crazy difference in tones it’s crazy because every guitarist is so fast to change a pickup rather than change a speaker in less than 2 minutes with no soldering or wiring experience just plug and play But it would have to be the stock or eminence speaker for me I play metal but the cleans on the alnico were amazing

Stock all the way. Expensive alnico - completely not worth it. Canibus Rex ... nice but no way I would pay for a new speaker and throw away the original for such a subtle change.

Stock speaker sounds good because it is already a good speaker (Celestion), so the difference would be more noticeable if stock speaker were a brandless one. In fact, Celestion is an upgrade for several amplifiers

This amp is also available as the “Harley Benton” amp. The Alnico speaker has much more definition, especially on the bridge pickup, clean or dirty. The Cannibas Rex was more compressed but a good compromise.

Threw a 12” Celestion gold into mine.. completely in love with it

Here's the REAL question - If you can take the stock Celestion speaker and with a little tweaking of the EQ get the sound you want, but the Alnico you get that sound without tweaking - is the cost worth it? Once you get "your"sound figured out using the stock celestion speakers, why go out and drop a few hundred more IF all you have to dos turn a few knobs with the stock one? To me, it's not worth the price difference, but..for a gigging or session musician - absolutely spend the money! You don't have time while live at a gig to sit there and make all these adjustments and a session musician better sound good right out of the gate! Great information and video Darrell!!

i actually liked the stock speaker and the alnico. the stock speaker had great balance overall. the alnico gave a bit more of a bass hump to the sound and it sounded clean/ clear even with dirt. the cannabis just sounded very muddy and muffled in both clean and dirty.

No matter how good the speaker, if you cram it in a little box the sound will be limited. I believe this amp comes with a extension speaker jack and would recommend using one. My blues jr doesn't have a extension jack but will be installing one for my 1x12 cabinet.

This video demonstrates very well that you can get a huge tone shift simply by swapping the speaker. They're also quite easy to swap too. Speakers are where I would spend most of my tone budget.

how about comparing that amp with the upgraded speaker to another combo at the pricepoint equal to the cost of upgrading this stage right?

CLEAN TONE: In the neck position I hear no difference between the stock speaker and the alnico. The Cannabis Rex does sound a bit warmer to my ear which I like. CLEAN TONE: With Both pickups I hear the Alnico as being a bit brighter than the stock, and I hear no difference between the Cannabis Rex and the Alnico. BRIDGE PICK UP DIRTY: I think that the Stock speaker produced a less harsh tone than the Alnico and the Cannabis Rex sounded a bit thin to me compared to the two other speakers. BRIDGE PICK UP LEAD: I hear very little difference in the speakers collectively. For me, I would simply keep the stock speaker in place. It sounded just fine in all pickup positions. Great video Darrell. Thanks for everything you do. Kevin

Monoprice sold out . . . lots of free shipping returns for amps damaged by UPS. The price increase is more a supply/demand thing. The cabinet is low grade particle board and any bad bumps in transit will rip the dry wall screws out, especially with the heavy speaker. After two returns I just totally repaired the wrecked cabinet. Then one of the pre-amp tubes blew and a tech fixed everything . . . the EL84's were totally out of balance. So, with new tubes (Monoprice paid for new power tubes) and repairs, I got $300 plus labor into this.

As a manufacturer of cannabis products, I had to opt for the Cannabis Rex. Surprisingly for the tone and the the EQ as you said, I am wondering how it would sound on my Fender. Much research to do. Thanks for a wonderfully thorough job.

Darrell, another great Vid! Thanks!! Purchased this amp over a year ago when they were on sale for under $140.00 bucks. Noticed they've gone up in price more than a few times since. However if anyone is looking, wait for Big sale weekends such as President's Day, Labor Day or Black Friday etc. Monoprice usually has Internet "Coupon Code" Sales that can save you BIG! Had a few speakers and other parts laying around the house and did a very similar experiment, also tried some different tubes. Not sure I'd go out and spent the cash to do this, but the end result was surprising how much better tubes and speaker helped. Pleasantly surprised with the quality of this $200 dollar Tube amp in other ways. Had slightly more expensive name brand amps of lessor quality that swapping speakers was a disaster. Some use thin horrid bolts with the one thread combined washer/nut (glued to speaker) held in place with very cheap press-board, which will fall apart trying to swap speakers, at this price point thought it may be the same, pleased it wasn't. The clips to exchange speakers is another bonus, cheaper amps can be a thinner wire and soldered (clips are much easier). Not being fond of the speaker grill material, had a small remnant Fender Turquoise-Silver Grill cloth laying around (left over from an old project) I used to replace with the stock one. Once again, was delighted the grill was stapled into place instead of glued (the cheaper and quicker way used on inexpensive amps). These may be little things but show they didn't take cost saving shortcuts where they easily could have. Has become my little "Go-To" practice amp. For the cost/performance ratio it's Fab. Well over a year and no issues.

You have to break in the new speaker first in order to get a good idea of what the new amp with sound like. I would recommend doing that before swapping out speakers.

Darrell, I'm a big fan and REALLY appreciate you doing all the vids you do to entertain and inform us. For this however, I think the stock speaker is just fine. The difference is so small, unless someone is super picky about their tone and doesn't know how to fiddle and set an EQ, it's not worth it for a $199 amp. Still love your vids though!!!

I was expecting to find out I really wanted to change my speaker, but though I really like the alnico speaker's tone, I didn't necessarily prefer it, particularly knowing now much eq-ing I can do on the amp. I don't care if the knob is at 3 o'clock or dimed out, as long as I'm getting the sound I want. Think I'm pretty content with the stock speaker now. Will likely swap out a tube to get a bit more clean headroom, and considering replacing reverb for a 3 spring, but grateful to hear these differences without having to buy the speaker to do so.

its absolutely worth it, the more you upgrade the stock parts including the speaker, the connecting wires, the instrument cable, etc it all makes a difference, and those subtle difference might not make a huge difference right away but when itis mic'd on and recorded you can and WILL hear the difference in everything from the dynamics to the most subtle sounds.

Thanks for the video. At one point you mention that you could get pretty good sound out of the seventy 80 with EQ. I wish you had said what EQ you were using. The one thing I find unhelpful about speaker, is that they show all of the EQ at noon. That means you never hear the speakers as good as they can be EQ'd. You only hear the speaker that sounds best without playing with the EQ.

Speaker and speaker magnets can make so much difference?

Yeah, I agree with you about the Cannabis Rex hemp made speaker! They are affordable too! You clearly hear the difference between all these speakers.

I swapped out the Celestion,(which to me sounded harsh) replaced it with the Eminence Cannabis Rex,(an $80 upgrade) which is reasonable. Very happy with the result, much warmer/fuller sound. The real test is when I A/B'd it with my wife's ears.......she picked the Rex : ) I also swapped out the preamp tubes with Tung Sol tubes. Overall not a bad little bedroom/small room amp........check back in 6 months : )

On the 'cleans', the middle speaker by a mile. Stock sounded fine with a lil gain..... JMO.... :)

I'm building a custom Cherry cabinet with four cannabis Rex I'm going to power it with the mark Tremonti PRS tube 15 watt amp The amp is so crispy and sick that I think it will blend with the cannabis Rex speaker great

The WGS sounded much better to my ears. I replaced my amp's stock speaker with a Celestion Vintage 30, replaced the tubes, Sovtek EL84s and EHX 12AX7s. Next mod on the way... replacing the stock two spring Reverb tank with a three spring tank. Love this amp!

I don't think they jacked the price because of one review. There have been many favorable reviews of this amp. Thomann sells the same amp with the Harley Benton brand rather than Stage Right. Prices go up, it's called inflation. This amp was on sale recently for $219. US. $411 CAD. For your Canadian viewers with a small discount it was 212US + taxes + shipping= $412.CAD

Well that sounds very pleasant with such an irregular combination! Now you gotta do the inverse my man: Expensive Amp and Cheap Speaker haha! Great video my man!

I have a pretty high end audio system at home and an HTPC (home theater PC). I bought an amp emulator for 80 bucks and I have a whole selection of amp models at my disposal. Since my audio setup is very good to begin with, I get amazing tones and sounds out of the system!

Eminence are speakers with personality. Gnarly is the first word that comes to mind. Alnico are going to be nice rounded off sounds, friendly in harsh conditions. Celestion ceramics are woody with a sharp bite, sometimes just right, others just wrong. I preferred the gnarly Eminence, because I’m looking for something with personality.

I just really loved the stock celestion! I'm actually here because I'm thinking about changing the stock modules in my fender champion 100 for celestions so I'm glad to have affirmed my idea!

I definitely did hear a huge difference between the speakers. The stock speaker my least favorite it just didn’t brought enough presence to the guitar in my compared to the more expensive speakers. WGS Alnico: My second favorite because it sounds much more closer to those studio album records. However I found it a bit too hi-fi sounding for my taste it definitely brought the guitar to life compared to the stock speaker. Eminence: My favorite hands down. Maybe because it reminded me more of a vintage British amp speaker. I tend to favor it the most I guess is because I’m used to hearing it in my favorite records. It also brought the top end of the guitar a lot more, more presence hard to describe but definitely has a chimey sound to it for sure.

The Eminence had the nicest definition of the 3. Sounded the best in my earbuds. It produced the qualities, to me, that you described for the alnico speaker, but if money talks for you, then you will hear it's voice.

All three sound great. I wouldn't be in a hurry to change out the stock celestion. The WGS was just about perfect and the Eminence was a little thin for my taste.

The cheap Chinese Low Density Particle Board (chip board) doesn't make the best anchor for those 10mm locking nuts. Just the resistance of those nylon sleeves is enough to break the studs away from the base . . . so, put regular free-turning nuts on or be prepared to rebuild the speaker mount board.

They sounded so different to me that it was almost like you had different effects on each. The stock had more mud and fuzz. The Alnico was clearer but still allowed some of the fuzz through. The CR sounded most like a mic'd guitar to me, cleaned up the mud/fuzz. Thanks for doing this experiment. I never would have known the speaker made such as huge difference in the sound. I'm guessing the compression the video goes through to be posted to RU-vid reduced the variation, and that had we all heard this live it would have been even bigger a difference.

Alnico speakers aren't always that good. (Esp for modern sounds) Ceramics usually do a BETTER job for presence and clarity, as well as dynamics. I have this amp also, as I've said elsewhere, the stock 70/80 is ok on its own, but compared to a better speaker, it sounds pretty harsh! I generally use Aussie made LORANTZ speakers, which are some of the best and VERY affordable for an international brand! As to that CR, I think the tone your looking for is 'NASALLY'! It has a weird high mid hump there, plus a fair bit of high treble roll off! The WGS suited it best over all, the 70/80 for sparkly clean and the CR for crunch tones! Cheers eh! \m/

I've threw an used Greenback in mine. Love this thing now.

Changing speakers is one of the biggest impacts impacts you can have on your tone but you really need to do your home work. There are so many different types you can mix different speakers to get the best of both if you have a two speaker set up and speakers also change as they break in. Not enough players pay attention to their speakers

After watching the video my picks were the WGS Vintage Alcino, with the stock, 70/80 2nd. I didn’t love the sound from the CR like a lot of others did. For the cheap amp, expensive speaker topic: As long as you can see that expensive speaker as an investment that you can carry on to another amp later, wouldn’t it be fine to do? It can still greatly improve your sound/tone, for me it was worth it, and I still spent less altogether than if I had purchased an $800 new amp.