Harley Benton Block-800B

My Humble Opinion

The title is vague huh? Well all I'm saying and this is my Humble opinion. 27+years live performance. Not gonna give you my resume but I have lived a little. Maybe you're like me and saw the stats and the price and here you are. I didn't hesitate to buy for obvious reasons. And they're not getting this one back don't even ask. Thomann backs up their product. The results:
Well, well well, that's where all the power is hiding. In this head.
Sound: there is none, well Kinda. You provide the sound, hehe. This head gets out of the way and delivers sheer power. You will want a pedal preamp in line to shape your tone. That's absolutely fine with me. Preferred by some. Especially these days. This is a smart play by Harley Benton considering all the pre-amps, cabinet simulation, amp simulation out there. Almost all I see these days is one company one up'ing the previous with there AMP, or CAB or FX simulator pedal boards. Thier getting fierce and the quality has never been better. Back to the amp. Here what you get, ALL the power you could ever need for the sound you have in your hands and beneath your feet.
Put your tone in front of this amp and get out of the way. For real. Move, this head is a MAC Truck.
I'm good. Thanks Thomann.

For the cost this amp cannot be faulted. Plenty of power and volume, more headroom than I think I would ever need. The sound of the amp alone is really quite neutral which I see as a good thing given the choice of pre-amps available now days.
As for the features, the EQ works nicely as you would expect. The compressor is a nice touch that was missing on the smaller Block model. The aux in/headphone out options are great for home practice and of course the DI out is always a useful addition for gig use.
All in all I'm very impressed with this amp, it suits my needs perfectly, seems solid enough and comes in at half the price of what the name brands put out similar products at. Highly recommended.

As a manufacturer of boutique bass cabinets, and Pro Audio gear, I am very impressed with the sound of this amp, and sound is the bottom line.

The EQ section is accurate, and very easy to use. The compressor adds some growl to the tone. Be careful with this, if you run it too hot, it will start to clip, so turn down the input and this will solve the problem.

I tested this amp with a Music Man sting ray 5, Sire v7, Ric 4003/5 and an Ibanez AFR thru a DrBass DRB 210 and 1243 cabinets, both 4 ohms, with the amp set flat, only adjusting the input, and compressor. It handled the 5's with ease, and gave a very impressive tone with the AFR using the piezo's on the bass. When I backed off the piezo's and let it have it with the Bartolini candy bar p/u, which is very hot, I got a great growl comparable to the drive section on the Darkglass. I then plugged in the Ric with the 210 cab, and a Boss ME50B, added some overdrive and chorus and slammed it with a pick and ripped off a couple of "Roundabout" riffs, and it just smiled and took everything I gave it.

So I decided to take it on a gig with the 1243, (1-12" Beyma and 4-3's) with my Sire V7, and it gave me a great slap tone, and finger funk.

All told, a very versatile, impressive amplifier at an amazing price.

I was looking for a light yet powerfull amplifier head to drive both my 300Watt bass cabinets and after some digging I´ve found this great peace of hardware.
Light and compact but as all the desirable features the you need for all sorts of gigs.
On the front you can find a verry handy tunner out were I plug my batterry charged tuner. It has as also a mute swich, a high/low swich for both passive or active bass guitars and a built in compressor.
The tree band EQ isn´t formidable but it does it´s thing and for that I relly on my sansamp.
On my particular case I was also looking for 2 speaker conectors because it gives me freadom to use both or just one of my cabinets depending on the venue.
This thing is loud and I never tried it past noon on the master knob.

The only thing I miss is the lack of numbering on the potenciometers, but then again, for this price I can´t complain much.

So far I´m happy with this product and recomend it.
Cheers