I think John Lennon said it best when he sang "All You Need Is Power." The Rocktron Velocity 100 provides just that: up to 110 watts (55 watts per side @ 4 ohms) for your stereo, rack-mount guitar rig.

The Velocity 100 is perfect for guitarists who want to preserve the tone of a particular preamp, a modeling unit like a Line 6 POD or a multi-effect floorboard with amp/speaker emulation like the Vox Valvetronix Tonelab LE (or, shucks, even the Rocktron Utopia). Not only does having a separate power amp, scalable power -- switch it out for lower-power amps to preserve your tone in smaller venues -- but if either the amp or the preamp fails, one or the other can be replaced / serviced as opposed to needing to replace an entire amp. Most likely your preamp is going to fail first, though: the Velocity 100 is all solid state, though Rocktron promises that it is capable of "tube-like dynamics."

The Velocity 100 also utilizes a number of heat and voltage protection circuits to ensure that it's that last part of your signal chain to fail. Voltage spikes or under-power situations trigger protection circuitry, protecting not only the Velocity, but also your preamp and speaker cabinet(s). How thoughtful.

The control layout of the Velocity 100 is as simple as possible: two volume controls for each channel, and a single on/off switch. That's it. Ok, I supposed it could have been simpler. They could have eliminated all controls. Then it would have resembled my popcorn aero-popper, which you turn on by plugging in. Still, I think Rocktron made the right design decisions.

The Velocity 100 is available now for a street price of about $250 US.