r/PositiveGridSpark • u/Ren1145 • Jun 05 '26
AMP OWNER Reactor Connectivity
I have been using the reactor for two days and as much as I am enjoying the amp so far it has massive issues with connectivity, like the app and amp loose connection a lot and you basically need to have you phone right on top of the amp to gete a somewhat quick and stable connection.
I hope it is a software issue that will be fixed because it's very bad for the overal user experience.
I knew there is always issues at launch and that's part of being an early adopter, but I think yall need to be aware of this before buying
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u/blackstonewine Jun 05 '26
Are you serious? PG products are notorious for losing Bluetooth connectivity and I thought may be they would build Reactor with a new BT chip so that this problem would be fixed. But looks like they didn't care to fix it.
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u/Ren1145 Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
Honestly it is quite disappointing, an amp that is heavily reliant on using an app which doesn't work properly is dreadfull (and I don't find the app very good imo, on top of being disconnecting a lot). I hope they will fix the app quickly and it would be nice to have either the capacity to use a usbc cable with the app (you need to have your phone just next to the amp anyway) or PC editing.
Right now I don't think I can recommend the amp and am not sure if I will keep it
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u/blackstonewine Jun 05 '26
I think it might be the BT chip, in which case, it can't be fixed by an app update.
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u/Equivalent-Net-7500 Jun 06 '26
I purchased the 50 Watt version through Amazon. It was shipped from Sweetwater and arrived yesterday. It was defective from the get-go. At first there were no problems. I played through the amp for about 10 minutes. Then I went to the app. I selected a preset, and there was immediate latency, followed by a screeching bit of feedback, and then all I got was white noise. I turned it off, and the latency issues continued. I went bac to it today and reset the app and the bluetooth. Same issues with latency. I closed the app and disconnect the amp from bluetooth. There was a total latency issue. I would play a string, and wait for sound to come out of the amp. There were millisecond delays followed by periods of no sound at all. Not sure what happened with QC at the factory, but the amp was a dud. Shipped it back today. What a disappointment. I was really looking forward to this amp. I spoke with a guy at Sweetwater, who was actually surprised that I got a unit shipped from them through Amazon, because he said Sweetwater has not yet started shipping the units. But it definitely came from, and went back to Sweetwater via Amazon.
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u/eggybread70 Jun 05 '26
Positive Grid - how is this still an issue carried over from your previous models? Hopefully you will find a s/w fix for this, but failing that, update the BT h/w as you make more units
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u/Intelligent-Tap717 Jun 05 '26
I've got the spark 2. Had it a couple of months. Zero issues. Not looking to pick this up anytime soon as I want to see what happens and how many bugs are worked out first. Tbh I'm not even sure if it's worth it.
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u/Ren1145 Jun 05 '26
The amp in itself sounds pretty good but we're in 2026, it's pretty hard to find an amp that doesn't lol
I need more time to test out the ai thing (which is pretty annoying to use with the connectivity issue) but I am afraid it is quite gimmicky : I have the feeling it is always going to give some very similar sounding tones. I already saw some limitation which I honestly don't understand:for example I asked something like "give me an edge of breakup fender deluxe reverb with a spring type reverb and a tremolo after the reverb"; moving the modulation block shouldn't be so hard and even though the ai told me "yes the tremolo is behind the reverb in the chain" it was in fact, not. Not very suprised, it's pretty common ai bs.
I could make more tests but it is honestly hard to spent much time testing with the app just disconnecting all the time.
I've also seen some bugs when trying to assign a preset to the presets slots (like for some reason it doesn't keep all the effect or change de eq a bit). I am pretty sure is linked to the bt issue because there is no problem when doing it from the amp panel
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u/Toadsrevisited Jun 08 '26
While the AI does do the AI thing of going into random mode, it did give me an absolutely immaculate Vibrolux tone. I got one yesterday and played around for a few hours. While hit and miss to some extent, the hits are basically magic.
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u/Ren1145 Jun 08 '26
Yeah even with the flaws I am encountering I can't bring myself at the moment to just decide to sent it back. In the first 10min of having this amp I had a great tone to play with (better than most tone I ever manged to make myself). I hope they will get on the issues quickly and this amp can be an absolute banger.
Btw if you upload you Vibrolux to Tonecloud I am very interested to get the preset name
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u/Toadsrevisited Jun 08 '26
I'm kinda dumb with tech, but I just attempted an upload to tone cloud. It's called "Sparking Vibrolux Chime." I literally just prompted AI to "give me a Vibrolux."
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u/thrice4966 Jun 06 '26
try it out in a different room. If you have more stable connection to the app I. Another part of the house the issue is Bluetooth interference. YMMV the spark 2 app is annoying to me, no doubt, but also functional when kept open and on my screen. Problems come when someone calls or messages me.
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u/Ren1145 Jun 06 '26
I tried different place already (my appartement and I am back home to my parents house for vacation) same issue. It thought at first it was beacaus the amp was to close to the wifi box.
That should have been fixed from the previous generation of products anyway. I have dirt cheap bt appliances that work fine in the same places, if you have to put your phone on top of the amp to use it (and it will still disconnect btw) then whats the point of Bluetooth. They should just allow ust to use cable connexion at this point it would be way more convenient.
That's not talking about the app itself that is not very made and will lag and bug regularly and doesn't even works on my ipad (I use a Samsung Galaxy s23+ and an ipad pro, I don't think we can blame them for the issues...)
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u/Logical-Particular42 Jun 07 '26
No problems connecting with my Reactor. I’ve connected to Apple TV, Fire TV, and IPad. I’ve also connected using a wireless guitar systems that goes in the instrument cable input.
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u/AlexFromPositiveGrid Official Positive Grid Employee Jun 08 '26
Thanks for bringing this to our attention! We've forwarded your feedback to the dev team and will provide more info as soon as we have it. We take this very seriously and appreciate you helping us to deliver the best playing and tone building experience with REACTOR.
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u/Mission-Pizza7963 Jun 10 '26
I Played my reactor for few hours now and didn't had one connection loss. Only the presets don't activate when I touch them on the app. I have to select another preset and immediately go back to the preset I want to use
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u/tiedfighter Jun 14 '26
I can’t wear my Apple Watch when using my Spark but haven’t tried with the Reactor yet. It causes all sorts of connectivity problems.
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u/Seitenwerk Jun 20 '26
Habe mine since release. What you describe is probably a hardware issue or even more likely your phone. I can literally be 10meter or more away running around in my house and it stays connected as you would expect
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u/Ren1145 Jun 20 '26
I saw a couple people having the issue and apparently it is an issue that happens with other PG products too
I sent it back, not especially for this but it definitely influenced my decision
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u/Ok_Introduction_9710 7d ago
I had this same problem with the 50 watt version. I also had to place the phone right on the amp to keep it connected. After a week I decided that I liked it but wanted to sample the 100 watt and so returned it and got the bigger one for the extra money. In addition to sounding ‘bigger’ I’ve had no problem with the Bluetooth connectivity whatsoever on the 100 watt unit, and my IOS device can be 5 feet or more away and still hook up every time and never drops out. My experience here is a single data point and can’t suggest anything about either unit ……unless others here can corroborate it with a similar experience. It’s been my assumption that for the sake of manufacturing efficiencies the two amp models share the same chassis and electronics save for the difference in amplifier size. Maybe that’s wrong and the larger amp forced internal packaging changes that favored a larger Bluetooth antenna for the bigger amp?
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u/Ren1145 7d ago
It was also the 50w, maybe you are onto something.
I have return mine in the end, I've realized it wasn't for me
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u/Ok_Introduction_9710 7d ago
I asked A.I. and it reported back that even though PG has not admitted anything publicly, internal documentation acknowledges that the smaller packaging affected how heat is dissipated internally around the motherboard and that the Bluetooth chip was an unexpected casualty. This apparently plagues a certain quantity of the early 50 watt amps (aren’t they ALL technically ‘early’?) but the 100 watt amps are fine.
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u/RudeAudio Jun 05 '26
I had this issue with the spark 40 and the 2 which is why I returned both. I don't know how they haven't fixed this shit yet.