Scxd
The Super Champ, which I own, has the Eminence Ragin' Cajun speaker upgrade which I put in and it sounds way better, but was already satisfactory of course.
It has a different tube design than the chromies by VOX; it has a full sized preamp tube and a full sized power amp tube, Fender type. It is 15 - 20 watts of tube power, depending how you measure it. With the Ragin' Cajun highly sensitive speaker it is really LOUD when cranked but is quite nice at low volumes.
It has about sixteen amp models, eight Fender models that are quite nice and eight other models that emulate Vox, Marshall, etc. You can find great amp model tones with any guitar.
It has a few effects: reverb, delay, combinations of effects, chorus, tremolo, vibrato. These have adjustable parameters, but not like my Vox DA5 or the chromies, which have a lot of parameters and settings to play with.
The latest version of the chromie is pretty nice. I played one, the 50 I think, and it sounded way better than the AD60VTX NOS that I'm thinking of getting at a very discounted price. The VT50 might be a better amp though. The Chromies have a lot of amp models and very tweakable effects and are really fun to play with. You can get some incredible sounds out of them. I would say that they are not a gig type amp, but guys gig with VT50's and 100's in both the new and old variations. But I think the NEW variation, the VT50, etc., sound better than the old Valvetronix VT50XL's or whatever they were. The new ones dropped the "autowah" effect though. I think they should have kept it.
Also, the little Vox DA5, with the six and a half inch speaker defies your expectations and produces some great tones with its models and effects, all with two or three parameters of adjustability; and, most importantly, the DA5 runs off six "C" cell batteries for 30 hours or wall current, puts out 0.5, 2.5, or 5 watts. A half a watt is loud, very loud for camping trips, picnics, etc.
I think the VT50 Vox chromie has a power attenuator and an effects loop; where the lower models don't.
I like the SCXD and don't own a chromie other than the DA5, but I would buy a chromie without hesitation. Although they don't have the tube design of the SCXD, they do have a preamp type tube, supposedly in the power amp section but I'm not sure if it is a full sized preamp tube or a mini tube and I'm pretty sure it is HARD to get to. Nevertheless, I'd buy a chromie VT50 without hesitation if I wanted one, based upon my experience playing it and evaluating its tone, powerful and clear. But this was the VT50, not the 30.
If you want to get a used item, the old AD60VTX or AD120VTX's were great amps and have even more tweakability than the new versions and were considered superior to the old Valvetronix chromies of their day. They have the classic Vox grill cloth and are blue tolex with gold piping similar to the classic AC30's. Like I said, there is an AD60VTX by me that is NOS that I think I can get for a small amount; but pretty much forget about fixing these things - they are like highly computerized with all sorts of complicated and expensive to fix circuits. So if something other than something simple goes wrong, you are going to have a hard time finding someone with the education to fix one of these things; and the parts might be expensive, not to mention the labor cost to diagnose, design, and build the replacement circuit if it's no longer available for a used old style chromie. A new style VT50 or 30 would be the way to go I think - warranty.
For reliability the SCXD probably far excells the chromies. The Roland Cube 80x looks like a real good amp as well; it replaced the Cube 60.
Still, a lot of people I talk to have Vox chromies and claim that their personal experience has been that their units have been very reliable, except for the occaisional input jack needing repairing, etc.
It's a tuff decision. The Fender is really a nice classic looking and sounding amp with Fender clean, but the others have lots of bells and whistles that can be a lot of fun. I'd say, in conclusion, that in my opinion the Fender SCXD is a more serious amp than the others, which border on being in the toy type category; but very fun and nice toys if I must say so.
I thought the Peavey Vypyrs were cheaply built and looked hokie with all the Christmass Tree lights. Way "open" backs, little bracing. The Vox AD60VTX, old style, has a closed back design.
Hope all these details and opinions are of some use to you in making your final decision.
