The Samson is rechargeable.

I have just worked two huge festivals back to back one huge International Street Performers festival in Germany and then 1500 miles later, Back home in Wales. At both events I found the need to use a PA just like the other pros. One of my one liners I use in my show when I have a head mike is "Watch me I must be a professional because I have a microphone". It gets a laugh your welcome to try it.

I must admit the amp I am currently using I think is fantastic for a traveling busker.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BB-BLASTER-BBP......59979267

I will also add I think if you going to start a thread about amps you should also be prepared to discuss the pro and cons of them, the does and don't's, when, why's and so on. We don't want to mislead folks that amps is the only way forward do we?

I second the Carvin amp. I'd put it up against any battery powered amp. You buy direct from the factory and eliminate the music store mark up making it the biggest bang for your buck. I'm a guitar player and am sold on Carvin products. You won't be disappointed.

The Carvin IS a Rechargable Battery Powered Amp. It's great. It's not tiny but it sounds great, works great, can be used in basically any kind of gig you can imagine.

If I was performing outdoors and wanted to use a PA, it would be my first choice.

The Roland Cube Street also comes with a cord. You can also buy rechargeable AA batteries and use those if you want.

I live in upstate NY and busk and perform at festivals.

When busking in the round or off the street, my wife and I use our voices. We consider ourselves guests in the area. As guests, we treat the hosts with respect. In this case it's the surrounding businesses. There is one spot where we would busk that required an amp due to the fact that you were really close to the street traffic. There are a lot of motorcycles in the area and they tend to drown you out. That being said we kept the volume at a level so ensure that the crowd would hear us, but not in the next block. Also, since we were using amplification, we used to pimp all the businesses within sight telling them to stop there for a good sandwich, that place if you wanted a gyro, that place has the best pizza, if you want souvenier shirts go here, etc. The store owners APPRECIATE that. Of course, we would do that in other spots as well, when we didn't use amplification. The store owners liked us, we were the only ones who did this.

We also work at festivals in the area. For these you have a lot of people condensed into a small space and the ambient noise will drown you out, unless you're only working for small groups at a time. We tend to work for bigger groups. In fact, at some of these festivals, they have their own sound guy with their own amps and mics already tuned and waiting for us.

So, amp or no amp? Follow the old adage: "do unto others as you wish others to do unto you."

That's very cool Evildan and good addvise.

This is my Small setup for a day out. The amp is 300watt and will run for 5hr. it is 10lb. and the size of a shoe box with built in bluetooth for music off you phone
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DJL8......F8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0041OTZES/ref=......MA&psc=1

According to the specs, that is 30 watts for the Samson, not 300. Still, it looks like a good prospect for teaming up with a solar panel.

Sorry I got zero happy Its loud enough to work a 75 person crowd outside on a small stage you can even link 2 together if you really need to

Just got back from Spain, and the keep fit guy around the pol used an Acoustic control wireless / rechargeable pa, very light in weight, very clear and loud, but just googled it, Acoustic control don't exist anymore, dam, this is a brilliant pa speaker.

I've had one for almost 13 years. It's never failed me. I replaced the battery a few years ago, to be on the safe side - cost was around $33 US. Battery replacement was pretty easy for me to do myself. Battery life is quoted at 8 hours, but I've never drained it down that far. It mounts on a speaker stand and angles upward if on the floor. I've never used music with mine, but the sound quality on a mike is really nice. The newer ones have a composite enclosure to make them quite light, but mine has a much heavier enclosure at 35 pounds.

We had a chance to really field test the Roland Cube Street this weekend. We had a festival in upstate VT, right at the border of Quebec.

The festival was held in the town park. Lots of grass, open field, blue skies and white puffy clouds. They had power built into the field. There were these access panels that had outlets in them. The other acts brought in dual speaker sets that they had to plug in, set up on stands, run through a mixer, etc. We decided to stay battery powered (6 AA).

We set up one time with the mic rcvr bases velcroed to the speaker. The amp is set to take two mics but there isn't that much control for the second mic. So, my wife's volume was set to 3 while mine was cranked to 9. Still, it all sounded good. Set up and take down was less than a minute each way. Everyone heard us loud and clear and we had it set so we weren't overpowering other events going on.

Still, it bothered me that I needed to be cranked to 9 to get the same volume as the other mic.

NOW THIS IS GOLD....
A trip to Guitar Center and my wife found a "Y" stereo jack that will allow you to run two mics thru one input. We tested it when we got home and it works great. One setting and both mics sound great. Part of the reason for going with the Roland was that we wanted to run two mics through it if we needed to. Most of the time we'd just run one. For bigger jobs we have a Bose and a small mixer that we use.

That being said, had I known this little "Y" jack existed, it would have opened up the amount of amps I would have considered and might have went with the rechargable Samson, since we're using their mics. But, it all worked out in the end and we're happy with the current set up. Especially since the Cube Street allows us to velcro the receivers right onto it. The Samson would have been a bit small for that.

But keep that in mind - One Y jack will allow you to plug in 2 mics into one input jack.

How did it fail you?

Ion has amps that will run 50 to 70 hours when fully charged. http://www.ionaudio.com/products/speakers I am going to purchase me one.

The wires on the headset mics are thin.
I tested the mics out prior to the show. They worked fine.
Come show time, the mics cut out sporadically, then totally die.

I check it out before the second show. Again, fine.
Go to perform and the mics cut out and then die out again.

Sounds more like a thermal issue cause by loose solder joints to me, Dan. I'd crack it open if you're that type and then check the connections for the input jack. Any solder with a white 'fuzz' on it is a poorly soldered joint. Fortunately, it's easy to correct with a decent soldering iron; most of the time you just need to re-liquefy the solder to get a good connection. Just make sure to use one that's about 40W. Too low a wattage iron and it won't work properly, too high and you run the risk of frying your IC.

Good tip on the Y splitter jacks; most folks don't realize they'll work both ways.

Sounds like VERY HUGE batteries or very very low output.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

I was hoping to hear from you, Frank because of your experience with amps. I received mine Thursday. I have the 2013 version: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GV7Fpcw3bCA What do you think about the sound near the end of the video?

I have no opinion about the sound, as I'm basically listening to the sound from my laptop, not the amp itself, but it seems fine.
if you got a good deal and are happy with it, that's great.

When you get a chance, compare it with what someone else has, of similar size/price, and see what you think, and report back.
I think the Roland CM-30 has fantastic sound for the size/price. Too bad it's not battery powered. If you ever spot one of those out in the wild, give it a listen.

Your purchase does look sufficiently big to produce descent sound at a distance which helps a lot.

Since most magicians claim... "it can fill a football stadium with perfect sound and it's only this big"...

I usually ignore their opinions on sound systems as physics alone proves them wrong.

You're not doing that. Thank you. I'd say you're on the right track for an inexpensive solution.