There's no doubt that this 100 watt programmable stereo amplifier does owe something to that particular brand of entertainment centre. It has a speaker on each side and can be split to spread the stereo image. There's a semi-retracting carrying handle and in terms of portability the two are probably on a par.

The casing is made from heavy duty plastic, rather like the kind Bose use for their speaker cabinets. This material is extremely tough and stands up well to being knocked about, although, unlike the Bose cabs, there's nothing to protect the front of the Rockman from moisture and knocks. I'd like to have seen a clip-on protective cover to match the rest of the amp's sturdy housing or, better still, both sides could have folded together, which would also have made the package smaller and more manageable.

The right hand side of the XP100 simply contains the extension speaker, an American 6" Pyle Driver unit. The whole thing is easily detached from the left hand side by depressing the handle to release the internal catch and lifting up and away.

To begin with, any of the Rockman's sounds can be stored into one of its 99 memories. Storing is as simple as pressing the red record button until the chosen memory number stops flashing, and that's it. Nothing to confuse the simple guitarist here. Even working out what effects or sounds you want is easy, as everything is preset - from EQ to echo all you have to do is make your selection and away you go. When you recall a memory the LEDs in each section light up to show the settings. If an adjustment is needed, that can be seen to have been done and the setting can be either reprogrammed, or just left for that one gig. Next time that memory number is selected the original setting will return.

The facilities the Rockman has to offer begin with a single input, suitable for either guitar or keyboard. Next comes your 'sustain' selector, and this, like all the parameters, is adjusted by means of a push switch -one touch and the next preset comes up. Sustain adds four levels of compression to the overall sound with zero giving the lowest level and volume output.

Next in line we find Pre EQ, marked bass, 1.8K (mid) and treble, with each one calibrated to plus or minus 10. The second part of this section contains the channel selector. This again has a single push button which offers a choice of two clean channels, a further two with increasing amounts of sustain and yet two more mixed with the second clean channel to give an all-out metal sound. Alongside is the external effects loop with a single 'on' switch and an LED to show if the return signal is clipping - a feature which would be useful on all amps.

On to the first of the digital effects, the chorus. This has settings ranging from slow through normal and fast to extra fast, all of which appear to have been preset to the most commonly used sounds, and as such they're excellent. Below this is the mono switch, whose function is obvious. But it's next door in the echo/reverb section where things become a bit more interesting.

Working in stereo, with two identical banks of settings and controls, the sounds are again preset, but with the advantage that different processing can be selected for left and right. This can create some interesting wide stereo effects which are useful not just for clean sounds but with the sustain settings as well. With the Rockman switched to mono this facility is of course cancelled.

As well as echo there are two reverb settings. Reverb 2 has a wide room sound while I is tighter and less pronounced. Both the reverb and echo levels are governed by a single control which pads the effect from minus 12dB to minus 3.

The final programmable functions - five-band output EQ and volume -also work on the cut and boost principle. Selection is made by pressing the button for the required function, then boosting or cutting as required via another pair of buttons. This method of selection seemed far more accurate than the usual sliders, and I found it visually better too.

The final control section houses treble and bass sliders for any manual tone correction that might be needed. Then there's a pair of master volume controls to look after the overall levels, and a power range switch. This can be set to give either high (full power), low, which is great for around the house, or headphones - although this only has a mini jack socket, so unless you have the Walkman type you'll need a converter. Above this is the readout for the selected programme along with the buttons to select and record, or, if you're using any MIDI compatible gear, Channel Select and Copy.

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