“The sounds of classic tube amps and mic’d speaker cabinets in a standard stompbox”: Boss takes the fight to Universal Audio and Strymon with its smallest amp and IR pedal to date, the IR-2

Boss has announced the IR-2 Amp & Cabinet pedal – a streamlined, stompbox-sized version of its fully fledged tube amp and cab sim pedal that could offer a tempting alternative to some the pedal amp market’s most popular products.

Back in 2021, Boss bolstered its 200 Series with the IR-200, which represented yet another option for guitarists looking to ditch their tube amps, and who were on the hunt for a pedalboard-friendly unit that offered class-leading Impulse Responses and models in their place.

Now, the Japanese effects specialist has condensed this amp and cab catalog even further and placed it into the IR-2 – a compact stompbox with a standard Boss pedal form factor.

(Image credit: Boss)

Promising “the inspiring sounds of classic tube amps and mic’d speaker cabinets in a standard stompbox”, the IR-2 comes loaded with 11 amp types and cabinet Impulse Responses from Celestion Digital.

It’s worth noting that, though these factor IRs and amp models are ready-matched by Boss, users can draft in third party IRs using the IR-2 IR Loader. For its smallest-ever amp pedal, Boss has also recruited an advanced DSP, 32-bit floating point processor and 96kHz sampling rate.

Particular highlights from the amp and cab list include Twin (which is inspired by a Fender Twin Reverb), Tweed (which is inspired by a ‘59 Fender Bassman) and Diamond (which takes cues from the Vox AC30).

Other classic amp models include the ‘59 Marshall Super Lead-inspired Brit, the Soldano SLO-100-based SLDN and the RFIER, which is modeled after the second channel of a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier.

The list is completed by five Boss originals: Clean, Crunch, Hi-Gain, Brown and Modded. Each of the above is paired with a range of 4×12” Celestion IRs, which includes Vintage 30, G12M-Heritage, G12K-100 and others.

The amp models can be selected by way of a master control knob, which shares the top panel with three double-function parameters that are responsible for Gain, Treble, Level, Middle, Ambience and Bass.

Joining the 11 amp and cab models is a generous suite of connectivity options. As well as IR loading, the USB-C can be used to send the sound of a complete rig to recording software, while a rear-mounted headphones output also allows for easy sound monitoring.

(Image credit: Boss)

There’s also a send/return loop for placing modulation, delay and reverb effects after the amp sounds if desired, a TRS return jack for supporting stereo operation, and a Channel Select input for using a third-party pedal to switch between two amp/cab tones. You can use the onboard footswitch to swap between sounds, while holding it down bypasses the unit completely.

Certainly, the IR-2 offers a pretty impressive feature set for those who might be looking for a smaller amp and cab pedal to squeeze into their rig, and at $199, it’s also temptingly affordable – more affordable, notably, than the $399 Strymon Iridium.

The IR-2 is available now. Head over to Boss to find out more.