One of the unfortunate parts of playing an electronic drum set is that you either need a pair of headphones or an amp to hear what you’re playing. If you want other people to hear what you’re playing, getting an amp is your only option.
It’s important not to get the wrong amp for your kit, as certain amps don’t focus on the right frequencies for drum sets. Thankfully, there are dedicated electronic drum kit amps that you can buy. These are designed specifically for e-kits, and they tend to sound the best.
We’ve compiled a list of 11 of them for you to check out. These are our top recommendations for electronic drum kit amps.
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Top 3 Electronic Drum Set Amps and Monitors
The Roland PM-100 is our Top Pick winner. It’s Roland’s most popular amp for drum kits, and it’s designed specifically for the brand’s extensive line of V-Drums. However, it works wonderfully with electronic kits from every brand.
The KAT Percussion KA1 is our Best Budget pick. It’s an excellent inexpensive amp that gives you a relatively decent sound from your electronic drums. It’s a good option for beginner drummers who just want to use it to practice their drums without having to wear headphones to hear what’s being played.
The Roland PM-200 is our Editor’s Choice. It’s one of the most luxurious drum kit amps on the market. It’s essentially a souped-up version of the PM-100, improving on it in almost every way. It’s a lot more powerful, and the sound quality is superior.
Best Electronic Drum Set Amps and Monitors Reviews
Roland PM-100
One of the most popular drum amps for electronic kits. It has amazing sound quality.
This amp has been specifically designed for the V-Drum kits from Roland. However, it works brilliantly with all electronic drum sets available. The 10-inch woofer is a great inclusion to make this 80-watt amp sound powerful and bass-heavy.
We found the Roland PM-100 to be one of the easiest choices to go with for any drummer who owns an electronic drum kit. It just works in every way, and it’s one of the most reliable amps available.
We loved the inclusion of a 10-inch woofer. That combines with an onboard tweeter to give this amp all the frequency response you need with an e-kit. We found the 80 watts of power to be more than enough, especially if you’re just using this amp for a band practice or personal use.
Something we noticed with the PM-100 is that the low-end was very focused. You may not expect this amp to be so beefy, but be prepared for your bass drum sounds to have a lot of punch to them.
We’ve heard that the tweeter can fail inside the amp after a while. There aren’t too many people who’ve had that issue, but we suggest keeping a look out for that.
Verdict: The Roland PM-100 is an amazing electronic drum kit amp. We suggest anyone who owns an e-kit consider getting it. It’s powerful enough for band practices, and it has great sound quality with a surprising amount of low-end. It’s also small and light enough to travel with very easily.
KAT Percussion KA1
The most affordable electronic drum set amp that we’d happily recommend.
An excellent value-for-money drum kit amp with 3-band EQ settings. It works well for drummers who have an electronic kit in their bedrooms and need something small and affordable to hear their drum kit being played through.
We were pleasantly surprised at the quality of this amp, considering that KAT Percussion drum kits are mostly very weak in quality. We wouldn’t suggest most people consider getting a KAT kit, but this amp is a different story.
It’s a great inexpensive option to use, even with Roland or Yamaha drum kits. It has a decent 50 watts of power, and the 3-band equalizer allowed us to adjust EQ settings to get the best sounds we could.
The big downside was that no matter what we did, the audio always sounded quite hollow. Beginner drummers won’t be bothered by this, but experienced musicians will find it frustrating.
So, this is mainly an amp for newer drummers who need something affordable for their electronic set.
Verdict: The KAT Percussion KA1 is the most affordable electronic drum amp that people still tend to love. The sound quality isn’t highly impressive, but it’s good enough for beginner drummers to still love using this amp. It also helps that it has a 3-band equalizer to allow you to dial in the best sound settings. We just wouldn’t recommend this amp to experienced drummers.
Roland PM-200
The highest-quality standalone electronic drum amp on the market.
This amp is the best possible option available if you don’t want to have a large PA setup. The amp has tremendous power, and the sound quality you get from it is exceptional.
This amp is a major step up in quality compared to the Roland PM-100. It has a 12-inch woofer, giving you powerful bass tones. We also found the tweeter in this amp to be a bit more reliable than the one in the PM-100.
The biggest difference is the power, though. This amp is packed with 180 watts of power, and the sound qualityyou get is incredibly clean. We also tested it with an electronic drum kit and keyboard hooked up at the same time, and the sound quality remained pristine at high volumes.
You can’t go wrong with the PM-200, especially if you’re not willing to set up an intricate PA system, as that’s the only amp system that would give better results.
The downside is the high price. This is one of the most expensive single amp options available.
Verdict: The Roland PM-200 is undoubtedly the highest-quality single drum amp available. You get loads of power from this thing, and the sound quality is very clean and precise. If you want the best sounds possible from your electronic kit without setting up a PA system with a mixing board, this amp would be our top suggestion.
ddrum Bluetooth Amplifier
An excellent drum amp for beginner and intermediate players with useful Bluetooth capabilities.
A great personal drum kit amp with a vibrant design. The Bluetooth feature is a big drawcard for drummers who love playing to music. It also has a 3-band equalizer that allows you to fine-tune the volume settings.
We found this amp to be very similar to the KAT Percussion KA1 amp. However, the sound quality was a lot better on this amp, and the price is only slightly higher.
The big selling point for this amp is that you can connect devices via Bluetooth. We loved playing to music from our phones while the drums were connected to the amp via a line input, and we found the Bluetooth connectivity to work extremely well.
The 3-band equalizer was what reminded us of the KA1, but we found these EQ knobs to be slightly better in quality. However, we would have liked it if you could adjust the Bluetooth EQ and drum set EQ separately.
With that being said, this is still a very affordable drum kit amp, so it’s understandable that it doesn’t let you do that.
Verdict: The ddrum Bluetooth Amplifier has Bluetooth connectivity as its biggest selling point. It also has a 3-band equalizer that allows you to fine-tune volume settings, which is fantastic. The amp only has 50 watts of power, so it’s best to use it as a personal amp in your practice space. The sound quality will dip if you try to use this amp at higher volumes at a band practice.
Alesis Strike Amp 12
An incredibly powerful electronic drum amp with crisp highs and very detailed lows.
This wedge-style monitor is one of the most popular amps from Alesis. It has a massive 2000 watts of power, and it brings electronic drum sets to life. It has pole-mounting capabilities, making it a great option for an outdoor PA system as well.
The Alesis Strike Amp 12 was one of our favorite amps apart from the Roland PM amps. This amp packs a serious amount of power, making it one of the best options to use in a band practice or live gig environment.
While it’s quite large, we loved the side handles that made it easy to carry. This is the kind of amp you want to take to a gig, and it helps a lot that it won’t throw your back out.
We also loved how it had a pole mount option. If you get two of these amps, you can hook them up to a mixer to create a PA system for some high-quality sound.
As with most Alesis products, we also love how affordable this amp is.
Verdict: The Alesis Strike Amp 12 is a larger drum amp that we suggest getting for live gigs. It has 2000 watts of power, allowing you to crank the volume very high while still having good sound quality. You can also mount the amp on a pole, which is perfect for setting a PA system up with it. The sound quality isn’t as good as the Roland amps, though.
Vangoa DM-100
Another very affordable amp for beginner electronic drum kit players to consider.
This is a decent drum amp for people looking for highly affordable options. It comes from a lesser-known instrument brand, but it offers enough for us to recommend it on this list. It’s the most affordable amp we know of with Bluetooth capabilities.
The Vangoa DM-100 is only a suitable pick for beginner drummers who just need something small next to their kit. We knew what we were going to get at this price point, but we were pleasantly surprised by how this amp performed.
It’s a very small amp, making it perfect for fitting next to your kit in a tight space. It also has a 3-band equalizer, along with a Bluetooth function. In this way, it closely competes with the ddrum Bluetooth Amp.
It made our drums sound decent at lower volumes. It started distorting at higher ones. So, we wouldn’t recommend using this amp anywhere other than your small practice space.
Verdict: The Vangoa DM-100 is another great option for beginner drummers looking for something affordable. The Bluetooth connectivity and 3-band equalizer make it a great pick, but the sound quality was what we valued most. It just didn’t sound as good as pricier amps from Alesis and Roland, so it’s not a good pick for experienced drummers looking for top-tier sound quality.
Alesis Strike Amp 8
A smaller and more affordable alternative to the Alesis Strike Amp 12.
This amp shares the same design as the Strike Amp 12, but it has less volume and a smaller frame. It’s a compact version of that amp, making it a good pick for drummers looking for something more compact.
This version of the Alesis Strike amp is better suited for personal use, and it’s not something that we’d recommend using for band practices. We found the volume to be a lot softer, and the drum sound got a bit lost when we tested it along with other instruments.
It has the same fundamental design as the Strike Amp 12, though. So, you’ll love this amp if you love that one.
It also has space to mount a pole, so you could set two of these amps up in your practice room for a compact PA system. It would take up a lot less space than if you were to use two Strike Amp 12s.
Verdict: The Alesis Strike Amp 8 is a high-quality amp that we recommend for personal practice use. It has the classic wedge amp design, but it’s a lot smaller than most other wedge amps available. You won’t be able to use this amp comfortably for a band practice setup, as you’d need something with more volume for that.
Mackie Thump 15
A very powerful speaker that is great for setting up a PA system for your drums.
This speaker is one of the most popular options out there for people who need sound for live venues. It’s a great option for drummers who use their electronic drum kits to play live gigs.
If you need something big and beefy, you should consider getting amps or speakers to use within a larger PA setup. If that’s what you’re looking for, then our top suggestion would be the Mackie Thump 15. It has amazing sound quality that tends to cater very well to drum sets.
The speaker is incredibly powerful, allowing you to use it in much larger venues than you would with most of the other amp options on this list.
The downside of getting a speaker like this is that it’s expensive and quite big. That’s why we’re only suggesting it if you want to set up a PA system.
Verdict: The Mackie Thump 15 is an ideal speaker to use within a PA setup. If you get two of these, you’ll have a powerful enough setup to play drums in any venue. We love the sound quality of this speaker, and the onboard EQ settings let you fine-tune the sounds very intricately, even if you don’t have a mixer. We just suggest you stay clear of this if you just want an amp for personal use.
Laney DH-80
A solid electronic drum amp option with fantastic sound quality.
Another reliable drum kit amp to consider. This one sits somewhere between the Roland PM-100 and PM-200 amps in terms of quality. It has knobs to control bass and treble frequencies, giving you a relatively good amount of control over the overall sound.
Although Laney aren’t known for their drum kit amps, we found this amp to share all the good qualities that the Laney guitar amps are so well-known for.
This is an excellent mid-range amp to consider, as it packs plenty of power and has amazing sound quality. The tones you get are very rich, and you get an excellent balance of mids, highs, and lows.
We found this to be one of the best amps to get for personal use. It’s very small, but it somehow produces some of the best tonal quality out of all the amps on this list.
Verdict: The Laney DH-80 is an excellent amp to consider if you’re looking for rich tonal qualities. We found it to be the most appropriate middle-ground amp to fit in between the Roland PM-100 and PM-200. If you want something a bit better than the PM-100, this amp would be your next step up.
Behringer Ultratone K450FX
An affordable keyboard amp that works well for drum kits as well.
An incredibly popular keyboard amp option. If you’re a multi-instrumentalist who needs one amp for all your instruments, this amp will work very well for electronic drum sets.
The Behringer Ultratone is an excellent budget keyboard amp to use for your electronic drum set. While it’s not the most ideal option, we loved the sound editing tools that this amp offered. There were multiple FX and EQ knobs, and we were able to dial in a great sound for an electronic drum kit.
We found the tone to be quite compressed, which isn’t a bad thing when listening to drums. It made the drums sound very clean and tight.
If you only have an electronic drum kit, we suggest getting one of the other dedicated drum amps that we’ve listed. If you play other instruments, this amp is a good affordable option to run them all through along with your drums.
Verdict: The Behringer Ultratone K450FX is a good option for drummers who play other instruments as well. We loved the sound editing tools that it offers, and we were able to dial in great sounds for drums. We only suggest getting this amp if you’re a multi-instrumentalist on a tight budget, though, as there are much better-sounding keyboard amps out there.
Roland KC-80
A high-quality mid-range keyboard amp that works well with electronic drum kits.
This amp has the richness of tone that electronic drum kit players have all come to expect from Roland. It’s a solid option to consider if you want something that can bring electronic drums to life along with a keyboard at the same time.
The Roland KC-80 is a better keyboard amp to consider if you’re looking for something with better sound quality than the Behringer Ultratone. This is also an amp that we’d happily recommend that you take with you to gigs.
We found that it had a very big sound, but we could still hear all the nuanced details of all the strokes that we played around the drums. The bass drum was beefy, while the cymbals had enough piercing high-end to make us happy.
Again, we’d only suggest getting this amp if you play more than just the drums. Otherwise, it’s better to get one of the Roland PM drum kit amps.
Verdict: The Roland KC-80 is a brilliant keyboard amp to get that will give you good drum kit tones as well. It’s a mid-range amp, but it gives you excellent sound quality for professional settings. It’s a great gigging amp, and it’s one that drummers who also play other instruments should heavily consider.
How to Choose the Best Electronic Drum Set Amps and Monitors
Picking an appropriate amp for electronic drums is important, as a lot of amps won’t bring out the best sounds from your drums. You should also consider things such as power, editing tools, size, and cost when looking around. Here’s more information on all those things.
Frequencies
Drum kits cover a wide range of frequencies. The cymbals sit in the high frequency ranges, while floor toms and bass drums sit in the lower frequency ranges. Other drums sit somewhere in the middle, so you’re playing through a lot of different sounds and frequencies.
You need to get an amp that covers all the frequency ranges. Otherwise, your drums aren’t going to sound as good as they can when coming through the speakers.
For example, a drum kit won’t sound too good when coming through a bass amp, as it puts a heavy focus on lower frequencies. Your bass drum will be emphasized, but your cymbals will sound very weak.
So, dedicated drum amps are the best to get as they’re designed to handle the frequencies of drum kits. If you don’t get a dedicated drum amp, the next best option would be a keyboard amp, as those also cover a wide range of frequencies.
Power
The amount of power you need depends on where your electronic drum kit is placed and what you want to use it for. If you just have a small kit in your bedroom, you won’t need too much power from an amp. You’ll be able to get clear sounds at low volumes, and that will be perfect for you.
If you have your kit in a larger venue where you’ll need to raise the volume for people to hear the drums, you’ll need a lot more power from the amp. If you try to use an amp with little power in that setting, the sound will distort at louder volume levels.
So, the more powerful an amp is, the clearer the drum sounds will be at high volumes.
If you need your electronic drum kit to be heard in a fairly large venue, we’d suggest setting up a PA system and not relying on a single amp. PA systems can be quite expensive, which is why we only suggest getting them for large venues and not for using in your personal practice space.
EQ Options
EQ options aren’t the biggest feature to look for in electronic drum amps, as most intermediate and high-end electronic sets allow you to adjust sounds on the drum module. However, having a few knobs to control the sounds from the amp can be very useful.
If you have an inexpensive electronic kit, dialing in fantastic EQ settings on the amp may just improve the sound a bit.
You can also use those EQ settings for any level of kit to dial in the best settings for the room that the kit is in. Some amps will have knobs that allow you to adjust the intensity of just the highs and lows, while other ones have a knob for the mids as well.
Size
The size of your electronic drum amp needs to be considered, as you should get one that fits the purposes you need. If you have a small space, a large amp won’t be able to fit, and it can be very frustrating to make it work in that space along with your electronic kit.
Size won’t matter if your space is large enough for anything. However, you also need to consider if you’ll be moving the amp around a lot. If you do that, a lighter amp will be a better option. You just need to make sure it has enough power for wherever you’re moving it to.
Wedge amps are typically the largest, and they’re most often used for PA systems. All the very affordable amps are normally quite small.
Price
There are three main categories of pricing when it comes to electronic drum set amps. The first one is a group of amps that ranges from $100 to $300. These are all beginner amps, and they’re not very powerful. They’re intended for drummers with small electronic setups.
The next group of amps ranges from $300 to $500. These amps have more power and much better sound quality. We’d suggest sticking with amps in this range if you want to get the best bang for your buck.
The last group of amps range from $500 to $1000. These are high-end drum amps, and many of them are commonly used within PA setups. If money is no issue, these will be your best options.
Final Thoughts on the Best Electronic Drum Set Amps and Monitors
While there aren’t as many drum amps available as we’d like, it makes singling out the best ones very easy. If you want the best overall drum amp available, consider getting the Roland PM-100. It’s our Top Pick, and it’s an amazing option.
If you’re looking for the most affordable amp available that still has decent sound quality, our Budget Winner is the KAT Percussion KA1. If you’re happy to spend a lot of money to get the best option available, consider getting our Editor’s Choice pick, which is the Roland PM-200.