I never played a 30 watt cube but I think the emulation/effects electronics is the same as their bigger stuff. A guitar player buddy of mine has a 5 watt,30 watt , 60 watt,and 120 watt guitar amps and they are the same in everything but power and a few updates based on what year they were made. He also has the 100 watt bass amp with a single 12 . He is not just a Roland junkie either. He has several other amps too, including a couple Fenders and some real pricey tube Boutique stuff. He just likes quality stuff and he's pretty darn picky.
I like everything they make
. That little 5 watt he bought me is a gas. Extremely large watts. I have an old Gibson Atlas that is 35-40 watts and my 5 watt Roland is close in volume and head and shoulders better in tone.
The only issue either one of of us has ever experienced with Roland stuff is a one time incident with his 60 watt guitar amp and my 5 watt bass amp. A one time only thing for both of us. Kinda weird. After 4 or 5 hours with the volume cranked up they started to disort, feedback and in general just get noisey. I thought I had big problems, but the next time I tried it , everything was fine
. I've heated it with 4-5 hours plus several times since and had no problems. No clue what happened.
The effects and emulation stuff is nice. I don't use much of it , but it's cool. For guitar players and bass players who are die hard tube heads, Rolands emulation electronics may change a lot of their opinions on solid states.
Roland has a pretty good reputation for being rock solid. Their old 60 watt orange guitar amps were indestructible. I know several players who beat the hell out of them for 10 years plus and never spent a dime on them.
Again, I never played a 30 watt but I imagine they're good. If you're out shopping around for Roland stuff, give their 5 watt micro cube a try.
Rick