how many people use attenuator when he play in home

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Stevo on January 13, 2011 at 6:20am

I have an attenuator and it's fine. Power scaling would be nice too, but I've never tried it. Either way, you still don't get the same tone as when you crank your amp since the whole amp is vibrating and resonating when you do that.

Permalink Reply by Toni on January 13, 2011 at 8:13am

I haven't tried an attenuator yet, but I don't like power scaling (in simplistic versions, where you drop the voltage within the whole amp instead of just the output stage). At some stage I'm going to build an attenuator to try - I've got an L-Pad sat around waiting to be adapted.

 

The problem with all these things is that they don't work the speaker hard enough, and that mostly makes them little better than a decent overdrive. Speakers affect amp response as well as tone, and add compression when pushed a little. We also hear frequencies differently at different volumes, so you amp won't be the same as when it's being pushed a little.

Permalink Reply by Stevo on January 13, 2011 at 3:00pm

We also hear frequencies differently at different volumes, so you amp won't be the same as when it's being pushed a little.

 

I think this is why my attenuator, (Webber "Load Dump") has a setting to adjust the treble roll-off.

Permalink Reply by Toni on January 14, 2011 at 10:13am

That's true, but it doesn't fix the response and feeling issues.

Permalink Reply by Stevo on January 14, 2011 at 2:21pm

Correct. One cannot completely simulate the cranked amp since so much if the magic is from - cranking it.

 

The REAL crime with attenuators is the cost. Why does a Thd hot plate cost $300? That's ridiculous. And not only that, each one has a different impedance, so you're forced to buy one for each impedance setup you have. If you buy just one, you lose your highs or lows where you're forced to mismatch like I would be. My Weber cost someone $100 new. I got it for $40.