Suhr Reactive Load

dudu

All in the title. Along with a Cali76 I got from Thorpy a while ago it is the best purchase of 2015. I use number of tube preamps for recording ranging from very clean (Shift Line Twin) to mid-gain (Kingsley Juggler) to high gain (the pre from my AFD100). I used to think I got good sounds by combining the preamp signal with power amp emulations and impulse responses mimicking both cabinet frequency responses and impedance curves. I was wrong, the difference between that setup and chaining the line out signal of the Reactive Load into cabinet IRs is big enough to justify writing this.

A sound clip is worth a thousand words. The first take is through the Reactive Load. The second is preamp to IRs https://www.dropbox.com/s/68seno6283zwyme/RLvsDI.mp3.

Hope this helps, guys.

digitalscream

I wouldn't say the pre-into-IRs sounds awful, but yes - the load sound much better.

That's actually pretty relevant to my interests right now. Thanks

dudu

digitalscream said:

I wouldn't say the pre-into-IRs sounds awful, but yes - the load sound much better.

That's actually pretty relevant to my interests right now. Thanks

Happy to have been of service! I went between this, the Fryette Power Station and the Two Notes Torpedo Reload. The Reload was way too expensive for my needs and the Power Station sounded muffled in every demo I could find. I didn't really need attenuation, only a reactive load so Suhr it was.

digitalscream

dudu said:

digitalscream said:

I wouldn't say the pre-into-IRs sounds awful, but yes - the load sound much better.

That's actually pretty relevant to my interests right now. Thanks

Happy to have been of service! I went between this, the Fryette Power Station and the Two Notes Torpedo Reload. The Reload was way too expensive for my needs and the Power Station sounded muffled in every demo I could find. I didn't really need attenuation, only a reactive load so Suhr it was.

Yeah...see, the Torpedo Live is what I really want, but there's absolutely no way I can justify the expense of it. As it is, I may just go down the home-built reactive load route. My resistive dummy load is just not up to the job

dindude

I can really see the temptation of this combined with some decent IR's - being able to use my amp and pedals into my monitors and headphones as well as record without miking - if it's as good sounding as it sees to be then I'm in (when funds allow).

Jonathanthomas83

@dudu This is great. How is it working for absolutely clean sounds? Your clip sounds great! I've placed an order but it's going to take a few weeks. What IR are you using? 

Also, I'm wondering what interface I'm going to need, what do you use?

Deijavoo

Sounds great!

TimmyO

Agree the first half sounds much nicer.

I recently got a Torpedo Reload and it is bloody brilliant - so glad I did, sounds and feels fantastic at any volume 

dudu

Jonathanthomas83;969613" said:

@dudu This is great. How is it working for absolutely clean sounds? Your clip sounds great! I've placed an order but it's going to take a few weeks. What IR are you using? 

Also, I'm wondering what interface I'm going to need, what do you use?

Hey Jon,

I use an Ownhammer Mesa 4x12 IR. No matter what amp I use, British or American, I always go back to this one. The Mesa voiced V30 is a great, great speaker.

I also use an Apogee Duet 2, but lots of others will do.

dudu

As for clean sounds, here is a short demo of my Cali76 into a Shift Line Twin preamp into the poweramp of my AFD100 into the Reactive Load:

Jonathanthomas83

@dudu That's awesome, thank you very much. Sounds so, so good! I'm really impressed mate.

Really helpful of you too. Thank you. 

I had my eye on using the Mesa cabs, so you've just helped consolidate my thinking with that one. Great cabinets, I miss my real one...but not for long! :-)