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However, I bought loads and the THD ones were the least annoying
I use them at home and could never have the amps I have without them because I need to keep volume levels down or I'll be evicted.
My favourites are: Tone King Iron Man, Aracom, Torpedo Reload, Sequis Motherload Elemental
And as load boxes (may not be your thing): Torpedo Live, Suhr Reactive Load
I had good results with the THD Hotplate with my THD amps (but @ICBM does not recommend for Marshall for technical reasons beyond my own little brain) and it was outclassed by my (much more expensive!) favourites.
My experience with the Jettenuator was that it was great value but not in the same league as my favourites, although it was as good as the Hotplate IMHO.
I've never tried a Rock Crusher as I've never been able to get one for a good used price and I'm not convinced they'll offer more than what I currently have. I love Rivera as a company though and deeply regret selling a Venus 5 head that I used to own!
Is an attenuator as good as an unadulterated tube amp cranked in a nice room? I doubt it.
Is it better than going deaf or being evicted? Yeah, obviously.
Assuming you can find one that works well with your amp, I do prefer them to any other method of volume reduction if you're trying to get the classic light-breakup overdriven big amp sound. I also find they usually work best with master volume amps, so you can balance the preamp and power amp - rather than the intended purpose of cranking up a non-MV amp.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
My exception to this has been smaller (5W to 30W) amps where I've been able to crank them fully and rely on the attenuator as the main volume control...
If you're not attenuating to very low volumes you've probably got a bit more freedom in what you choose....of all the attenuators I've used I think the best bang for buck is the Sequis. I'm sure the Rivera is great but I've never tried one.
The Sequis goes for similar used prices, works great (IMHO) as an attenuator but also has the analogue speaker emulation built in. Not quite as good as IRs but still good.
If you buy a Rock Crusher and it's not for you give me a call 'cause I'd like to try one :-)
I normally just have it on the first or second setting. It's really well built but a big unit.
I've used it with the Budda for about three years now, including a few gigs, the power valves are still fine, nothing has blown up or set on fire and it sounds decent to me.
I'm a total convert.
I have a Marshall PB100 and a Two Notes Torpedo Reload
I'm hardly the best to give a sensible answer.
I also use one as my workshop test load exactly for the reason that it simulates a real speaker more accurately than most and the error is in the (usually) safer direction. It's even fine with solid-state amps, although I wouldn't actually *recommend* using it with one - there's almost never any point anyway, other than to make sure the amp is capable of putting out the full power without going up in smoke, since solid-state amps usually don't sound good with the power stage overdriven.
That's probably more information than you knew you wanted to know .
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Actually I've just remembered the Swart Night Light
I'm actually after a cheap attenuator for the ac15. I would assume the harley benton/jettenuator (they look the same) are ideal, as I'm assuming they're purely resistive?