Are attenuators bad for your amp?
Power Attenuators can Damage your Amp: If you connect the fan (or just make sure that your attenuator isn’t getting too hot) and connect your power attenuator correctly, there is no reason a correctly functioning power attenuator would harm your amp.
Are amp attenuators worth it?
In an ideal world, attenuators would allow you to use any amp at any volume level without any adverse effect on sound quality or reliability. In practice, the use of attenuation does change tone, but blaming the attenuator isn’t always justified. This is why some attenuators provide bass and treble compensation.
How do I choose an attenuator?
Attenuators should be able to handle required power safely. In best practice, it is recommended to pick one with higher power handling capability than your required power. It is good to have an attenuator with better heat dissipation if the application requires handling high power especially in hot environments.
Do attenuators degrade sound quality?
It may alter the sound though. My experience is that adding impedence seems to smooth out highs and upper mids. Might want to consider lower gain tubes or a source with lower line output.
Do attenuators really work?
In short, an attenuator works by “bleeding” some of the power coming from the output section of an amplifier, thus reducing the volume level, before sending the signal out to a speaker cabinet. We see them being used a lot with 50-100 Watt amps but the fact is, lower-wattage amps can get surprisingly loud as well.
Can you use an attenuator with a combo amp?
COMBO AMP: When using an attenuator with a combo amp, place the unit between the amp’s speaker out and the speaker itself. You may then plug the speaker directly into the SPEAKER OUTPUT (not “Line Out”) of the attenuator, or use a male-to-female extension cable if the speaker’s wire won’t reach.
What is a tube amp attenuator?
An attenuator sits between your guitar amp head and your speaker, and serves as a post-power amplifier master volume. At this point, you can keep the volume of your amplifier as high as you want, and control the actual volume in the room by adjusting the output volume on the attenuator.
Why do tube amps sound better loud?
Because valve/tube amps have an output transformer causes the amp to have a ‘high output impedance’. This is a form of distortion, as the speaker is not following exactly the signal the amplifier is feeding to the speaker. This is the only reason a tube amp ‘can’ sound louder than a elderly transistor amp design.
How do you get attenuation?
The amount of attenuation in a given network is determined by the ratio of: Output/Input. For example, if the input voltage to a circuit is 1 volt (1V) and the output voltage is 1 milli-volt (1mV) then the amount of attenuation is 1mV/1V which is equal to 0.001 or a reduction of 1,000th.
To answer the question in the OP, YES, an attenuator CAN cause damage to an amp, so YES you risk damaging your amp if you use an attenuator in the wrong way. IF there is an impedance mismatch between the amp and the attenuator, damage can result from its use which is not just normal wear due to hard use.
What tubes does my amp use?
Most tube amps need multiple preamp tubes to perform various functions. And most use 12AX7 (aka ECC83) preamp tubes. Other amps use 12AU7 or 12AT7 tubes, which are similar to the 12AX7 but have lower gain.
What is the best attenuator?
Eminence Reignmaker. US manufacturer Eminence offers two speakers with flux density modulation.
What is an amplifier tube?
A tube amplifier, or tube amp as they are commonly called, is an amplifier that receives power from vacuum tubes. The tubes are famous for producing not only significant power, but a smooth sound as compared to an all-electronic or transistor amplifier. Brought to the forefront in the 1960s,…