how about this cheap attenuator?

[kev]

http://cgi.ebay.com/VOLUMEBOX-FOR-P...414025465QQcategoryZ38076QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

hey guys, reckon that is likely to work well? There must be a reason for its wonderful price though

 

[ltratt]

At no point does it mention any correction of the sound taking into account the Fletcher-Munson curve. I would thus infer that it'll sound horrible at low volume levels. Of course I could be doing it a gross disservice, but I've had a look at the parts of a hot plate attenuator in a THD amp and I'd be extremely surprised if anyone managed to replicate something along those lines for $20 (or even £20 for that matter) and turn in a profit.

 

[kev]

At no point does it mention any correction of the sound taking into account the Fletcher-Munson curve. I would thus infer that it'll sound horrible at low volume levels. Of course I could be doing it a gross disservice, but I've had a look at the parts of a hot plate attenuator in a THD amp and I'd be extremely surprised if anyone managed to replicate something along those lines for $20 (or even £20 for that matter) and turn in a profit.

yeh that was my thought too. Im interested to know what the difference is between one of these, and say a power brake or hotplate that cost ten times the price.

 

[kaomao]

actually it's not a power breaker, but just a volume box.
If you buy a volume pedal it will do the same thing.
Yuo won't get your 5150 cranked with that stuff.
Buy a thd hotplate and your ass will be saved.
neighbours.... fucking bastards!

 

[Death Is Certain]

This unit is a ripoff. Don't waste your money.

 

[kev]

perhaps someone should tell him lol

 

[JeffTD]

If you stick it in the FX loop, all it'll do is cook the preamp tubes, which is good o an extent, but nothing at all like a true power attenuator.

Plus, you need some speaker movement. Part of the cranked up tube tone is the fact that you've got some vibration and movement in those speakers, and you can actually feel the amp. That, and the Fletcher-Munson curve, as mentioned above.

 

[KeithRT99]

how does the fletcher-munson curver come into play with attentuators? technically if you played the amp at volume a, then cranked it and attentuated it back to volume a, it would still have the frequency response as the curve describes.

 

[Carrier Flux]

speaking of cheap attenuators, I've been very curious about these, but have no real information about them:

http://www.tedweber.com/atten.htm

 

[ltratt]

> how does the fletcher-munson curver come into play with attentuators?
> technically if you played the amp at volume a, then cranked it and
> attentuated it back to volume a, it would still have the frequency response
> as the curve describes.

Your ear does not interpret sound linearly as volume changes. You can test this very easily: play something through your hi-fi a touch quieter than you're used to, and then play exactly the same thing very loud. When it's louder you will perceive different details different: for example, typically the bass will be inaudible at low volume levels but will positively jump out of the speakers at high volume levels.

So if you simply drop the volume level coming out of an amp, you'll end up with a thin tinny sound at lower volume levels. Taking into account the Fletcher-Munson curve you can (somewhat) compensate for the vagaries of the human ear and e.g. boost the bass at lower volume levels to make it seem that the tone is (somewhat) consistent over different volume levels.

Attenuators like the Hot Plate aren't perfect (nor could they be as the amp is only part of the story in the sound chain), but they do a pretty good job.

 

[xmarcelx]

yeah it's NO attentuator...
it's something like a master volume!