Awesome Tone at Lower Volume

[Janglin_Jack]

I love the 1024 speaker cab idea...or the other one with 5000 speakers!!! Call up Mythbusters....

In the guitar amp/speaker/cab world, I had a Studio .22 with a low efficiency speaker. I upped to a 100db efficient speaker and it moved in the right direction. Settled on an Eminence Wizard at 103db (rounding up slightly) and found this little 18w could then keep up with a live band/loud drummer. Normally I would have said 40w-50w minimum amp wattage for a rock band, (without stage mic) but upping the speaker efficiency proved to me that it works. On the flip side, having a 50w Marshall with a 4x12 was LOUD. Reducing the power using an attenuator I found -6db reduction really helped. So these numbers are meaningful and useful. Also, putting is a Post Phase Inverter Master Volume in a Marshall was another way of reducing power while retaining the tone/gain worked well with that style amp. I don't know if these things scale infinitely, but within 1x12 - 4x12 (number of speakers) and 20w - 50w - 100w amp power make real world differences. Less efficient speakers and an attenuator are great ways to do it, too. Dropping from a efficient 4x12 down to a less efficient speaker in an 1x12 might just be the ticket.

Mike

 

[Daft Goose]

Love the Mark V 90 I have. I absolutely love all of the sounds on 90W and cranking the volume but I'd be deaf quickly running through a 4 x 12 cabinet. If I go with a 2 x 12 or 1 x 12 will that provide the same high gain tone at lower volume? If there are any other suggestions for getting that same tone at lower volume I'd love your suggestions.

Just bought an Ox Box for my V:35 and upgraded to a V90. Gotta say the attenuation slaps and I was blown away by the Ox output to my DAW. Phenomenal tones at levels that won't get me evicted from my flat. Very early days for me working all this out but I can't recommend highly enough.

 

[austin sonar guru]

I had a similar issue with my Blue Angel. If your not familiar with the amp, it has no master volume. It starts to sing at about 10-11 on the volume knob, and is very loud even on it's lowest output tube setting (6V6 only).
I purchased an Torpedo Captor-X two years ago and I couldn't be happier. An Ox Box or Captor-X with speaker sims (or without) is to me the best option.

The speaker sims you can upload into the Captor-X are incredible into your DAW or headphone. I have a pair of Celestion Golds in my amp now and the IR's you can get for these blow me away at how close they sound to the real amp. Of course, without my window panes rattling.

The Ox Box has infinitely variable attenuation and the Captor-X has a three position switch (level variations work fine for me). At the time I purchased it I didn't want to spend the extra money for the Ox Box.

It's a difficult choice between the two - the Captor-X has a near infinite variety of Cab Sims and IR's that can be uploaded (but I don't really use a lot of them).

If I had to do it again, I might spend the extra money for the Ox-Box.

I have some experience with Cab Sims/reactive loads back in the 90's and they sucked. These are incredible fidelity. Again, you can use either one to drive the amp hard and attenuate the speaker output - and/or take the amp output direct to DAW.

 

[gibsonboogie]

Nod to the last 2 replies as that is where I currently am on this journey to get great tone while saving my hearing and not waking my wife up at night.

A few things I have learned, all of these can be found in comments throughout this forum:
1. Some amps really need to be turned up to get into the optimal range.
2. Attenuators color the sound. All my resistive/static load attentuators tend reduce some brightness. My 1 reactive load increases the brightness.
3. Most speakers need to be cranked to get into the optimal range too. I've found that all the 12" speakers I own react differently when played at low vs high levels.
4. Comparing 1x12 vs 2x12 vs 4x12 with the same speaker, yes they will sound different.
5. Our ears hear differently at different volumes. At lower volumes we're less sensistive to higher and lower frequencies while being more sensitive to mid-range.

I think to many #1 and #2 are well known. #3 is 1 of those things eveyone kinda knows but tends to not take into account as often.

From specs that I have seen, most or many 12" speakers have sensitivity ratings in the 97-100dB range. Ofc we need to look at what that rating actually is. It is the SPL reading at 1 meter from the speaker when a 1kHz sine wave is played at 1 watt RMS. Almost all guitar notes are below 1kHz and guitar speakers definitely do not have a flat response. But if you take into account that a speaker maybe able to put out 100dB at 1m with only 1 watt, that is definitely way above bedroom levels.

So after years of messing with attentuators, tube swaps, speaker swaps, volume pedals in the fx loop, etc., I bought a Two Notes Captor-X a few months ago. It is now 1 of my most used devices, and I don't even record much or at all. I have the captor-x's output going to a single 5" powered JBL monitor, and sometimes use the headphone output too. It also has a voicing knob that controls the contour, more mids at lower settings, more highs and lows freqs at higher. This can help compensate for #5.

I am very happy with my current setup of amp -> captor -> monitor for low volume playing. Ofc nothing sounds and feels like the amp and speakers all cranking at higher volumnes, but this definitely takes less of a toll on my hearing.