Dr Z airbrake?
- Thread starter jsabo
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elvis
Well-known member
Sadly, Dr Z doesn't give much by useful information, including maximum power allowed. Based on their minimal manual, I would guess up to 100W, but they aren't doing anything to make that clear.
There is nothing special in the airbrake - just some power resistors and a power rheostat. It doesn't give any tone controls, and the 1.8dB steps are very small for power attenuation. Their purpose was to let the user reduce volume SLIGHTLY in a club setting. You can open the unit and change it for bigger atten steps, but good luck getting Dr Z to stand behind the unit once you've opened it.
I am using a Rock Crusher with my Dyne. When nobody's home, I generally set it for 20dB attenuation. This is still quite loud. With others around, I run in studio mode. I believe I am running at more than 30dB attenuation (it's adjustable with a knob).
As with many of the attenuator reviews I read, the high end tends to suffer with medium to heavy attenuation. The Rock Crusher has a bass boost and a treble boost ("warm" and "edge"). I run the treble boost, and it really helps. It's rated for up to 120W RMS.
Most attenuators are resistive, which is not like a speaker load at all. Speaker loads are inductive (sometime called "reactive"). Some attenuators have some reactance added, often with capacitors. This is still not the same as a speaker load, as the reactance of an inductor is the opposite of the reactance of a capacitor. Why is this important? Many tube amps are barely stable, and are tweaked to work into a speaker load. If you run them into a resistor load, they can go unstable and damage the load and/or the amp.
I have not had any problems with the Dyne into the Rock Crusher.
There is nothing special in the airbrake - just some power resistors and a power rheostat. It doesn't give any tone controls, and the 1.8dB steps are very small for power attenuation. Their purpose was to let the user reduce volume SLIGHTLY in a club setting. You can open the unit and change it for bigger atten steps, but good luck getting Dr Z to stand behind the unit once you've opened it.
I am using a Rock Crusher with my Dyne. When nobody's home, I generally set it for 20dB attenuation. This is still quite loud. With others around, I run in studio mode. I believe I am running at more than 30dB attenuation (it's adjustable with a knob).
As with many of the attenuator reviews I read, the high end tends to suffer with medium to heavy attenuation. The Rock Crusher has a bass boost and a treble boost ("warm" and "edge"). I run the treble boost, and it really helps. It's rated for up to 120W RMS.
Most attenuators are resistive, which is not like a speaker load at all. Speaker loads are inductive (sometime called "reactive"). Some attenuators have some reactance added, often with capacitors. This is still not the same as a speaker load, as the reactance of an inductor is the opposite of the reactance of a capacitor. Why is this important? Many tube amps are barely stable, and are tweaked to work into a speaker load. If you run them into a resistor load, they can go unstable and damage the load and/or the amp.
I have not had any problems with the Dyne into the Rock Crusher.
Analog Kid
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The Airbrake works great with all my Mesas. I decided to get a brake lite too.
