speaker attenuator

[ArcticBreaze]

I'm sure this has been covered before BUT i spent an hour searching threads that weren't what i was after(may just be may poor search skills lol). so here is the question
How do i build an veriable to go between my amp and speaker (so as to get the over driven valve sound at a lower volume). I understand its just a mater of resistace but how do i mix between the speaker and the risitor. amp is a 30 watt 5e3 clone reworked for harmonica.
All Help is greatly appreciated.

[Loudthud]

Resistive attenuators reduce volume but kill tone to some degree. Some players can tolerate the change in tone, others can't. If you have the bucks, consider this:
FluxTone Speakers reduce speaker volume without tone destruction

Eminence also makes a speaker that attenuates by controlling the magnetic flux by manipulating the magnet.

[ArcticBreaze]

Nice, an interesting idea but out of my price range unfortunatlly. thoguh i did hav a speaker round sum where with a electromagnit wonder how it would go with a verible power supply. hmmm yet more things to play with how much sound reduction can i get before the smoke gomes out, lol

[Keriwena]

I think what you want to search for is "L pad". It's a simple array of a series and a parallel resistor that will reduce the current to the speaker while keeping the impedance the amp sees the same.

As Loudthud said, they "kill tone" to some degree, perhaps most noticeably they reduce the "feel" of the amp because the amp won't respond the same into a resistor as it does into to a dynamic loudspeaker. Then there's the fact the speaker won't be driven as hard, so you lose some harmonic distortion there, and there's good ole' Fletcher Munson curve, telling us things won't sound the same at lower volumes even if everything else was equal.

Still, a cranked 5e3 loses more from being turned down than it does from driving an attenuator, so if you just EQ things a bit* and accept the fact it will feel/sound like a slightly different amp, you can get raging tube distortion at low levels.


* that is, add some high and low pass elements to your L-pad, sort of a crossover with a big hole in the middle

[ArcticBreaze]

Originally Posted by Loudthud

Resistive attenuators reduce volume but kill tone to some degree. Some players can tolerate the change in tone, others can't. If you have the bucks, consider this:
FluxTone Speakers reduce speaker volume without tone destruction

might hav ago at makin one