Welcome to the amp vault at Zen Amplification in sunny Sydney, Australia. R&D for our very own tube amp is in full swing (more on this below) - but in the meantime we thought we'd have a little fun and invite you into the vault.

This video will compare 4 attenuators (well, 3 and a reamper) in painful detail for the tone obsessed.

🔈 The Process
All clips have been level-matched as it's a much more reliable way to evaluate tonal changes. The actual SPL change in dB has been noted for each clip though. However our aim was not to show quiet the result is - it's about how each unit actually sounds whilst attenuating. Us imperfect humans perceive louder sources as subjectively brighter and deeper (equal-loudness contour, or Fletcher-Munson curves).

A note on the Fryette Power Station if you're unfamiliar with it - it is not an attenuator. It is a load box (aka power soak) combined with a tube power amp to make a complete 'reamping system'. This means it is amplifying a low level signal from the ground up, rather than pushing one from the top down as an attenuator does (so to speak).

🔈 The Clips
Not the most exciting video, and highly repetitive, but we've done our best to allow for quick comparisons between each unit and the unattenuated signal. Video is in two parts:

1. Gibson ES-345 into Friedman Dirty Shirley 40W - set for old school Marshally crunch
2. Strat into 65 Amps Marquee (Vox type) - set for a bluesy, mild breakup

Each part will have a separate clip showing light (~6dB), moderate (~15dB) and heavy (~30dB) attenuation levels for each unit - except the Power Station which has just the one clip.

Each unit was setup to best represent the tone of the unattenuated signal. It might not match how you prefer to set yours up, or even how it sounds 'best' in the room at low volume, but instead set to be closest to the original signal when level matched. This turned out to be using no EQ options on the attenuators, and tweaking the Power Station's load and power amp settings to taste.

🗂 Chapters:
00:00 Intro

Gibson Crunch
01:06 Gibson - no attenuation
01:56 Gibson - Alex (light)
02:45 Gibson - Alex (moderate)
03:34 Gibson - Alex (heavy)
04:24 Gibson - Ironman (light)
05:13 Gibson - Ironman (moderate)
06:03 Gibson - Ironman (heavy)
06:53 Gibson - Rockcrusher (light)
07:42 Gibson - Rockcrusher (moderate)
08:31 Gibson - Rockcrusher (heavy)
09:21 Gibson - Power Station

Strat mild breakup
10:17 Strat - no attenuation
11:18 Strat - Alex (light)
12:16 Strat - Alex (moderate)
13:16 Strat - Alex (heavy)
14:14 Strat - Ironman (light)
15:13 Strat - Ironman (moderate)
16:12 Strat - Ironman (heavy)
17:12 Strat - Rockcrusher (light)
18:10 Strat - Rockcrusher (moderate)
19:10 Strat - Rockcrusher (heavy)
20:09 Strat - Power Station

21:08 Comments

One comment we forgot to make at the end of the video is that for a conservative amp/cab pairing where the speakers aren't being pummelled, then 'speaker breakup' really isn't much of a factor. There are subtle changes in compression & transient response but the EQ changes very little. An AC30 blasting a pair of Celestion Blues is another matter, but for many common scenarios speaker breakup just isn't much of a factor.

🎤 Analogue Recording Gear:
• 4x12 cabs close mic'd with a Shure SM57 / Sennheiser E906
• Pair of Neumann U67 room mics 4.5m back, mixed in just a touch
• Neve 1073 preamps for close mics
• API 3124 preamp for rooms
• Little Labs Redeye3D DI / reamper
• KHE amp switchers to manage the wall, Mogami cabling, Neutrik connectors

🖥 Digital:
• Recorded via an Apogee Symphony A/D converter
• Waves reverb added to Strat clip
• Minimal post-processing - just a LPF and HPF to better reflect how it sounds in the room

🎛 The Zen Amplifier:
We can't reveal too much right now but there is a very special amplifier design underway in the Zen workshop. It is an all-tube design that incorporates some next-generation innovations, enabling it to compete with the versatility of digital - whilst retaining the responsiveness and punch of traditional tube amps of course.

More details to come later, but sufficed to say we're very excited about this project and can't wait to share it with you.

Thanks for checking out our channel, and don't forget to subscribe to keep up-to-date with all things Zen.

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