Amp Switchers

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Shredder
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Been trying to navigate this for a while and there is no perfect solution. Random thoughts of mine dumped here but curious to hear everyone’s thoughts and experiences to try and find what might be best for me. The main ones I’ve looked at are KHE, Ampete, DeLisle and Kahayan.

As far as I can tell, the KHE has a decent buffer (on the most recent version), Kahayan has no buffer. No idea about Ampete and DeLisle.

KHE and Ampete seem safest for switching amps but maybe i’m missing something. Delisle and Kahayan have that “in between” area when turning the knob, but maybe this is done in a way where amps always have a load?

Kahayan manual mentions about being careful not to select a cab option if nothing is connected. I think the others have some safety options in place?

I have 4 load boxes - 3 are 8 Ω and one is selectable. My cabs are a pretty even split between 8 Ω and 16 Ω. There’s no elegant way to switch without going behind amps and manually matching things which sort of negates a switcher in the first place. The best solution for me is probably to just set everything to 8 Ω and if I decide to have cabs hooked up, to use the 8 Ω ones. I know things can be mismatched with some amount of safety but my OCD would rather use things as intended.

I have 20+ amps and over 8 cabs, as well as the load boxes. I don’t intend on hooking up ALL of them up at the same time because I’d be spending thousands in the gear, shipping, import fees, cables etc. I’m leaning towards either 8x4 OR 8 amps to one output (and just use a single load box). With 8x1, I can always expand later, either adding another 8 amps, or start incorporating more cab outputs.

There’s so many questions between “do I want a buffer or not?” “do I want fx loops?” “is this one safer than this?”, and whatever I decide on will have some amount of compromise. That’s why I still haven’t bought one but I’d like to try and make this decision easier somehow.

Really appreciate any advice!
 
I have a Delisle 8x6 (Pro Plus model) It’s been pretty great. No more worrying about switching loads, speakers, etc manually…
 
I have a Delisle 8x6 (Pro Plus model) It’s been pretty great. No more worrying about switching loads, speakers, etc manually…
what do you have connected to it? What’s the benefits over the no Pro ones?

The DeLisle layout makes me concerned I’d be sending amps to multiple cabs by mistake and doing weird things to the impedance. I’m probably missing something though…
 
I have the DeLisle 8x8. It works just fine for me. I believe DeLisle recommends against switching the load under live conditions (I mute everything before changing the amp/cab) but if that’s not a dealbreaker, I’ve had 0 issues with mine.
 
what do you have connected to it? What’s the benefits over the no Pro ones?

The DeLisle layout makes me concerned I’d be sending amps to multiple cabs by mistake and doing weird things to the impedance. I’m probably missing something though…
The version I have has a built in attenuator, I never bypass it and what ever amp is connected always sees the 8 ohm attenuator as the load. You can enable 0,1, or 2 speaker cabs at a time.
 
I picked up an Ampete 4x4 in 2017, still works great. The front has a buffered input jack and there is an unbuffered input jack on the back. I mainly use it for one of my amp shelves to switch heads to a loadbox. Mine has the shared FX loop and there is no tone suck. I actually sent an email to Dave Friedman back then asking him for advice and he is the one that recommended it, but it was kind of a pita to get cause it was only sold in Germany at the time. Otherwise I think KHE is the new kid on the block with some nice specs.
 
From what I've looked into these, KHE is the brand I'd go for. MIDI control, attenuator insert, two cabs at once are all useful features. Price is also more favorable than Ampete.
 
From what I gather with the KHE (and I guess the Tubeamlmanufactur) they use relays to mute the input of unused amps. If you accidentally feed a signal to an amp that doesn’t have a load attached on the KHE, it’ll fry the KHE.

Less chance of that happening if I was to go all in and have a rig where every amp is hooked up, but even with an 8 amp selector there’d be some amount of rotating and putting different amps in. I believe other units behave like this too but it’s not always clear based on the description. The manual for Kahayan mentions some situations that are unsafe but it’s written in very basic english with lots of mistakes.

One advantage of the Ampete is it has buffered and unbuffered inputs - if you have your own preference of buffer then I can see the appeal of unbuffered.

KHE is also quite expensive because postage and fees from Switzerland aren’t great. Likewise with importing DeLisle ($100 shipping and import taxes on top).

Kahayan have a UK distributer, there’s a used Ampete on eBay, the TAM one can be ordered from thomann where import fees are included in the price.
 
From what I gather with the KHE (and I guess the Tubeamlmanufactur) they use relays to mute the input of unused amps. If you accidentally feed a signal to an amp that doesn’t have a load attached on the KHE, it’ll fry the KHE.
This should never happen. Most likely it runs load resistors in parallel so even if you forgot to connect a cab and flicked it to one of the cab on settings, nothing bad would happen. I don't see why the KHE would be fried either.

To my understanding each amp in/out on the KHE switcher is this: guitar signal -> amp input, amp output -> KHE load resistor / cab if enabled.
 
This should never happen. Most likely it runs load resistors in parallel so even if you forgot to connect a cab and flicked it to one of the cab on settings, nothing bad would happen. I don't see why the KHE would be fried either.

To my understanding each amp in/out on the KHE switcher is this: guitar signal -> amp input, amp output -> KHE load resistor / cab if enabled.
I assumed there was load resistors that would avoid issues but my friend who has a KHE mentioned this to me when I was asking for recommendations.
 
I assumed there was load resistors that would avoid issues but my friend who has a KHE mentioned this to me when I was asking for recommendations.
From the website:

Load Resistors - All amps are connected to a dummy load resistor to protect the power amps. All unused amps get muted at their inputs, so no signals can reach the power amp.

Load Detection - Cabinet jacks are supervised for a speaker cabinet or load box. If no load is connected, the cabinet outputs are automatically locked and excluded from the switching operation.

This ensures amplifiers can never be activated without a real load connected.
No Cab? No Amp! A clever digital switching logic makes sure no invalid combination is possible: If no load is activated, you can not enable an amplifier.


Seems like this would cover most situations. If you connect only the input but not the amp output to the KHE then any load related issues would be user error.

But I have no experience with these units so I can't really say if they have some hidden issues.
 
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Load Resistors - All amps are connected to a dummy load resistor to protect the power amps. All unused amps get muted at their inputs, so no signals can reach the power amp.
My understanding was there was enough dummy load resistors to ensure that there’s always a load attached. What my friend said makes it sound like the protection comes from the relays used to mute the signal reaching the amp.

I’d definitely prefer to choose an option that has dummy load resistors and muting. Some of the options aren’t clear if there are certain conditions that might not be protected. The more I can minimise user error the better; because these sort of units are designed to allow you to switch off part of your brain that might usually be thinking about that stuff
 
My understanding was there was enough dummy load resistors to ensure that there’s always a load attached. What my friend said makes it sound like the protection comes from the relays used to mute the signal reaching the amp.
That sounds to me like misunderstanding the advertised protection features.

I’d definitely prefer to choose an option that has dummy load resistors and muting. Some of the options aren’t clear if there are certain conditions that might not be protected. The more I can minimise user error the better; because these sort of units are designed to allow you to switch off part of your brain that might usually be thinking about that stuff
To me the main failure case would be if the load resistors fail, but that's unlikely. As long as it's connected according to the manual there should be no problem.
 
I'd meant to start a thread on the amp switcher home studio setup... it's pretty ridiculous... But in summary it has been an eye (and ear) opening exercise. They're pretty costly (the one I got is like $1900+, could easily add another amp or other 'sexy' purchase to the gear hoard) but if you are an amp fan/collector it is pretty awesome and will likely change the way you think about certain things, the ability to change amps quickly or reroute an amp to a different cab/speaker with zero effort is a big deal.
 
That sounds to me like misunderstanding the advertised protection features.


To me the main failure case would be if the load resistors fail, but that's unlikely. As long as it's connected according to the manual there should be no problem.
Just spoke to him and saw photos (good god there is a lot of OMRON relays inside, explains the price somewhat).

Each channel has 2x 100W relays in series. He is as running pedals between KHE and amp so it only would have been idle hiss that caused them to go. several channels all got smoked out from that.

Not sure how that’s possible but I don’t think I’d be running pedals like that.

One thing I am curious about is the buffers as there’s obviously a fair bit of cable being run in these set ups - has anyone A/B’d to hear the sound of their buffers? Anyone using their own buffer?

Would be cool if anyone has clips, I’m just a bit OCD to go off “sounds good to me” when it can affect the overall tone of everything in the studio.
 
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