Reactive Loads - 2026 consensus??

it would be really cool if companies that make reactive loads could offer options for different impedance curves.

Something like the Suhr RL that is passive and analog, but either you’ve got a dial to select between a few different SICs, or even the option to buy the 4x12 version or the 1x12 version, etc.
 
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metropolis_4 said:
it would be really cool if companies that make reactive loads could offer options for different impedance curves.

Something like the Suhr RL that is passive and analog, but either you’ve got a dial to select between a few different SICs, or even the option to buy the 4x12 version or the 1x12 version, etc.
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Fractal's LB-2 has two. The BOSS has several, but it's friendliness to amps has always been in question.
 
Given the title - I'm surprised @Dez didn't take it <there>

Shaq No GIF
 
paisleywookiee said:
Fractal's LB-2 has two. The BOSS has several, but it's friendliness to amps has always been in question.
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I probably would’ve bought the Fractal if I’d RTFM. I saw the 9v jack on the back and assumed it was active and required power.

Have they said anywhere what SIC “UK” and “US” are?
 
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Just a thought on a fun experiment, many amps have a slave output that’s line level; almost every Mesa Rectifier head has this. You could run the slave output from one of those heads to a Fractal Fm3/FM9/Axe FX and try the tube pre amp model, flat, and try out some of the difference speaker reactance curves in there.

I did that a long time ago and found the differences interesting.
 
AlbertA said:
Given the title - I'm surprised @Dez didn't take it <there>

Shaq No GIF
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@Humbug has already trodden this ground.

Humbug

Thread 'Introducing: The Creampie reactive load box.'

With my previous load box circuit (BFL T652, thread here), the goal was to see how close one could get to an actual cabinet impedance. For this reason I chose to replicate the most characteristic / idiosyncratic cabinet I had access to (60's Marshall 412, Celestion T652 alnico speakers). The result was very close to the cabinet and a tremendous load, but not very versatile. It was also unnecessarily complex with too many parts. So I made a simpler one!
Creampie_T1220.jpg


This one is based on a 70's Marshall 412 cab with T1220 greenbacks and is a much simpler circuit. The two rise inductors...
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metropolis_4 said:
In what way? Curious since I’m using Vox amps
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The frequency response (and other amp reactions) to the bass resonance spike and the high frequency ramp up are greater in a low damping/low NFB amp, so differences in SIC between real cabs or loads will be most noticeable in those amps.

It's the same reason some people are happy with any crap attenuator and others see much more tone loss with (most) attenuators that don't maintain a decent SIC. If your amp has high NFB or high damping like a standard Class D, the speaker load or the attenuator won't matter much if at all. The difference between a 1x12 open back and 4x12 closed back becomes inaudible (at the amp level, obviously the cabs still sound very different).
 
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