YouTube Attenuator Shootouts

[Achilles]

In one video unit XX is amazing and XXX sucks.
Then in the next one it's reversed - XX sucks and XXX is amazing.
Is this simply a personal preference thing since everyone has their favorite speakers/cabinets/IRs?
None of the reviewed units really suck, they're just not going to be everyone's favorite frequency response????

There's a ton of them out there but here's two examples by folks who really dove deep for their reviews.

This guy has two ranking sections, this one and then the conclusion at the end.



This is the last in a series of videos the guy did. The rankings start here and at the end of each subsequent section.

 

[gearJunkie]

In one video unit XX is amazing and XXX sucks.
Then in the next one it's reversed - XX sucks and XXX is amazing.
Is this simply a personal preference thing since everyone has their favorite speakers/cabinets/IRs?
None of the reviewed units really suck, they're just not going to be everyone's favorite frequency response????

There's a ton of them out there but here's two examples by folks who really dove deep for their reviews.

This guy has two ranking sections, this one and then the conclusion at the end.



This is the last in a series of videos the guy did. The rankings start here and at the end of each subsequent section.

It also depends on the amplifier since they usually mimic a fender, marshall, or generic impedance curve.

 

[2dor]

Depends on what you're after. If you want fidelity or "what sounds best" (and by whose standards) you could end up with different products.

I actually got hold of several of them (Suhr RL, React:IR, Red Seven Amp Central) and compared the frequency response against 3 real cabs (Engl 1x12, Mesa 2x12 and Mesa 4x12 Oversized Straight).

Suhr Reactive Load vs St. Rock React:IR vs real cabs (Mesa 2x12, Mesa 4x12, ENGL 1x12) - measured through Behringer GI100 DI box

Since I got the Behringer GI100 Ultra-G direct box, I figured I'd try and re-measure the frequency response of my loadboxes and cabs all through this DI. I shot sweeps into the FX Return of each amp (all sweeps for each amp had the same level) then normalized all reamped signals to 0 dB in...

thegearforum.com

Suhr Reactive Load Vs Fractal Audio X-Load

Disabling the resonance limiting resistors in the X-Load brings us closer to the Suhr and an actual Cab, BUT, the resonance is still 90Hz which is not a very accurate tuning for a 4x12. I remind that Suhr does not have limiting resistors either. I don't know how safe it is yet with high wattage...

thegearforum.com

I think the Suhr and React:IR are pretty much bang-on; the React:IR is better if you crank the INPUT volume (if you have it low, it cuts off high-end a bit: https://thegearforum.com/threads/st...ts-graphs-with-suhr-rl-mesa-4x12-os-cab.4652/)

@MirrorProfiles did a LOT of comparisons on loadboxes and how they compare to real cabs. In my book "the best" loadboxes are the ones that have their frequency response closest to a real cab.

 

[Achilles]

"what sounds best"

That's what it's going to come down to for me. Small room with just a 1 x 12 cab and will mostly use the lower dB range of attenuation.

I have the older Fryette Power Load I've been using for about a year and figured it's time to test the waters so I have a Driftwood
Load Box incoming and will do an A-B between those.

If the differences are really minute I'll probably stop there but if it's anything pretty drastic then I'll keep the better of them, sell
the other one, and then probably get a RedSeven Amp Central for the next A-B.

 

[laxu]

In my book "the best" loadboxes are the ones that have their frequency response closest to a real cab.

That works well if your cab happens to be a good match.

I have a Bluetone Loadbox which I found to work a bit better than the Fryette PS load when the used cab was my Bluetone 4x10. The story of this cab is that it was Bluetone's main test cab for a long time before I bought it. I can't confirm it, but it might be that the Loadbox is developed based on this cab, so it ends up matching it best.

Otherwise the Fryette load is totally fine to me and further adjustable with the switches and poweramp controls. It's of course far more flexible as a device.

I'd say the best approach might be to treat the load as if it were a cab with a particular character. I don't know about you, but I find myself "fitting" the amp to the cab by using the amp settings. For example the 4x10 with my BluGuitar Amp 1 needs less bass, more mids and treble whereas my BluGuitar Fatcab is just right with everything at noon and my Nanocab needs a lot more bass to get to a tone I like.

In the same way you might want to address the load's shortcomings with different settings, though this might be hard to achieve with purely resistive loads.

 

[Achilles]

I'd say the best approach might be to treat the load as if it were a cab with a particular character.

This is what I've done since day one with the Fryette unit because that was, and has been my only point of reference.

That's why the first A/B will be an eye opener. Watching the shootouts and reading the reviews I'm expecting a very
noticeable difference. I won't be surprised if it's not much of a big deal though - wouldn't be the first time being let
down by YouTube world vs. Real world.

 

[2112]

Plenty of clips here if you want to hear a few others side by side

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

Not to be Captain Obvious, but let's remember there's a difference between using a device to attenuate and using a device as a load box.

(semantics)

Some products of course do both.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

depends on what your reference point is. IMO anything can sound good, especially because everyone has different taste. But also you can compensate in any number of ways - different amp settings, different IR’s.

The issue for me is - if you have to change things a lot to how you normally use the amp, your tone isn’t going to be like what it normally is.

Usually in these comparisons, one sounds better than another because the tone has been dialled in on one of them, and then they’ve switched the load and kept everything the same. That significantly favours one over the other.

I purposefully dialled tones in using a cab as a load - that way it has a real world reference point to compare to, and it doesn’t favour any one load over another (assuming they’ve been designed to mimic a similar load).

In my experience, real cabs vary too, but load boxes vary more to each other than similar cabs do. I’ve done some videos demonstrating how different 4x12 cab loads sound - it’s much less drastic than load box shootouts.

The goal for me is for the load box to behave as if the amp was connected to a real cab. I typically use closed back 4x12’s with celestions. As long as they sound close to ANY 1960 or mesa style cab with ANY celestions in, i’ll be happy. I’ve heard cool tones made with Ox/Captor/Driftwood but they’re nothing like the tone you’d get using a 4x12. Other devices can do those fairly convincingly, so I’m not really interested in the ones that sound different.