Regarding the amount of Captor's attenuation...

hatebreedgr

New member
Hi to all, i wanted to ask how does the 20db of attenuation translate to real life conditions for example, if you have a 100watt amp 4x12 cab and run the master volume at, lets say 1.5 without the Captor being connected,
how much would the master volume be increased with the captor connected to achieve the same amount of loudness as when running the amp without the captor connected?
On my ENGL Special Edition 100, the difference in volume isn't that significant when using the Captor meaning it still gets very loud even when i run the master volume at 2.
After seeing the Thomann video where they crank the Marshall Plexi with Harri sitting in front of the cab like nothing happened, i expected to run my ENGL at bedroom levels using maybe 1/3 of its volume
but it gets way too loud after turning the master above 1.5-2.
Is it me having high expectations or is something wrong with my Captor?
 
Hi hatebreedgr,

sorry for the stupid question, but are you sure you connected everything properly? Can you double-check?

Because -20dB should make a real difference...
 
guillaume_pille":2h5cujjp said:
Hi hatebreedgr,

sorry for the stupid question, but are you sure you connected everything properly? Can you double-check?

Because -20dB should make a real difference...

Yes, everything is connected as it should...
My main question is how can i be sure that the captor attenuates properly because i don't have any reference regarding the loudness,
thus no way of troubleshooting the captor's functionality.
Only things i can check by myself is my cabs impedance and to make sure that my amps impedance matches that, which of course i did, using my multimeter, before even buying the Captor, just to make sure...
Furthermore, ENGL SE is equipped with a safety circuit that shuts down the power amp in the event that the pre selected impedance on the amp (4 ohms in my case) doesn't match that of the cabs impedance connected to the amp.
No problem there because my amp functions with Captor connected both in the ''attenuated out'', or with the ''through'' one.
Maybe i should buy another Captor just to compare and see for myself...
 
But are you saying that you have the same level whether you use the -20dB output and the regular THRU output on the Captor? Because that would be an obvious malfunction. You do not change the out impedance on your amp between the two tests, right?
 
Not the same level, but to try and give you a reference, i get the same loudness level when using the captor and my master volume is at 1.5, as I get without using the captor and ran my amp’s volume at 1. If I would want to ran my amp at greater volume f.e turning the master on 3 I would need earplugs even with the Captor.
 
Hello,

4 6L6, that's quite a powerful amp you got there !

I would advice we first check the attenuation of the Captor itself, without taking the amp into account. Could you please try the following ?

- First, set your system like this : amp's speaker output into Captor Speaker Input, and speaker cabinet connected to the THRU output of the Captor. This way, your amp is directly connected to the speaker cainet, no attenuation is expected. Play your amp like this (with volume around 1, according to your previous message).

- Then, don't modify anything on your amp, leave the volume where it is, and simply connect the speaker to the ATT output of the Captor (instead of THRU). Play again : you should notice a significant drop in volume.

If you can record the sound in the room (maybe simply with your phone ?), we can have a look at it and see if everything is ok.

BTW, your amp is set to 4 ohms, so your cabinet is 4 ohms, and your Captor is 4 ohms too ?
 
Basstyra":2lo7z4jn said:
If you can record the sound in the room (maybe simply with your phone ?), we can have a look at it and see if everything is ok.

here it is...


Hopefully you can make something out of it...
first is the amp with the ''attenuated'' output and second using the ''through'' one. On the second one you can notice my iPhone camera shaking due to the
rumbling of my room's floor produced by the amp's power...
 
Thanks for the video :)

Due to the audio compression of the phone, it's hard to measure the actual attenuation (and check if the -20dB are really there), but at least this confirms there is attenuation (the shaky cam when not attenuated actually gives a good indication !), so the probability for a broken product seems low.

In order to check further, we would need a proper microphone recording, with no processing (no audio compression), if you have that at hand we could go to the bottom of this issue.

Alternatively, you could check with your retailer, and compare your Captor with a new one.
 
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