Current ways to use tube amps without cabinet?

[analogdigital]

Hi,

I have some tube amps that I stopped using after I was living somewhere that made them not practical. I then bought a Kemper Profiler. I like the Kemper, but lately would like to make use of my amps. I don't plan on selling them, and don't want them collecting dust. I just want to listen through my monitor speakers in my home studio so I hear what gets recorded in my studio.

I understand I can get line out signal from effects loop of the amps, but I would also like possibility to use the power tube sections.

The amps are Diezel VH4S, Diezel Einstein Combo, Koch Powertone II.

I have been reading about things like UA Ox, Captor X, Boss TAE, Fryette Power Station, Suhr Reactive Load.

I just have no idea how to choose. Attenuation isn't that important to me, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have attenuation option. My main interest is capturing the power amp affected signal as line level, then running it through the kemper, or running it through some other IR device, or just using the reactive load's built in IR abilities.

Actually, the main interest is not breaking any of my amps... So I need an option with rock solid history of working across various amp characteristics.

Thanks

 

[7704A]

Couple things to be mindful of:

• Power handling. The Captor X in particular is rated for 100W, less than your Powertone's 120W. They have an article telling you how to use more powerful amps with it, but a quick skim shows that it's mostly just "don't turn it up too far", which might defeat the point of using it if you want to crank the amps. If you don't plan on cranking them though, it might be fine.
• Impedance curves. Not all loads treat the amp the same. The Suhr and Fryette you mentioned have curves that are very similar to real speakers, the others mentioned don't from what I've seen. Depending on how well your amp can control the speaker (negative feedback affects this), this can have more or less effect on tone. It's possible that non-speaker-like curves can be damaging to amps too if you're cranking them/the amp's design can't handle the behavior of the non-speaker curve, and I've read some anecdotal experiences consistent with this, but do not have a solid enough understanding of the physics involved yet to make any strong claims. Fractal forums have a thread comparing impedance curves of various reactive loads: https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/the-two-notes-captor-impedance-curve-comparison.169430/
• Attenuation. Everything you mentioned except the Suhr has some form of attenuation built in I think, but they all have different ways of doing it. The Captor in particular has fixed settings to choose from, which may or may not work for your specific situation.

Myself personally, I'd first narrow my search to reactive loads with a speaker-like curve such as the Fryette and Suhr, though I believe there are more options too, then I'd pick something from that list with an appropriate power rating, and then look at whether it's worth paying more for any attenuation features. Note that I don't own a load box (yet), so I'm only speaking from a position of general gear nerdery and window shopping. Others who have bought one may be able to provide more brass-tacks information.

 

[homespun]

What I’ve done is just run the preamp of the amp. I use the effects loop send into my Axiom Effects Power Amp Emulator then into my Mooer Radar IR loader then into my computer interface. I have a TRS to XLR cable to get the balanced output of the Radar. I’ve practiced through my computer monitors this way and it’s sounds fantastic. It also makes recording a breeze.