Strange (awful) noise from amp with attenuator connected

JolleyChris

New member
Hi,

I have a morgan RCA35R amp with a 16 OHM creamback speaker.

I have just acquired the Captor X, which I have had for about 10 days

It seems that when i use the Captor, whether i have the attenuation on low medium or high, i get this strange sort of squelchy fizzy, almost phasing sound in the high end.
I've tried different plug sockets, rooms, cables, guitars, eveything.
I've had the speaker out hooked up, I've had the XLR output into my DAW, I've tried all combinations and the noise is always there.

It's noticeable if I crank the volume to anything above half way, and have the gain fairly high, but I can hear this noise in the signal regardless.

I am about ready to return the device (which i saved up for for ages and treated myself to!) but thought I'd post here and see if anyone here can share any wisdom around this, as it's super disapointing.

My amp has been checked by a renowned tech in the Liverpool area (UK) and is all good.

I can share an audio recording I just made through the captor to explain what it sounds like.
 
Preamp tubes can get wonky with high gain, getting a tinny, microphonic tone if the gain is set too high. Try swapping the tubes from V1 to V2 and see if that helps.
 
Hello Chris,

can you please submit a ticket on the helpdesk of Two notes? Ideally we would like to hear audio samples. I will forward the ticket to the technical team so they can assess what is happening, and assist you as best as possible.
 
Hello! Was this question resolved? I think I have a similar problem with a Marshall JCM800 turned up. I can hear this high end fizz when the captor is attenuating in the middle position. However, I have not eliminated all other possible problems yet. I will eventually submit a ticket if there’s no easy solution this way. Thanks!
 
Hello @Dilan - Two notes . Thank you for the message, I appreciate it. I will submit a ticket soon, when I get to record the sounds. Meanwhile I would like to ask about the attenuation levels, if I may. Using the Marshall I am used to loud volumes and now my problem is that the unattenuated sound is too loud, but the -20db is too silent for my purposes. I love the Captor X for other things and wouldn't want to get another attenuator, so my question is if there is any way, like any possible modification or whatever, that would allow to attenuate less than -20db with Captor X? I assume not, and I know that this is not what it is for, but hey, doesn't hurt to ask. Thanks a lot for your message again.
 
Hello @Mattik

There is no possibility to modify the levels of attenuation in the Captor X, unfortunately. It is not easy to get the right levels for all existing amps out there with 2 steps of attenuation.

kind regards
 
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