I got a hotplate...any advice?

Young Angus

Kometose Tonologist
I just picked myself up a THD Hotplate to add to my arsenal and have already stuffed around with it a bit with great results, and sofar the most noticable thing ive...umm...noticed, is that it does sound pretty buzzy at high levels of attenuation.

But what other advice do people have with using one of these?
 
Re: I got a hotplate...any advice?

The buzzing is probably because of the low sound level, try to use -16db and crank it up, then it shouldn't buzz. It's probably the speaker(s) that sounds buzzy cause it's not really being used properly at low sound levels. If you want to use the hotplate to play with great tone at bedroom levels, it's not gonna happen. At "loud stereo level" and upwards it's great though, IMHO
 
Re: I got a hotplate...any advice?

You need to move the speakers to get nice rock tone.. otherwise it's buzzy and fizzy. That's true with any attenuator. I don't think that attenuators are the solution for bedroom volume with a loud tube amp. I use mine all of the time though, with some volume to the speakers.. love it.
 
Re: I got a hotplate...any advice?

I generally run mine at -4 or -8db. Any more and it starts sounding compressed and sh*tty.

I'll agree with the others though, in that the buzzing is from your speakers not being pushed hard enough. I get that alot if I put it into the -16db bedroom mode, particularily on the clean channel.
 
Re: I got a hotplate...any advice?

Young Angus said:
I just picked myself up a THD Hotplate to add to my arsenal and have already stuffed around with it a bit with great results, and sofar the most noticable thing ive...umm...noticed, is that it does sound pretty buzzy at high levels of attenuation.

But what other advice do people have with using one of these?

That sounds about right. -12db was iffy but usable to my ear. 8db seemed to be the max without noticable change in sound.
 
Re: I got a hotplate...any advice?

Also make sure you are using speaker cables to the attenuator and out.
 
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