Hoffman Amplifiers Tube Amplifier Forum
Amp Stuff => Tube Amp Building - Tweaks - Repairs => Topic started by: pbman1953 on March 29, 2022, 01:52:21 pm
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I know some guitar players that like and use the Brown Box attenuator. But do any tube amp bass player use line regulators?
Is that something that should be considered?
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line regulators?
Do you mean voltage regulators?
(And if so, where do you mean to use this? Schematic Please)
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no, more of a wall unit for stable power
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Skip to about 9:40 to hear how Angus uses one:
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... a wall unit for stable power
Like everything else, the good ones are fabulously expensive.
You might be able to get by with a Kikusui that costs only $2500-3000, but the ones highlighted by AC/DC and Bonamassa are more like $5-7000.
Meanwhile, folks will praise their Furman line voltage "regulators." These things are basically a transformer with multiple discrete taps, about 5v apart. A sensing circuit detects the voltage being sent to the outlets and switches to a different ta if that voltage is too high/low.
That means voltage is allowed to rise/fall within a ~5v window, unchecked. Only when it goes beyond that does the unit switch to a different tap. In a worst-case, this means a 1v variation of wall voltage from 1/2v below a switching-point to 1/2v over will result in a -4.5v change in the outlet voltage.
See the saw-tooth shape of the "Regulation Range" on Page 2 of Furman's data sheet (http://resources.nortekcontrol.com/products/P-1800-AR/pdf_P-1800-AR_datasheet.pdf). At a price of $1500, buyers don't like it when you point out it can be worse than "no regulation at all" under the wrong circumstances.