Bugera PS1 Power Soak Reviews

Attenuator works great with my Orange Dark Terror Head

Apartment Guitarist

Great for running your tube amp hot at lower volumes if you want to keep things budget friendly and not get complains from neighbours.

Not too shabby

Works pretty great but I would never hook up a 100 watt head to it. 65 watts would probably be the highest I would go.

As others have said, the more you attenuate the signal the more highs you lose but I have not noticed it to be all that bad personally. If there was any top end loss I made it up with the amp EQ easily.

I found the best aspect is that it can be used as a load box just note that if you do so you have to crank the big knob up to 0 (or no attenuation) and then the Line Level knob will begin to work. You can do this without a cab and it is fine.

Used this to DI a couple of amps I have into a cab IR in my DAW and sounded great.

Gets pretty warm after long use but nothing that will burn you.

Mine made a rather fishy smell (burn in) for the first day or two of heavy use. Stopped after that, just keep that in mind.

A reasonable price and good quality. It cuts a bit of treble but you can compesate it by the EQ on your amp. Just set your gain a number or two lower and treble a bit higher and your amp will sing. Your ears and band members will be safe, at last.

To much change of the sound for me

I liked the fact that it seems well built and sturdy. The motion on the rotary knob on the other hand felt not that comfortable to me.

It does what it's supposed to do, lowering the output of the total volume, but in my opinion it changed the sound in a way that I didn't like.

Let your amp breathe!

This little black box is a miracle maker!

I use it in conjunction with a bugera v22hd infinium at full blast and the power soak allows the amp to run really hot and achieve natural power tube distortion at a level that doesn't make your ears bleed. Granted when turned down to minimum there is some added compression and presence loss but when its turned even just a bit higher ( about 15%) it starts to open up. It does seem to get warm though. Worth a mention is the fact that even open fully it is still attenuating 50% of the overall signal, but then again when youre up to that point you might as well play without it ( at least with smaller amps).

Keeps me happy with searing tones and my wife happy because she can watch tv without needing subtitles or earphones.

Effective attenuator

I am using this for my 50watt tube amp, and it is the only reason I can use the amp in my bedroom.

By just plugging in the attenuator the volume is reduced by 50% and you can then adjust gradually down to 0 and turn up the volume and gain on your amp giving you the sound you want/need/

I am not an expert but did not note any noticable difference in the sounds after plugging in the attenuator.

The build of the attenuator is very solid with a metal cabinet and feels like quality materials were used.

and with the volumes I play at it does not even get lukewarm.

I don't need it myself, but for some a bypass switch would likely be useful and had I needed it I would have only given 4 starts in features

Can definitely recommend this and would get one again immediately if it broke.

Inconsistent output volume but does what it's supposed to

The power soak has some strange inconsistencies where setting the volume at 0 (on either or both knobs) will not completely mute the device, both volume controls will affect each other's output level.

However, it does what it's supposed to, I'm able to plug my amp straight into my interface and get the best guitar tone I've ever had with IRs, so definitely would recommend at this price.

The neighbours don't know they love it.

Is just what I needed for quiet recording at home. I don't use the mic level out and would recommend any user recording with it to opt for using the line signal and using their own cab sims.

A reasonable attenuator

I have no complaints, for an attenuator it does what it is supposed to do. And they all will compress the high range. Just expected it to compress a little less.

It simply sound bad

This is good if you are a amp technician and you need a dummy load just to make some no-sound testing.

The sound is terrible, the high frequencies are lost, the middle-bass range become muddy even at low attenuation levels.

OK the price is very low, but I wish I had tested it earlier (properly) and I probably would have return it.

Budget solution

I wanted to start playing guitar again, and still have an old 100w tube head standing around. Considered buying a small low power head to use at home, but for less budget decided to try a power soak instead and continue to use the amp I already have.

Build quality is ok but it feels a bit light and cheaply put together. Does what it says, so soaks up power which allows a big amp to be used at in-house volumes. Can't really think of any other use case, unless someone bought the wrong amp. The fact that it's a passive unit makes it easy to use, it just sits between the head and speaker, however the lack of a headphone out does mean you still don't have an option for really silent practicing.

So yes it's a solution but basically only if you have the wrong amp at the wrong place and don't want to break the bank.

affordable and sounds good

I have no issues at all with this power soak and use it every day. My previous Jet CIty attenuator failed after a few months. This one is still going strong, and has much finer control over the attenuation level. Couldn't be more delighted.

Bugera PS1 Power Soak

If you simply want to reduce the volume/output on a 15 watt and upwards valve amp without losing very much at all of the tonal quality, then this is an excellent product especially for the price...a great well built box...

But bear in mind two essential factors: firstly, the moment you put it between your amp and the speaker you are automatically reducing output by 50%; secondly, if you want to play or record silently using the emulated or line output (to a mixer/headphones for example) you can't do that without having sound still coming from the speaker, which has to take the load. No good for middle of the night recording unless you live alone in a castle!

If Bugera could get round these two factors it would be 5 star brilliant, but if you simply just want to 'tame' your valve amp to a much lower volume level then its a very good choice.

Ideal for home use with Fender tube amps

I use it with Fender Deluxe Reverb and I am really surprised how good this attenuator is. I get to keep my tone at bedroom levels. I also hooked it up to my UR22 and I can directly record.

Power Soak

No power cable, no software, no apps...Barebone power soaks just what I wanted to get my amp volume down. It does the work and tone/ soundwise is good, can be a little muddy in high gain but just dialing a little back, and it's fine.

AVOID - Strong smell of burning

Unit ran red-hot using 100w Marshall . Was too hot to touch and had very strong smell of plastic burning . Immediately removed from studio due to fire-risk . Amazon reviewers have reported similar experiences check there 1 stars search for bugera power soak burning smell in google

Only cheap

It's just cheap, but the bass is very muddy, and the volume is unstable when the cabinet is distorted.

A great passive attenuator for the price

There's no need to spend hundreds on an attenuator for your amp...simply get one of these.

The controls are good and don't make scratching noises and - with some amp/cabinet configurations - this unit will also kill any hiss/noise coming from the amp.

Bugera PS1 Power Soak Review

Using this as home to keep the neighbors happy. Very useful tool. Only flaw I see is the large power soak knob is quite rough to turn but other than that its great. Would recommend.