Harley Benton PA-100 Power Attenuator Reviews

Good product

Very good for the job it is doing, will suck some tone, but this is a win and give scenario for tube saturation vs loosing some lows and some highs, some articulation is lost.

This is to be expected from all resistor based Attenuators, this does as good of a job as any of them.

The line out is not to be expected much from, it does give direct line out to your soundcard or ir loader. But the signal adjustment knob on the front does nothing.

In the category of resistor attenuators this one is a banger, will buy again and will recommend.

cheap and reliable

It is cheap and reliable and sounds good enough for me.

I only use it at home in combination with an Orange AD30.

Even at its lowest settings the Orange still gets loud.

In only used the PA-100 as a dummy load.

Does what it's supposed to!

I keep it connected and I don't worry about it. Works well!

Reasonable for the price

I have a Marshall SC20H and a SV1x12 cabinet. It lowers the sound but at higher attenuation levels, you lose some quality, which is ok for this kind of a unit. But you can easily compansate it with your pedals. It's good for home use, if all you want is a lower volume.

Gets the job done!

I found the built-in cabsim totally useless, but as a line-out(and use your own cabsims on the other side) simple attenuator it's totally great and does the job!

Fantastic Attenuator, Highly Recommended.

If you are hesitating to pull the trigger on this little wonder box, hesitate no longer.

Bought recently to tame a 15w Vaporizer amp for bedroom levels. Works as described, takes a little fettling to get the best tones out but doesn't suck too much tone away either. Fantastic feature to line out to desk, with out the need to run the speaks unlike other rival models.

Awesomeness.

Be cautious

Bought this as a back up to my Bugera PS-1 (which is basically the same minus the fan) and it has now successfully redplated the tubes in two of my amps back to back.

I thought the first time may have been just a coincidence but as soon as I hooked this up to a different amp it redplated the tubes of that amp almost instantly. Now I have two amps in the shop and a attenuator that is useless.

Mine may just be defective, considering most reviews of this are great, so as the title of the review says, be cautious.

Cool little box

Does what it is supposed to do very well, and have made very nice recordings using my tube combo with the speaker dialled down and the amp cranked up.

Only 4 for the build quality, although it is rather for the design, because the box picks up interference very easily. You have to move around in the room until you find a quite spot for it to sit, and then the magic takes place.

All you need

Had the Two Notes Torpedo as well, but sold it when I got this into the studio. I guess the Torpedo costing 10 times more does the job different, but not necessarily better. I have made some excellent recordings with this at very low volumes.

Works Great

I was super concerned with an attenuator/load for such an inexpensive price. My main amp is a 50watt Hand built Plexi from RocketRetro (Kevin is amazing).

Being that this is my main amp I literally tried this on all my amps before the Plexi, working my way up from a 5 watt tube amp, to a 40 watt Fender, my 60watt Marshall combo and finally my plexi. I figured if I was going to blow something up I didnt want it to be my dream amp.

I run my Plexi on about 7 jumped channels. I have a PPIMV installed so my master is about 1/2. I can turn the attenuator down to whisper quiet and it sounds great. All attenuators affect the high end but your amp has dials, USE THEM.

It's a 100 watt attenuator. I think if you're running a 100 watt head into this I would opt for something rated higher. The rule is usually double the amp output. Especially because the transients in a tube amp can easily exceed the power rating of your amp. I have no concerns with my 50 watt head

Pros

-Build quality is great. I couldn't but the parts for this at this price point.

-Works with 4/8/16 ohm taps from you amplifier ensuring compatibility with just about everything.

1/4" line out works great for recording.

-Seemed to be exactly the same as the jet city "jettenuator" whic is about $100 USD more.

-Silent recording works well so follow the instructions. You have to disconnect you cab and turn the power down to 9:00 for the line out to get enough signal.

Cons

-XLR out was completely unusable for my needs. I believe it must have some sort of Cab Emulation EQ circuit because the sound is completely different than the 1/4" out.

-XLR is unbalanced? I cant figure this out. Why would you have an unbalanced circuit when the main purpose of an XLR is direct recording or Str8 into a console?

- I was sometimes getting a weird hi frequency "whine" it hasn't happened in a while but when I pulled the 1/4" out slightly it was perfect. I haven't noticed the issue lately.

-Silent recording is only available when you pull the cable going to you cabinet. It's a load box as well and its not that big of a deal. I do wish there was some sort of bypass but with it hooked to a cabinet that's not as simple as it seems. I would never place a toggle switch between my head and my can, so I suspect they designed this unit for the same reason.

-3dB drop as soon as its placed in the circuit. Again this is probably like the bypass feature. It can be done on more expensive units but people get an attenuator to reduce the dB in the first place. Not a concern for me but I thought it should be mentioned.

Straight out of a Flash Gordon movie

The 30's ones.

Works great. You'll feel like Tesla adjusting that knob, and start laughing like a maniac genius.

Big

It's quite big. Too big for my purpose, Cannot place it on my amp....and as i use the overdrive from pedals it's not a necessary attribute for the amp i use at home. A simple soundlevel attenuator in the effectsloop is sufficient i found out. It looks like a sturdy, well made piece of gear and the level knob makes a screeching sound. This is supposed to be like it. It's not touching the surface or anything. I did send it back without hassle.

Great attenuator for the price

Got this to use with a Fender Blues Junior Tweed.

Although the clean tone is great, I never liked the overdriven sound of the amp unless the master volume was cranked up to window rattling level, it's only 15W but it gets pretty damn loud. At low volume the preamp only distortion never sounded great to me, same with overdrive pedals (OCD).

With the attenuator, master cranked up and volume set to start breaking up, it sounds way better and also feels a lot more responsive to play. I have no experience of more expensive attenators but for the price this is a definite improvement, to my ears anyway. It sounds particularly good with a Strat.

Great Attenuator

It does exactly what it needs to do. I have a 60 watt Class A tube amp that would blow the doors off my bedroom studio when driven at the right volume. This attenuator allows me to drive the amp at a respectable/boring volume while reaping the quality sonority of the tubes.

A good starter! or something for the casual player, but would give it a miss for recording

unit is quite well built, doesn't feel like it's going to break anytime soon.

does it job but kills a lot of the high end, which is expected of passive attenuators.

but the unit seems to make the guitar tone sound super brittle from the line out ran into a cab sim, the emulated line out is pretty poor too..

but i must give credit where it's due, does exactly as advertised, and for maybe bedroom playing or with a band, you can't go wrong.

Great attenuator for relatively cheap money. Does exactly what it has to do, the sound is great. I am using it mostly at home to play quietly when I am not trying to annoy my neighbours when I am practising. It is small, easy to fit next your guitar equipment. Absolutely must for everyone who does not want to compromise on using the big wattage amplifiers at home.

It attenuates power........ so...Yeah,

I bought this so I could use mt Peavey 5150 MKII at bedroom levels as the amp is know for being an utter beast. Seriously, I have the volume on 2 for band practices :D

This gadget works a treat, i can now run the amp volume at 5 to get all that lovely power stage break up without blowing myself through the wall and being murdered by my neighbours.

I has many function I haven't used yet, but i like its sturdy build quality and the feel of the rotary controls.

Bang for the buck!

I bought this attenuator to use it with my Blues Junior and it didn't disappoint. I can crank the master of the amp up but at bedroom volume, I also tested the built in IR that is ok. But you'll get much more by using the line out into your interface and selecting your own Impulse Response, this way I was able to get 95% of the sound of the amp in Logic (using built in IR in Space Designer). I will also test it with a Marshall head but so far, it's been great and the build quality is very good.

I think anyone with a valve amp over 5W should get an attenuator, it's great to hear the sound of a cranked amp at the volume you want, you can even take a 100W Plexi and crank it all the way up and still play at conversation volume. That's great also for recording, many are recording at home and in a flat like me you can barely go beyond 2/3 on the master of my BJ.

Conclusion: get one, it's great

Waste of money

Sorry, this is just worthless piece of gear. Regardless of its low price. It just renders the sound of a great tube amp to the sound of a very cheap small solid state practice amp. It kills all the life in the sound. Like you have put a thick wool blanket over your speaker. Very disappointed.

It looks well built. Has nice features. But, it sounds just awful! Better put a volume pedal in the FX loop, than this.

Unbelievable value for money

I searched high and low for a good attenuator, but most places charged £100+, when i saw the reviews of the Harley Benton one for the price i thought, might as well give it a try, so glad i did, brilliant piece of kit for the money!