Harley Benton PA-100 Power Attenuator Reviews

Great product for that price

depending on the requirements you have and how much you are willing to spend money, in my case to restrain my amplifier to the level of the bedroom in the building. I'M SATISFIED !!

Very good passive load. Transparent!

Great little unit that makes tube amps usable in an appartment

I love tube sound, but even the Palmer Eins 1W amp sound good only at unusable levels for an apartment.

Enter PA-100.

I did not hear any tonal changes. just quieter.

Almost 5 stars.

As an attenuator, this works great, I'm sure someone with better ears than mine could pick fault with it, but to me it did everything it should have, allowing me to crank my 40W without making my ears bleed.

But I was hoping to use it as a load box, while sending a signal to headphone amp for silent practice. It can't do that. That's not it's fault, it's mine, I should have researched more before buying it. Other than that, especially for the price, it's a great unit.

volume pots are extremely scratchy but other then that it works as advertised.

Finally, tube distortion without loosening my roof tiles!!

Great attenuator!! Simple to set up and use. Sits between my Marshall JCM900 head and 4x12 1960 cab, Worth every penny and so much better than relying on pedals for distortion at low volume.

Excellent Volume control and manager!

I love the fact I can crank up my amp full blast and have this device just allow me to manage my volume with no loss to the integrity of the AMPS sound. JUst what the doctor ordered haven't used the sim option or using this as a dummy load yet but eventually i will. Right now i'm using it with my joyo zombie and my harley benton vertical 2x12 vintage 30's cab. Eventually will use it with my marshall jcm 900 mkIII half stack. Bottom line this is a must have device.

Does the job

Good attenuator for a sensible price which does the job of taming big amps in a home setting. Does the job without fuss. Instructions aren't totally clear (but there's plenty videos online to help). Main volume knob is a little flimsy (came loose quite quickly) but easily sorted with a small screwdriver. Hard to get excited about a box that turns your amp down but your ears (and your neighbours) will thank you. Means you really can get that pre-amp drive sound without blowing out your windows. The fact it's totally passive (no power supply needed) is also a good thing.

Great product.

Does what it’s supposed to do for a very reasonable price. Congrats HB.

Does What it Says on The Tin.

Very effective attenuator for very little money. I had been using a Bad Cat Unleash previously and the Harley Benton performs much better.

Using it with a Marshall Studio Vintage 20 watt amp, playing with live drummer and bass guitar. The tone of the amp was altered very little and was easy to tweek the eq. of the amp slightly. I haven't used any f the units other features yet, but it is easily worth the price for it's attanuating abilities.

Seems to do the job okay, although it does have a noticeable effect on frequency responses at the extremes. With some dialing in and balancing between master volume and this it can soak a decently loud tube amp (joyo mjolnir, says 15W but I suspect more) and cut it back to room volumes where people can still have a conversation over you.

Works well

Does what it is suppose to. Does affect the sound quality a bit. About the same as switching the amp to a lower power setting.

As good a solution as there is for wanting to drive a tube amp hard without being too loud

Attenuates more than the volume

For the price I wasn't looking for an amazing sounding attenuator, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Starting with the Pros:

- Inexpensive,

- Not impedance specific as other models are. The attenuator has 4, 8 & 16 ohm inputs.

- Sounds good

Cons:

- It attenuates the lows of an amp quite a bit, which could be a good thing if you have an overly boomy amplifier.

- It is a little brighter than the unattenuated sound of the amplifier.

- When the attenuator is turned all the way up, it's not nearly as loud as the unattenuated volume and there is no bypass switch to switch to full output.

I have not used and don't foresee a need for me to use the direct out option so I cannot attest to the effectiveness or sound quality of that part of the device.

All in all, It's a great solution to bring the volume of your amp down to bedroom volumes for practice, but I'm still on the fence as to whether or not this attenuator is gigable.

I revived an old plexi and despite the master volume mod, it was still too loud when delivering classic tone. This attenuator does the job I need of it. I wouldn't dime my amp on it but it makes it perfectly usable without the risk of police intervention.

Cut it out and send me a line

Well it's a no brainer at the price but don't go looking for a power option as it's totally passive and does exactly what it says in the description. I haven't used it with a powerful amp yet so I can't say a lot about it but I was blown away at the price and as it has a line out I'm going to use it for recording through a cab SIM setup. Most other units available that can go this costs loads of money so this is the right product for me at the right price.

Does what all passive attenuators do, at the lowest price of them all

It does what every passive attenuators do - loads your amp and attenuates the volume feeded to your speaker cab. It even has a fan for which the power is taken from the output of your amp. The fan rotates only when you play the guitar so you do not hear it. Sound quality is the same as with every passive attenuator - it does suck some high end, but nothing that can't be dialed out with the EQ knobs of your amp. Overall, if you are looking for a cheap attenuator, you can't go wrong with this one. Even more expensive passive attenuators won't bring better sound. Have not tried the DI out function as I do not do recordings, but I can guess it is not something to write home about. This is the cheapest passive attenuator you can buy in Europe and I am happy with the quality I got for my money.

couldn't as for more

does what i need at a bargain price.

Good value

Was VERY hesitant about a "cheap" attenuator to use with my Marshall SC20H . It's definitely a great buy. very simple to use . Not quite sure about the line out function as i cant seem to get it to work but its not a big deal as i use my line out from the Marshall.

This was really bought to mute the cab or adjust the volume if needed.

is it the best attenuator in the world ? probably not but is it worth $100 ? DEFINITELY !!!

Now its on to the HB cabinets.

Does exactly what it says.

Does exactly what it says. Very good price

Power auttenuator

A good peice of equiptment to make a good monitor mix while recording guitar tracks at a low volume setup,

My technique is to record guitar DI for reamping and Amp send DI for IR based premix as a reference.

the PA-100 does it`s job for making a preprod mix, BUT in a wierd way it saturates and colours the amp signal to both speakers and DI signal. So I would never use A PA-100 based track on a finished mix, but for reference and que mix it does the jobb really good.

And the multi OHM option is pretty handy so the attenuator suits all guitar amps.