Harley Benton PA-100 Power Attenuator 5-stars Reviews

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.

couldn't as for more

does what i need at a bargain price.

Does exactly what it says.

Does exactly what it says. Very good price

Great attenuator for your amp

This is a great attenuator. I've got it hooked up to my Hot Rod Deluxe which sounds great cranked, especially when you add a fuzz on top of that. Really needed a solution to bring down the noise of my amps and this solved it.

The only complaint I have is the line out isn't great and I would have liked an extra dial to control the simulated cab output XLR but apart from that this is a versatile attenuator that works with 4, 8 and 16 Ohm amps.

A must for bedroom tube amp players

This attenuator allows me to drive my amp and get lovely warm tones without having high volumes. Works just as expected so far. I'm playing with a small 15w tube amp and a 12 inch cab and its perfect for that. This setup doesn't load the attenuator too heavily so there is no sound that gets in the way.

Inexpensive, does what you need it to

This is a perfectly serviceable power attenuator for bedrooms, small gigs and lowering headroom with dummy load capacity. When I got it I was a little worried at using an attenuator with this kind of price tag, given a broken attenuator quickly can lead to a fried amp, but I've used it heavily for nine months with no problems. For the price it's an absolute steal. Heavily recommended.

Best solution for the price

This product is a killer! I use it with Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier 25, although I guess it supports up to 100 W amps.

You can use it with different cabinets (ohm wise) which is a perfect feature for this price. You can't find that in more expensive attenuators.

I didn't use the direct out, so can't tell anything about that. Mine has some issues with the paint on the knobs but nothing to be concerned about.

You won't find a functional attenuator for less.

Cheap, cheap, cheap. But functional.

Handled perfectly an all-valve 50w amp completely cranked.

No variations on tone, not overheating... Yes, a very functional and again, CHEAP attenuator. Get it.

Does what it's meant to

I use this at home on a Fender Deville to keep the 60 tube watts in check. As such I use the attenuator to take a lot of volume from from the speaker.

Happy with the sound and happy i can use my Deville at home.

Hell yeah!

There's not too much to say here. It's a small box, it works, it has some knobs and it's so much the same as all the other loadboxes. But if you count in the price it's kind of a miracle. They should be giving this one to all the amp heads as a mandatory accessory.

Don't forget to dial in a bit more highs if you're planning to significantly reduce volume, it gets darker the more you reduce.

Simple and effective

A cheap and simple way to attenuate your cranked up tube amp. Brought the sound of my power tubes to life without ripping me and my bandmates' eardrums out .

It's Black Now

I have received one from the most recent lot, and I had the pleasant surprise to see it's black colored now. So, it fits very nice with a black amp.

Apart from this, everything is as expected: it reduces the output volume without any noticeable reduction in the sound quality. I'm using it with a Marshall Haze 40C, a 40 W combo that was unusable in the rehearsal room above the volume level 3, so now I can safely drive it to the sweet spot.

The fan is very silent, and it's activated above of a threshold in the output signal, that is during the playing, remaining active for a very short period of time after you stop hitting the strings.

Bottom line, great value for the money, as it brings a lot of value to the amp!

An absolute steal at this price.

I'm a typical bedroom guitarist, with what might be a slightly atypical setup: a Marshall JTM45 valve head sitting on a 4x12 half stack. The amp doesn't have a drive or gain pot, so if you're after crunch or distortion, you need to crank it up. In common with most Marshall amps, it's very loud!

Enter the PA-100. Having shelled out the £€$ for the JTM45 I baulked at the price tags on some of the attenuators out there. This appeared to deliver the same features for a fraction of the price, so I ordered one.

It's excellent! It does exactly what I ask of it. As far as I can tell, it adds minimal colouration to the sound and doesn't appear to subtract much either. I'm very happy with it.

Audition this before you spend more.

UPDATE

Some time has passed. There’s a little too much play in the attenuator dial, but other than that I’m still very happy with the price/performance of this item. Recommended.

Great bang for the buck

This attenuator is good and cheap choice when you want to bring your overpowered tube amp to life at bedroom sound levels. You can not crank a 100 W tube head up that much, but just enough to make the amp actually sound like it's supposed to sound like. It really makes my Bugera 6262 sound great without annoying my neighbours too much.

My only complaint about the unit so far is that you start losing high frequencies if you go below 9 o'clock on SPK level. This is however something that is to be expected from this kind of load at this price point. I haven't noticed any deterioration in sound quality above that level, which is very nice.

So if you have a big tube head at home that sounds too muddy, buying this unit will clear its sound out and make it usable at home levels. I do not have experience from gigging/band practice with it, so I can only talk about using it at home.

Cant beat the price

Well built and sturdy. The knobs have a stiffness when turning but nothing bad from it. Slight sound from the attenuator when something is played, but barely noticable. It makes even my 100w fireball tolerable in my home.

Attenuates loud amps

I bought this to tame my valve amps for practising at home. It does that extremely well. It's a simple passive attenuator so it does roll off high end as it attenuates compared to the more advanced reactive load boxes. I've also started using the line out as a simple recording solution thats always ready to go. Capturing the sound of the amp without a cab and applying impulse responses in my DAW has given me a good recorded tone with a lot less complexity than other solutions.

If you're looking for a simple attenuator, at this price I couldn't recommend it enough

Breat little box

For the money, this one is great. I like the sound too, altho its not as good as reactive but still very nice and sturdy. And lets not forget about the fan.

Sounds great. Easy to use . Affordable

I use it with JTM45 HW clone and the amp finally came to life. I have MV installed and it is maxed, so now I can easily mix in normal and treble channels. The loss of high end is easily compensated with the eq on the amp or pedals. Actually, it tamed my "trebly" strat, so now I enjoy it even more. Would recommend to anyone, with loud amps. Regarding quality and reliability... time will tell. So far, so good. :-)

Exactly what i wanted

This is great. its lets me drive my valve amp at decent levels at a volume similar to a normal conversation. My neighbours are happy, im happy :-)

Big improvement from the previous model

I use this attenuator as a load box for a silent recording rig next to my (7 times more expensive) Aracom attenuator.

It does an as good job for silent recording. For attenuating, you will get some hi loss which is expected from non reactive loads.

I'm happy they finally implemented a fan in this unit, although I doubt that this one can handle a 100W continuous power loading.

For the price, can't be beaten.