Which amp is your choice for home?

Many guitarists long for more compact, less powerful tube amplifiers that they can use at home to enjoy the beloved tube sound at a reasonable volume level in the living room. This consideration raises the question of whether tube amplifiers in general are too loud for home use and what alternative options are available to preserve the valuable tone without compromising.

In the past, guitarists were dependent on their 50-watt or 100-watt amplifiers and had to drive to the basement or a rehearsal room to practice. In the evenings, especially in rented apartments, people practiced either on an acoustic guitar or on an unplugged electric guitar. With the introduction of smaller guitar combos that used transistor power amplifiers, playing more quietly was possible, but the warm and lively sound of a tube was missing.

Over time, transistors improved, and with the advent of the digital world, pocket-sized practice amplifiers came onto the market, as well as various software that allowed direct practice via the computer. In recent years, so-called lunchbox amplifiers for home use have become popular. They are equipped with tubes and can be regulated to 5 or even 1 watt. Powersoaks are becoming increasingly popular with purists. Here, the good old all-tube amplifiers can be turned up loudly so that the tube circuit can be operated at stage volume and thus develop its full sound. A powersoak reduces the power using a load resistor that converts the excess energy into heat.

Unfortunately, none of these methods are 100% solutions. Classic transistors and digital sounds often sound very cold compared to the authentic tube sound. The search for your favorite tone using software seems like an endless odyssey for many musicians. Lunchbox amplifiers can be too loud at 1 watt and power soaks tend to impair the sound.

With AMP1 we offer a completely new option to solve this problem, let's say 99.9%.

The master control of the AMP1 allows the volume to increase slowly and evenly from 0 to 4. This allows you to play at room volume. Only from level 4 does the amplifier gradually reach concert volume and from level 7 it becomes really loud for large arenas. AMP1 was designed so that the full sound is already implemented in the preamp. The clean channel and vintage channel also have "sagging" properties that are otherwise only known from fully-powered tube amplifiers. The AMP1 delivers this sound quality even at room volume.

In addition, you can adjust the power of the AMP1 amplifier. There are two areas here:

• Stage: In this range, the power can be adjusted from the full 100 W down to 7 W. Unlike the Powersoak with load resistance, the power of the power amplifier is only scaled so that there is no loss of sound.
• Home: Here the power can be regulated from 2 W down to 0.15 W. In this range the circuit works with additional attenuation, which, like with the load resistor, results in some loss of dynamics. This slight tonal change is not significant at room volume.

With AMP1 you only need one amplifier for the living room and for the big stage. Once you have set up the sound at home, you can use this sound directly and unchanged in band practice or at concerts.

Is room volume still too loud? No problem.

You can use the Recording Out to connect AMP1 to a PC monitor and enjoy the sound at the lowest volume possible. You can also easily connect headphones this way.

In conjunction with the BluBOX, which was developed for the best possible direct sound for recording and full-range systems, you can expand this possibility even further. There are 16 high-quality speaker simulations available with which you can individually create your dream sound.

This makes practicing fun:-)