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Has anyone experience with the Universal Audio Ox Attenuator? I watched several YouTube videos of people using it including, recently, John Scofield. It sounds terrific, looks great, likely the best in its class, but definitely not a cheap thing. So I am considering whether it is worth the investment. I would primarily use it at home for playing (not too loud) and recording. I assume more people here own one, or have considered to get one. I would appreciate to hear their thoughts. Thanks.
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11-29-2021 06:24 AM
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I have never tried it, or it's price point competitors. But I was involved in a long thread about it (and them) over on The Gear Page. The consensus was that there are better units for actual attenuation (the Suhr Reactive Load and the Fryette Power Station), however the Ox does other things, and for recording it's the best. So basically, if you're buying a unit for attenuation only, there are better ones, but the other features make the Ox more versatile.
After looking into all 3, I decided if I wanted an attenuator again (for home use- being able to crank up an amp then bring it back down to reasonable volumes), I would purchase the Fryette PS-2.
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I have used my Ox Box for years now and absolutely adore it! I agree, it really shines for recording: the modeled speakers and mics (including room) are above and beyond the best I’ve worked with (vs. IRs). I used it extensively on a recent album project in the studio, tracking along with band using headphones, giving me an isolated signal that didn’t bleed into the room mics for the brass, drums, etc.
The attenuation does the job nicely, and I use it at home for practice. I love that I can crank the amp and listen silently with headphones running through an excellent channel strip (compression, EQ) including an amazing plate emulation.
Only wish is that it had more speaker cab emulations of some modern speakers with open back cab (my Princeton with 10” Weber still sounds best!). What’s in there is great, tho”.
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My favorite attenuator is the Tone King Iron Man II, the full size one. It stays the most true to the full on amp that I’ve tried. It doesn’t give you an IR loader, but does have its own good cab emulation and you can still use the line out to record using other IRs.
A plus for me is that it’s one of the only one that does impedance matching. It’s switchable to allow you to mix and 4, 8, and 16 ohm amps and cabs in any combination.
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For me personally an attenuator is of no use since a) I don't own a high-powered tube amp anymore, b) if I need overdrive I use outboard gear. The UA unit seems to be the thing to have at the moment, it's practically ubiquitous - IMHO totally overpriced and way too specialized + even redundant for homerecording where the common software choices all have excellent solutions on offer. I can see it's place in a well equipped pro-level studio where people come in with all kinds of different ideas about how their guitar should sound and having a dedicated attenuator/loadbox/IR host on the shelf that is as popular as this one obviously is then it makes some more sense too. I'm happy with my Sennheiser E906 in front of the amp where I've found the sweet spot and for tracks that are mixed into the background I use my Helix and/or whatever modeling the software has on tap.
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I cannot add anything to the comments on this piece of equipment, but would add this:
I have done a few gigs for the folks at Universal Audio (Pre-Covid private events for the staff). They are very nice people who support live music in their own community (They are here in Santa Cruz County). And the fact that they hire a jazz combo for their events shows that they have great taste!
OK, Carry on.....
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It looks nice. It costs a lot.
I am interested in this French thing, which costs a lot less. But some say passive attenuators are not good for amps, and my amp is precious, so I am in a quandary.
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And they make great rack gear, I have a pair of 1176 reissues and they are fantastic!
Originally Posted by Stringswinger
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What exactly do you want to achieve by attenuating your amp ? When you want to drive the power tubes into saturation then you can also use a simple isolation box to keep the volume down. Originally Posted by Litterick
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A "simple" isolation box? I guess if "simple" means a microphone in the box, being re-amped into another speaker at a lower volume.... (psst... this is kind of what the OX and the others do....) Originally Posted by gitman
Some amps sound best at certain volumes. Those volumes may not be conducive to the environment they are played in. Something like an attenuator can go a long way to getting that tone (say a Princeton Reverb turned up to 5) at a volume more "reasonable" to those in the household (say like a PR at 2.5-3).
Attenuators of course do not take into consideration speaker breakup, that's a whole 'nuther thing. But they do work quite well, when used conservatively. Nothing works well if you want to take a 100W Marshall Plexi on 10 and play it at a volume that allows people to still watch TV on the next floor.
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I want the gain without the volume. I want to turn up the Master volume without deafening the neighbours. Originally Posted by gitman
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An attenuator or re-amper will do that, without any speaker breakup that might occur in a particular amp at a certain volume. Originally Posted by Litterick
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Many thanks for all your comments. These clarify to me why I may not need to invest in the Ox (now...). Gitman, which amp are you using for recording?
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I've built my first loadbox around 1983 when I found a vintage VOX AC 50 amp in a paper ad - soldered together a string of capacitors, hooked them up to a heatsink etc. and was able to enjoy that amp at moderate levels. It didn't blow up ....so I know what an attenuator does (and does NOT), how it works etc. Fast forward 15 years : I bought a THD Hotplate and used that with a HIWATT 50 watt amp head, despite the master volume on the amp. Glorious sounds, HEAVY stuff, still reasonable prices in all. Originally Posted by ruger9
My biggest "peeve" with that UA thingy is the outrageous price- € 1250,- !!!!! It sure does a lot of things including modeled microphones, IR's etc but for that kind of money I could also find a used 5-watt Carr, Tone King, Victoria etc. mini amp or better yet, build a 5E3 amp from a kit and save a bundle. Same with an ISO box, you can build one for € 150 including a quality speaker. I personally don't bother with that most of time when I record stuff - the models in my app are great, my Helix is an alternative and in a final mix I couldn't tell the difference anyways...
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I certainly agree with the crazy price of many of these units, especially if you are ONLY using their attenuation feature. I have a Weber Mini-Mass that does the job quite nicely on my lower-wattage amps (Supro Tremoverb 22W and Princeton Reverb, 15W). They are STILL a compromise, but if you're only knocking the volume down a little, it works very well, and is very reasonably priced.
https://www.tedweber.com/minimass/
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There's a misconception regarding the "Ox Box", it is an attenuator, but it does so much more than that. It has a plethora of the best cabs and mics in the industry, as well as equalization features, reverbs, top of the line compressors, etc, etc.. It takes all of this and can send it to your DAW, or whatever you you to record for a superb digital recording or just to practice using headphones without a speaker, and list goes on and on. Nobody I know has bought the Ox Box just for an attenuator. The cabs and mics behave like real cabs and mics because they are not IR's like most other competitors boxes. Just FYI
Cheers,
Arnie..
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i had one and wasn't knocked out with it. Great for rock tones, didn't like it at all for jazz sounds. Didn't like the cab modeling. For 1/3 the price the helix stomp is way better unless you really need and want an attenuator.
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Originally Posted by jzucker
Two different animals Jack, there are some nice speaker/cab combinations that sound great for jazz, specially adding a second mic. A lot of the old speakers and cab combinations used in amps for Jazz during to 60's -- 80's are there, at least the Fender ones.. Although this things are not made with Jazz guitarist in mind, I've been able to to conjure up some nice tones. One of their factory Rigs has an 80's Pat Metheny Cab/Speaker combination with delay and all but I must admit it's far from his tone...
I bought mine on a divorce sale pretty cheap, otherwise I wouldn't have spent that kind of money on it...
Cheers,
Arnie..
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i agree - different animals but unless you're playing classic rock or blues or metal and looking to crank up your old tube amp in your bedroom, I don't think it's as useful as a helix and is about 2x - 3x the price of a helix stomp which you can get for $350 used and the helix has about 100x the capability. Originally Posted by arnie65
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I see that Boss/Roland are almost taboo here but I use the Waza Tube Amp Expander. It has completely exceeded my expectations.
First lets address, why do you need a big amp. Well in my case I use all of those 12 preamp channel/options to go from glassy clean to total filth. they don’t make this kind of amp with a 5 watt power section.
Do I dime the Master Volume. No. In fact I run it at 9 o’clock (7 o’clock is off). Without the TAE it would be deafening yet thats where I get the right balance of headroom and cooking.
The TAE is, I think, unique in adding a reactive load to the amp’s output then feeding it to it’s own power amp. This was my biggest reservation but it turns out that it sounds brilliant. Add to that post amp eq, compression, reverb, delay which I have presets for on the dedicated foot controller. I am essentially a one reverb, one delay guy so just being able to switch them on off is great and I have got rid of my dedicated pedals. In fact with my next purchase, the Eventide H90 I will replace modulation, pitch and octave pedals and possibly others leaving me with my favourite drive/fuzz/octavia pedals for dirt duties and a vastly simplified pedal board.
One thing I haven’t tried is the USB audio interface. It is supposed to be good but people recommend installing better IR’s for cab simulation. I’ll give the supplied ones a go in the near future.
Back on topic, I can’t recall what made me go for the TAE over the Ox but I have no regrets.
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I didn't like the waza at all. On paper it's fantastic but in practice there was always some residual gain (slight overdrive) no matter how the controls were set and even when I ran my quilter through it. I contacted boss several times for support and never got anything back except an automated response. This has always been my experience with Boss...TOO.BIG.TO.FAIL and not interested in really helping with true customer support.
The features of the boss are superior to the Ox but in practice, i think the Ox sounds better and doesn't have the issue above.
But again, if you are just looking for something for recording and are not trying to dime your tube amp at bedroom volumes, I think the helix products give better results.
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I had the UA Ox at home for a while and liked it a lot because of its convenience and sound. But I ultimately returned it and bought the UA Dream 65 instead. Same Fender tones, can be used with tube and SS amps and pedals, and is less expensive. For (my) use at home it is perfect.
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