THD Hot Plate

Hot Plate description:

The THD Hot Plate power attenuator is a device placed between the speaker output and the speaker cabinet, acting like a huge master volume control and permits the amp to be turned up most or all the way while absorbing most of the power generated by the amplifier and turning this power into heat. It passes a small part of the power to the speaker.

The THD Hot Plate is useful for all guitarists whose amps sound good at high volumes, especially with full distortion, but in rehearsal, small clubs, or at home, just can't turn the amp up. The THD Hot Plate is also useful in recording studios for better separation between the instruments, and for use when the speaker sounds best at low levels, or if it can't handle the power output. The Hot Plate also makes a perfect dummy load.

A THD Hot Plate is a tuned network of capacitors, resistors and inductors which adjusts the overall EQ as the volume is turned down to compensate for the human ear's frequency response. Your ear perceives sounds differently at different volumes: the louder the sound, the more sensitive your ears are to highs and lows. As the volume drops, your ear becomes more sensitive to the mid-range, and less so for highs and lows. The Hot Plate compensates for this, working like the "Loudness" switch on a hi-fi. The THD Hot Plate is the first, and for now, the only attenuator that is frequency compensated.

The THD Hot Plate is designed for use strictly with vacuum tube guitar amplifiers, and each version is optimized for a specific impedance (2, 2.7, 4, 8, or 16 ohms.) These inductive loads are frequency compensated, which means it will give you the best possible sound for that impedance speaker and amplifier combination.

To use one: connect the speaker output of the amp into the input of the Hot Plate, then connect the speaker cabinet to one of the two speaker outputs of the Hot Plate (doesn't matter which one). The amp thinks the Hot Plate is a speaker, so the sound stays true even when you turn the volume down.

The THD Hot Plate is the only attenuator on the market with built-in noise reduction to reduce the hiss and hum between notes. Featuring a passive, single-ended noise reduction system which provides approximately 10 dB of broad band noise reduction without gating or pumping, and without affecting the tone of the amp. A by-product of the noise reduction circuit is that it generates light as you play. The harder you play, the brighter it glows.

The Hot Plate is also the only attenuator offering a Bright switch and a Deep switch for tailoring your sound. THD Hot Plates also feature a Line Out, which is adjustable by its own volume control giving it a wide range of applications. At higher settings, it can provide enough signal to drive the input of a separate power amp for slaving. The middle range of settings is useful for most rack mount effects. And turned most of the way down, the Hot Plate's Line Out will drive the instrument input of another guitar amplifier for extra power and volume.

The THD Hot Plate will not damage your amplifier. When you play continuously at full output, you cause your tubes to age more quickly than they would at lower volumes. Using a Hot Plate will maintain the life of your tubes at exactly the same rate, no more or less, as when you play straight through the speaker. Using a Hot Plate will also not hurt your transformer any more than playing through a speaker, as long as the impedances are matched. The Hot Plate puts the same load on the transformer as a speaker (which is why it makes such a good dummy load).

THD Hot Plate main features include:

• 2 Ohms
• Designed for use strictly with vacuum tube guitar amplifiers
• Line out with volume control
• Frequency compensated design
• Noise reduction circuit
• Bright switch and a Deep switch for tailoring your sound