Fromel Electronics

My 13 year old is getting into astrophotography. He took this with his iPhone SE (the free one you let a 13 year old carry) and cleaned it up a bit in Photoscape (free photo editing software). I wish I had another Fuji I could let him use. This kids good.

I've been working on a new product. It's an attenuator Called Lotus. I think I need to make a FAQ's for people.

Q1. What is an attenuator?
-A1. It's a box that goes between the amplifier and speaker and makes it quieter.

Q2. Don't guitar amplifiers have a volume control?
-A2. Yes but they don't sound good at reasonable volumes. They are too clean, guitar amps sound best when overdriven and distorted or right on the brink of breaking up.

Q3. Why?
A3. Back in the day when Hendrix was playing outdoor shows without a PA he used the loudest amp he could find, which was a 100watt Marshall with a full stack, he had to turn up every dial to max and use both channels so everyone could hear him. That caused his amp to overdrive, compressing and distorting the signal. This became the tone we all know and love. Things are a lot different now both in studio and live; controlling volume is key to a good mix and it's hard to get good tone at a low volume.

Q4. Why not just use one of those modeler things?
A4. That's funny. Honestly they have their place both on stage and studio, I own and use a Fractal FM3 but it's still digital. The signal stops breathing at the AD conversion. An attenuator is all analog, just a bunch of resistors and an inductor between the output transformer and the speaker.

Q4.1 Why not just use a lower powered amp?
A4.2 That's funny too. Again they have their place but nothing sounds like an AC30 or JTM45 wide open.

Q5. Why do most attenuators sound compressed and thin the more they are attenuated.
A5.1 Less physical air is moving the more attenuation is added, quiet things sound less dynamic.
A5.2 One would think that if we can send people to the moon this should be pretty easy. It's not, many incredible companies like Marshall and Dr Z have released attenuators over the years. I have tried my hand at a few designs. Each one I have tried suffered the same problem except the one I am making now. I'm not the genius, that's JohnH, with the help of the community he figured it out.

Q6. I don't believe you. Everyone making an attenuator says the same thing, perfect tone at bedroom levels. Can you prove it?
A6.1 In the videos a track was re-amped. First un-attenuated, then through each stage of attenuation for comparison. In the first video all the tracks are normalized to the same relative volume to asses the changes in tone as more attenuation is added. As you can see on the deck, the signal is not altered. You will notice that as the attenuation increases the Mic is picking up the ambient noise of the room then the ambient hiss of the amp as it gets to sub bedroom level.

A6.2 The video in comment 1 is the same track without normalization to asses the change in both volume relative to the room and the tone. You will notice as attenuation is added about -14dB some natural room reflection becomes evident.

Fromel Electronics/JohnH Lotus M2 Simple Attenuator 60w w/ AC30 Reamped track going through all the stages. As the amp gets down below 1 watt the mic is picking up a lot of ambient noise from the room and the noise floor ...

It's coming......G4 Aurora displays the natural defense systems in place to protect us from attacks from the Sun. I know which way I'm driving tonight.