Hot Plates and how many do you own?

[lhrocker]

Do most people own more than 1 hotplate for different speaker configs? I have a 16 ohm, that is cool for a single 16 ohm cab, but if I want to use 2 cabinets, I can't cause the input in parallel, and thus I would need 2 32 ohm cabs. That's how I interpret the manual anyway.

That means, I should buy an 8 ohm hot plate if I need to use 2 8 ohm cabinets?

[Spivonious]

It's the same as if the cabinets were hooked right to the amp.

One 4 ohm cabient/Two 8 ohm cabinets = 4 ohm hotplate
One 8 ohm cabinet/Two 16 ohm cabinets = 8 ohm hotplate
One 16 ohm cabinet/Two 32 ohm cabinets = 16 ohm hotplate

[jgcable]

The only hotplate anybody should ever own is the one that you can make a grilled cheese on in your efficiency apartment.

Not a fan of any of them except for that super expensive one. I think its called the Ultimate Attenuator or something like that.

[roodyrocker]

I have an 8 and a 16 ohm Hot Plate. One to use if only playing the Rhoads Marshall as a haf stack and the other as a full stack Some form of attenuation is a necessity for playing this non-master volume amp at home.

[jgcable]

Lets compare an attenuator in car terms....

Dear Mr. Lamborgini dealer...

"I bought this Lamborgini Diablo to drive around the Walmart parking lot on Saturday afternoon in a ton of traffic and I am having a really tough time driving the car in those conditions. Is there any way for you to disconnect 8 of the cylinders so that it will be easier for me to drive keeping in mind that I still want to experience all the power of the stock motor"
Dealer responds..
"You should have bought an economy car that was designed for that type of driving!"

Thats what I think of giant high powered tube amps purchased for low level home playing.

This doesn't apply to LHROCKER. Pete is a gigging pro and I am sure he wants attenuation for live use.
I'm just felt like making the comparison.

[roodyrocker]

I don't think its quite that bad. Perhaps a better analogy would be more like this:
I have a 700 hp Mustang but since its not on the drag strip and I need to quiet it down on the street, I put a set of Kook's Custom Headers mufflers on it. Still has real thump to it but is now streetable

[bibz]

A hotplate is more like an underdrive pulley for a supercharger, same shit just adds a little extra

[kmanick]

form the THD site

II. AS A POWER ATTENUATOR TO TWO SPEAKER CABINETS:
Same as above, except connect cables from both speaker outputs on the Hot Plate to your
two speaker cabinets. These output jacks are wired in parallel, so if both speaker outputs
are being used, the 2Ω Hot Plate would be needed for two 4Ω speaker cabinets, the 4Ω
Hot plate for two 8Ω cabinets and the 8Ω Hot Plate for two 16Ω cabinets.
IMPORTANT: WHEN USING BOTH SPEAKER OUTPUTS FROM
THE HOT PLATE, THE TWO SPEAKER CABINETS SHOULD HAVE THE SAME
IMPEDANCE AS EACH OTHER, AND THAT IM PEDANCE SHOULD BE DOUBLE THE
IMPEDANCE OF THE HOT PLATE.

[jgcable]

I don't think its quite that bad. Perhaps a better analogy would be more like this:
I have a 700 hp Mustang but since its not on the drag strip and I need to quiet it down on the street, I put a set of Kook's Custom Headers mufflers on it. Still has real thump to it but is now streetable

Thats a better analogy if you lose the "Still has real thump to it but now its streetable" and replace that line with "its streetable but it sounds like canned ass".

[jgcable]

A hotplate is more like an underdrive pulley for a supercharger, same shit just adds a little extra

Let me rephrase...

A hotplate is more like putting a stock single Meineke discount muffler system on your supercharged big block and expecting the performance to remain the same.. just quieter.

[jgcable]

I wonder if the word Attenuation means sounds like canned ass in some other language.

[roodyrocker]

I really don't think its quite that bad. I just saw Paul Gilbert live with Racer X two weeks ago and his Rhoads Marshall was running through a THD Hot Plate. The tone sounded damn fine to me

[lhrocker]

Hey John - let us know how you really feel about attenuators.

Let me rephrase...

A hotplate is more like putting a stock single Meineke discount muffler system on your supercharged big block and expecting the performance to remain the same.. just quieter.

[lhrocker]

According to the manual as listed,

2 ohm hotplate = 2 4 ohm cab
4 ohm hotplate = 2 8 ohm cab
8 ohm hotplate = 2 16 ohm cab

You would assume 16 ohm hotplate = 2 32 ohm cab.

But if you can do a pair of 16's going into a 16 ohm hotplate being plugged into 8 ohms on the amp, then that works for me.

form the THD site

II. AS A POWER ATTENUATOR TO TWO SPEAKER CABINETS:
Same as above, except connect cables from both speaker outputs on the Hot Plate to your
two speaker cabinets. These output jacks are wired in parallel, so if both speaker outputs
are being used, the 2Ω Hot Plate would be needed for two 4Ω speaker cabinets, the 4Ω
Hot plate for two 8Ω cabinets and the 8Ω Hot Plate for two 16Ω cabinets.
IMPORTANT: WHEN USING BOTH SPEAKER OUTPUTS FROM
THE HOT PLATE, THE TWO SPEAKER CABINETS SHOULD HAVE THE SAME
IMPEDANCE AS EACH OTHER, AND THAT IM PEDANCE SHOULD BE DOUBLE THE
IMPEDANCE OF THE HOT PLATE.

[Partial @ Marshall]

One...Badcat "the leash"....will adjust to any need.