Playing at bedroom volume: how much of the tone am I really missing?

Hi!

If you follow the JP2C thread maybe you have seen I have posted a lot recently. I'm new to tube amps so sorry for spam!

I play my JP2C in a small room (~6 m2) in an apartment. My playing volume for channel 2 & 3 is around 7:30, anything above 9:00 is too loud and will make things vibrate in the room, really not pleasant.

Since I cannot crank the amp, I think I'm missing some of the best tone the amp has to offer (even though I think that the tone is good as it is)

I did a test with the cabclone, I recorded with master level above 9:00 and below 9:00, I could not really hear any difference in the tone. Is this a good way to test how much of the tone I could be missing? Is there some other way?

I have also read that an attenuator could be the best solution. I have also read that some amps break down when used with an attenuator and I would not like to risk that. What would you recommend?

Howdy.

I don’t have the JP amp so my observations are not directly linked to your case...

I’ve had an Electra-Dyne for 5+ years (first as head and then as combo - same amp anyways..) and only after acquiring attenuator been successful at having great tones at home 8). First I got Koch resistive attenuator and it cut away too much hi & low from tone - was not impressed, then got a Captor from Two notes and it’s been great :mrgreen:

So what I’d recommend is getting some reactive attenuator in your situation. Cutting -20dB from sound pressure levels lets the amp to get closer to its designed operating level(s).

The Mark series amps get the majority, if not all, of the lead channel's distortion from the preamp so there's much less benefit playing loud than an amp that relies on power tube clipping for its distortion. I run my JP masters at 9:30 on the clock face and attenuate it down to around 25% of that. From my trials there's only really an audible difference in tone if you turn down your master to whisper volume. There is the consensus that 'things sound better louder' which is probably true generally, but as far as distortion character I wouldn't worry about it since on your amp its coming from the preamp circuit.
I do use an attenuator so I can change the volume in one rather than each channels masters, ie using it as an overall output master. If you want that sort of thing you'd want to look at an attenuator with variable output. I use the torpedo reload and it's excellent.

Enjoy the amp \m/ its a great one!