As I stated, I prolly am getting a Engl Preamp (possibly a 530 or 620) somewhere next month, and since I only have a S.S. Marshall Masterlead combo to play trough, I am in need for a poweramp sollution for home use.
Since most rackmount poweramps are a bit unusable at home, and the lowest wattage I've seen was a Marshall 2/20, wich is probbalby still too much, I have tought of some options to get that tube saturation at lower levels. If annyone would like to share any toughts on them?

1) Atomic reactor 112

Basicly the most practical option. 18 watt tube poweramp and a 12inch cab in one. At about 550 euros, pretty affordable too. Altough their ment for moddeling preamps, I guess a rackmount preamp would be possible too. Would this sound good? Also, is the speaker anygood, or would I probably replace it with something better annyway?

2) Low wattage rackmount

As said, the lowest wattage i've come by was 2/20 from Marshall. Anyone know of something a bit lower?

3) D-I-Y

I could offcoarse make something myself, just one or two powertubes and a single volume knob in mono. How easy would it be to do this? What kind of parts do I need, and how much would it set me back? Anyone know of a good low wattage schematic? I've seen fulltube combo's D-I-Y sites, so a single poweramp would be possible I guess.


My priorities are home practice and recording first, how much watt should be what I need? Also, how usable would that wattage be in band practice/live situation?

Sorry if my post was very chaotic, English isn't my natural language, and there is so much stuff i've tought up.

Powerbrake.

the atomic reactor would work fine. a decent low wattage tube poweramp and a cab in one. so you'd be good to go.

i'm not sure what the used market price is for an older mesa 50/50 poweramp in your area(they're go for like $400-ish used in the u.s.). but i would suggest one. it has a 15w mode on it. so you could take it down a bit for low volume bedroom jams, and then if you need to give it some real use, you can transform it into a 100w tube monster.

an attenuator would also be a good idea. thd hotplate in particular.

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hmm, those hotplates/powerbrakes are a possibility, not too common on ebay tough but not expensive.

ohyeah, i forgot to mention that affordability is a priority too, so thats why I'm not sure if I'd buy a normal poweramp to use with a powersoaker annyway, but that mesa 50/50 might be a possibility, even tough it's hard to get good deals on second hand gear in Europe, since everything resells at much higher prices than in the States.

I looked into making a poweramp before, and you'll end up spending a fair amount on it, i totalled up approx 250 pounds for a poweramp- the transformers (power and output) are quite expensive. To be honest, i think unless you wanted to do it as a project for yourself, its not worth it

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Peavey classic 50/50. I used one with my engl 620 back in the day, cheap poweramp with 8xel84 in the powersection, sounds sweet.

Use the built in poweramp inside the e530 it has a switch for using with regular cabs instead of headphones

you'll get hardly any volume and it certainly wont sound optimal.

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To quote someone who used that preamp, with it's internal low wattage poweramp

"in a small space, loud enough to shake the floors/walls.

In a wide open space, loud enough to be heard for a good 30+ yards."

ask def... i think he still has his engl preamp. 1.5w of s.s. power. maybe decent bedroom volumes. but certainly not "wall rumbling". not to mention 0 headroom.

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Yep, the headroom will probobly be an issue as you said..


If you want a tube poweramp for homeuse, ask some tube maniac amp builder/modifier if he could build you a single tube driven poweramp (I think those are called SE-something)

Suffice to say, I'm looking for a saturated tube poweramp sound. But thanks for the suggestion

decent bedroom volumes, nah. not really. you can hear yourself playing and that's it.

brains, a powerbrake seems to be the only thing that works for you. even a 20/20 poweramp can blast out your windows..

the mesa 50/50's are around plenty. they're a bit overpriced but they're pretty affordable. the peavey 50/50's are way cheaper and aren't much worse then the mesa's..

thanks, i might look into it, tough I probably will be buying the Atomic