The Amp’s Performance

I bought this amp for the following reasons:

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• MIDI Controllable (digital control path)

• All analog signal path that can be dropped in power from 36W, to 18W, 10W, 5W & 1W

• Direct out recording interface

• Editing Software – you can share patches

• I loved the sound I heard and the comparisons on Youtube (Doh!)

 

Once I bought it, I discovered that the sound quality of the direct out channel was so-so to my ears. I ended up buying the Torpedo Live Professional Digital Load Box by Two-Notes (also reviewed separately), and that gave me the direct recording sound I was looking for.

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Then I ran into a serious problem. Before buying the Torpedo, I had set all of my presets to use the power-soak to drop the amp’s output power to 18W. Little did I know that this caused noise to be generated out of the speaker output of my amp – which is the interface I use to drive the Torpedo (I don’t hear the noise out of the amp’s direct out). Well, I didn’t make the connection between the power-soak and the noise. I contacted H&K via email and they never got back to me. I tried again, and again heard nothing from them. After attempting to contact them a third time, I gave up.

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I have learned that the guys at Gearslutz.com really know their stuff and are quite helpful (most of them – steer clear of Negative Nancy!) . After a few back-and-fourths on a thread there, one knowledgeable patron told me to try turning off the power-soak and to drive the Torpedo at the full 36W. Boom! Noise gone!