NAD Engl E651 - Artist Edition 100

[rsm]

Delivered yesterday.

Still experimenting and exploring the sounds. I wanted something that could cover more vintage EL34 tones than my Engl rack (6L6GC).

Cabs: 2 x Engl PRO E212VHB (V30)

Guitar used: Ibanez PS120. Seymour Duncan '59 model (neck); Seymour Duncan Custom 5 (bridge)

Initial impression: has way more low end than I need; the cabs contribute to the low end. Clean and crunch tones have good clarity, these are the main sounds I wanted from the amp, still dialing them in, and both are different from my Engl rack. Settings in the pic are close for the crunch tone I want at this master level; haven't explored the Lead channel much yet, but it's very similar to my Engl rack.

haven't pushed the Master past 10 o'clock...yet. Gonna need some kind of attenuator, don't know much about them, but I'm using 2 cabs, so I'll need 2 attenuators...

So far so good. Have to work soon...

 

[fek]

Looks great! That is the Engl that I want to spend some time with. As for attenuators, just grab a Power Station PS2. I run my amps into one of those and then out to two 4x12's.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

The AE is very sleek.
But why would you need an attenuator when there are 2 master volumes? Are you wanting to get power tube saturation from it? ENGL's are more adept at preamp distortion.
I played with running my ENGLs with an attenuator and didn't get any benefits vs using the MV. All it did was add an extra piece of unneeded equipment in the signal chain to deal with.

 

[rsm]

@MadAsAHatter yes, for power amp saturation.

thanks for the info on your experience. getting sounds I like from the preamp, as I did with my Engl rack....wanted to hear how the poweramp effects the sound, without high volumes.

 

[gbsmusic]

I've never played one but I've heard very good things about the Artist Edition. Congrats when you get around to it post a clip.

 

[napalmdeath]

Killer amp. Had 2.

 

[braintheory]

The AE is very sleek.
But why would you need an attenuator when there are 2 master volumes? Are you wanting to get power tube saturation from it? ENGL's are more adept at preamp distortion.
I played with running my ENGLs with an attenuator and didn't get any benefits vs using the MV. All it did was add an extra piece of unneeded equipment in the signal chain to deal with.

Agreed. Engl’s also IME are some of the best lower volume amps I’ve had

 

[braintheory]

The Artist has killer uppermid grind. Was one of my 3 favorite Engl’s along with the Inferno & SE EL34. If it weren’t for some of the Cameron modded Marshall’s I had at the time I may have still kept it

 

[mcstinger]

I have 100W one and it's great. The best tone for my taste is when the power amp starts to be pushed to distortion just a little bit.

For 2 cabs you don't need 2 attenuators, 1 is enough.

 

[rsm]

I have 100W one and it's great. The best tone for my taste is when the power amp starts to be pushed to distortion just a little bit.

For 2 cabs you don't need 2 attenuators, 1 is enough.

Yes, I wanted to experiment with more power amp gain to find a "sweet spot" with both preamp and power amp gain, at manageable volumes.

Each of the cabs are 8 ohms (mono), and I'm using them in the head's 4 ohm outs: 8 + 8 = 4.

Never had an attenuator.... not sure how I'd use a single attenuator with 2 cabs? With 2 x 8 ohm cabs out to the attenuator, what outputs on the head? I guess as long as the attenuator impedance matches what the amp expects, I'm good?

reactive load vs resistive load? My understanding is reactive behaves more like a speaker cab working with the power amp.

 

[mcstinger]

You can use it like this:
Amp > Attenuator > Special Y cable or cab merger > Cabs (in series or in parallel)

As you have Engl cabs, you can use them in Mono mode and connect Thru jack from the first cab to the Input of the second cab. Then they will be in parallel with total impedance of 4 Ohms. Then you would need 4 Ohm attenuator.

If you would like to use some cab merger like Palmer Cab Merger, you can run cabs in series with total impedance of 16 Ohms, thus 16 Ohm attenuator.

There are miscellaneous attenuators (power soaks) on the market. Starting by simple ones like Bugera or Harley Benton to more complex ones like Torpedo Captor and then higher end with IR loader, like St.Rock React:IR. Just be careful to select a unit, which really has an attenuation functionality, as some units are just (IR) loaders with thru option, without attenuation (Torpedo Live i.e.).

Yes, generally, reactive loads are better than resistive. Lot of discussions regarding this topic on forums.

 

[rsm]

You can use it like this:
Amp > Attenuator > Special Y cable or cab merger > Cabs (in series or in parallel)

As you have Engl cabs, you can use them in Mono mode and connect Thru jack from the first cab to the Input of the second cab. Then they will be in parallel with total impedance of 4 Ohms. Then you would need 4 Ohm attenuator.

If you would like to use some cab merger like Palmer Cab Merger, you can run cabs in series with total impedance of 16 Ohms, thus 16 Ohm attenuator.

There are miscellaneous attenuators (power soaks) on the market. Starting by simple ones like Bugera or Harley Benton to more complex ones like Torpedo Captor and then higher end with IR loader, like St.Rock React:IR. Just be careful to select a unit, which really has an attenuation functionality, as some units are just (IR) loaders with thru option, without attenuation (Torpedo Live i.e.).

Yes, generally, reactive loads are better than resistive. Lot of discussions regarding this topic on forums.

Thanks!