The title is the question. I read somewhere that some Class D Amps can let out their magic smoke if used with a speaker level DI box. Is that true?
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Is it safe to use the Hughes & Kettner Redbox V5 with any amp ?
- Thread starter el murdoque
- Start date
- Feb 12, 2006
- 52,447
- 176,650
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- Disclosures
- Development Engineer-Mesa Boogie, Development Engineer-Genzler (pedals), Product Support-Genz Benz
If you are using it on a speaker output, and the amp is bridged (many class D amps use bridged output stages), the danger is if the sleeve and pin 1 are connected tighter when the ground lift switch is in the grounded position. In this case the driven minus half of the amp becomes shorted to the console's input ground bus (or whatever the XLR is attached to) and either the amp can fail or ground traces in the console can fail.
I don't know why anyone would want to use a speaker level di with an amp that isn't all tube. And while I'm not familiar with the V5, I will warn you that other Redbox models that I've tried are awful on bass and cut way too much low-end.
@agedhorse & @JimmyM : Thanks for your replies.
For me, this is just some kind of meta question. In my main band that is IEM all the way, the second guitar player just switched from mic to redbox, so we're basically mic-less on stage except for the singers (E drums, redboxes for the guitars and line out for the rest).
My question simply goes toward that direction whether or not I need to install a mental warning flag to not use the redbox and class D amp - for example if a guitar channel had a problem and you'd want to connect another amp for testing. The two class D amps I use at present are the Tonehammer 500 and the GSS baby sumo. AFAIK both use a ICE module and both run it bridged.
For me, this is just some kind of meta question. In my main band that is IEM all the way, the second guitar player just switched from mic to redbox, so we're basically mic-less on stage except for the singers (E drums, redboxes for the guitars and line out for the rest).
My question simply goes toward that direction whether or not I need to install a mental warning flag to not use the redbox and class D amp - for example if a guitar channel had a problem and you'd want to connect another amp for testing. The two class D amps I use at present are the Tonehammer 500 and the GSS baby sumo. AFAIK both use a ICE module and both run it bridged.