holy shit I think I killed my amp...:(

[frigid midget]

The 'low efficiency speaker' isn't going to get what you want at living room volume. It'll cut volume, yes. But...it'll still melt paint.

Find out the actual rated wattage of the amp.

Find out the actual rated wattage of the attenuator.

See if the two match.

When in doubt, replace the attenuator.

Yeah that's what I was worried about. Shaving of a couple db's isn't gonna solve the kind of volume issues I'm having. Last night -one of those delightful and rare occasions I had the house to myself- I got to try out my new speakers with the amp's volume turned up a bit. The 3db or so extra sensitivity over my old G12H-75's did seem to make an audible difference, though it's hard to really tell without making an actual side by side comparisson.

With both volume controls turned up to '4', the tubes started to wake up, and strumming a chord a bit harder ignited a nice growl. But at that point everyone in a 2 mile radius was enjoying my little volume test, I had to quit after just a minute or so cause I'm absolutely certain that otherwhise I'd have an angry neighbour or a cop would've rang my doorbell...

So even though -for a couple different reasons, and now recently for an extra reason- I'm not the biggest fan of attenuators either...That sort of 'hot' sounding tube sound with those slightly hairy angry cleans and agressive unforgiving super sensitive attack, seems hard to achieve in a civilesed way without either attenuating that motherfucker a bit. For lack of a better way to describe my amp at 'moderate' volumes: If Angus young would do a fly-in show in Canada without taking along his own useal backline, he'd probably be fine loaning someone's YBA-1

Anyway, I didn't risk turning the volume up much higher than that for longer than a couple second, which was long enough to notice that there was a lot less progression between noon on the dial and almost cranked. A little bit extra volume, but it mostly more gain. Which would've sounded sick, if it weren't so dangerously frikking loud...:s
I don't really know what some small plexi-like amp would cost me, but it can't be less than what it'd cost me to fix or replace the attenuator, right?

[rfurtkamp]

I've been pleasantly surprised by the Weber attenuators.

The big thing was the switchable treble boost circuit.

I'm not a huge fan of power tube distortion but it lets me get it if I want.

Mostly it just lets me open up the thing enough to get them fully on.

[frigid midget]

Yeah, Weber has come up quit a lot in my little google search for attenuator recommendations. Another one I'be been eyeing, though mostly cause of its price: Jet City Jettenuator. Like I said, not getting super pristine studio toanz that are identical to the louder un-attenuated equivalent isn't a huge concern. As long as it sounds decent and makes me able to use my favoritr amp outside a sound proof underground bunker, I'd be more than happy. Those Palmers also seem to get decent reviews, and they're kinda affordable too.

I'm btw not into power tube distortion either, at least not on other amps. Sounded meh on my old Orange 0R120, all of the fender combos I used to have, my Fender Tone-master, the JCM800/900 and JMP heads I used to have...But for some reason it works for me on the Traynor