Bugera PS1 Power Soak

I've tested 3 attenuator:
Bugera PS 1 at ¤79
Jettenuator at ¤128
SPL Reducer at ¤369
The SPL and Jettanuator use fancy aluminium housed resistors, the Bugera has plain ceramic resistor that sit elevator from the pcb for cooling.
All 3 devices have just resistors inside, I was expecting some additional components in SPL to justify the price, but only the housing is nicer, the electronics are not.
The SPL has a noisy and cracking potentiometer, the other 2 are noiseless when adjusting the damping level.
The Bugera has an extra feature in the dail that consists of a magnet, a metal plate and an unknown wired component. I'm not sure what this is for, but I think it's to stabilize the resistance of the potentiometer. The more expensive Jettenuator has the same potentiometer but without these extra components.
I didn't have the SPL available for a side by side test, so I only tested the Bugera and the Jettenuator side by side. They sound almost exactly the same, the Bugera is slightly smoother and the Jettanuator sounds slightly more brittle. To me, the Bugera is the more realisticly sounding device.
On both you lose some depth in the sound. Although I find the sound surprisingly good.
Even if all were the same price, the Bugera would be a clear winner for me. The SPL is very disappointing at that price level.

It's really good at this price range. What I have noticed is that it increases a little bit the gain/distortion compared when it's not connected, but not the bass/mid/treble, so i back down the gain a little bit to have the exact same sound. The manual is not very clear for all the options.
Once it is connected the amp is at half power. Meaning for a 50w amp, the maximum rating will be 25watts.
The power soak knob, is what controls the output, which means that if you use the line out, which is the second knob, you still need volume coming out. That was unclear to me as I thought I could do a "silent recording" with no sound coming from my speaker whatsoever. It is useful however if you don't have a microphone and want to record or sent at a PA at the same time.
Overall it is a great product, small, light, that doesn't need an extra outlet being passive that can tame down a large amp (up till 100w) head and enjoy it in an apartment.

This unit does whats it most do, reduce the volume of your amp. I open'd the unit and it's complete passive resistor, well built. I read here some reviews where they mention a change tone and adding distortion. Because this mainly is an passive high power poteniometer, it can't add nothing to your sound. The change of tone is because you speaker does not get the full power and it's normal that it's changing how it's behaving.
Overall if your want to cranck up you valve amp without blowing you eardrums and keeping you tone, this is the gear to buy.
A qiuick re marque, Do use the right cable, a signal cable is not an speaker cable!!!!!!!!
I use one om my Marshall Orgine20 and Marshall DSL40 and i'm very happy with it.
I will buy an other one very some for my Vox AC15 C2, Mayby Thoman can give me some special price here ;)