Two Notes Torpedo Captor 8 Ohms

If you love recording guitar, but you are in a space that doesn't allow you to use your amps this device absolutely is AWESOME...

It doesn't replace the feeling of a speaker, but it does give you very accurate speaker simulation that allows you to be very silent!

IMAGINE THIS: You play in a band and leave your cab at the rehearsal space... You take your head home and just plug it into the captor->interface->DAW and you're up and running with great tones without annoying anyone in the house! Use a set of headphones or monitors and you've got a sick recording setup for not a lot of money and very practical!

Some days when you're up late and thinking about writing you get on garageband or whatever and you put up with the awful amp sims.

Now you're able to use your lovely tube amps whenever you want and get really awesome simulations of great cabs! The 16 cabs are imo more than enough to find a great cab! More often than not you'll just find your favorite cab and mic and leave it there... I use the Marshall 1935 412 with greenbacks and the R121 mic for what I love.

Get this and a focusrite 2nd gen interface and you've got a recording setup that will work with all your great tube amps!

Also the -20dB is a great feature! I use it in conjunction with a resistive load attenuator, because I have a Non Master volume Plexi at home. If you have a master volume amp this attenuator will do everything you need an attenuator to do! But for Non Master Volume old school amps this is not ideal, but what can you expect from a 230 euro device that already gives you the ultimate recording setup?

If you love your tube amp and you want to play it more I suggest you check this badboy out and write some great music!

This is a life changer imo...

I would rather use this type of simulation than any Kemper/AxeFX/Helix/...

Also great to get to know what cabinet works best with your amp since you get a studio type recording situation with almost every cab you can imagine...

Please consider buying this, it will change your life :)

I'm using it with a Gigmaster 30 ENGL and a DSL15H Marshall. A lot of people seem to complain about the fact that the attenuation level not being variable, but I personally think it's enough...maybe because I'm not using man sized heads.
Anyway, the unit's features:
-20dB attenuated output and a bypass output, this one don;t need to be explained
-Line output, 1/4'' TRS Jack: this can be sent to an audio interface for recording, this output is dry so you'll need to use the wall of sound pluggin to simulate a cab (or any other IR pluggin).
Above it, there is a Out Level pot which applies to this output.
Note: if you use an unbalanced 1/4'' jack you will experience hum / noise
-Cab simulated output, XLR Cable: this one is self explanatory as well, I personally did not use it, but people claim it's better than expected.
-DC Jack: this is used to power the unit, HOWEVER, it seems to be needed if you use the Cab Sim, the Line output and the attenuation stage don't need to be powered in order to work, but I suggest you to power it up if you use it with high wattage amps because it also powers the cooling fan at the back of the unit.

The unit seems to be solid and well built, nothing to complain.

I did have a hard time figuring out what should I do to get my free cab impulses from Wall of Sound tho, so I will write down what you need to do:

-Get Torpedo WOS III for your operating system
-Open your DAW
-Load WOS III
-Register
-Log In
-WOS III will ask you if you want to test it with 2 Free IRs of if you want to activate your product
-Chose "Activate product", WOS will ask for a 30 digit code, instead, enter the product code that's placed near the "designed and engineered in france bla bla" sticker.
-you're good to go

In conclusion, I strongly recommend this unit, the only thing that could be improved about it would be a more comprehensive startup guide given with the unit.

I used HX Stomp for 10 days and didn't like it. There was a constant noise heard with gainy amps when not playing. And after ten minutes of playing my ears kind of "hurt" and I didn't want to play more. Overall, I just didn't like HX Stomp, didn't like to tweak, didn't like small screen and small knobs. I don't care how many reverbs, delays, etc. it had. I don't care how many amps it covers.

Before returining HX Stomp I did this: I spit the signal using line out output of my tube amp to HX Stomp in which I used IRs and reverbs. And I think it was much better sound. The sound came alive. The thing was that the amp speaker still needed to be connected.

So I decided to buy Captor 8. And I am really happy. I use only line out in Captor so it doesn't have to be connected to the current, so less cables. Good thing is has a volume knob (out level).
The software is very OK and I think it's easier to get good sounds than by using IRs. It has 14 cabs, many mics, EQ, Exciter, Compressor and reverb. I think less is more.
It also has poweramp simulation but I didn't use it because the signal from the tube amp comes after the poweramp and transformer.

Any negatives? Yes.
Would be nice if the device had more levels of attenuation. It only has -20dB which might be ok for you or not. I think there should be -10, - 20, -30 and - 40.
I think it should also have a simple audio interface built-in so USB output just to connect to the computer.

Anyway, I am much happier with my tube amp and Captor 8 than with HX Stomp. I think the sound my tube amp and Captor 8 is better and more lively. I'm just an amateur and this is only my personal opinion.

There's not much to say about bare-bones attenuators / load boxes, really. I use it as a reactive load, and line out into an impulse response loader.
The Torpedo Captor's load doesn't try to emulate a certain speaker type, which is a good choice, imo. It lacks the ability to increase or decrease attenuation, but for this price that's just a nitpick - depending on your amp, it might not be enough attenuation. Especially considering the next step up is something like the Boss TAE, which would let you customize the load and all that, but for 10x cost too...