I am relatively new to playing electric guitar, while I do have an ongoing interest in vinyl turntables. I have amplifiers for my vinyl setup, but as I started to acquire equipment for my electric guitar, I came across a large speaker with an amp built into it called a “guitar amplifier.” There are also stand-alone amplifiers that are specifically designed for guitars, like the “Universal Audio OX Amp Top Box.” I’m curious about the difference between the two and whether it would be possible to use a guitar amplifier like the “Universal Audio OX Amp Top Box” on my vinyl setup.
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You’re better off asking this in a technical sub.
As far as I can tell, the top box you mention is supposed to be used with a guitar amp, and it pretends to be the loudspeaker in the amp but sends the sound to a line output instead.
A guitar amp is often specifically made for applying basic effects such as overdrive and sometimes reverb, and to be driven by a guitar pickup. A vinyl amp is made to be driven by a stylus pickup, and has an RIAA filter which expands the compressed bass and midrange from the vinyl (these were compressed so that heavy thumping bass lines didn’t require extreme groove variations on the disc). There may be amps that do both, but I don’t know.
You’re better off asking this in a technical sub.
As far as I can tell, the top box you mention is supposed to be used with a guitar amp, and it pretends to be the loudspeaker in the amp but sends the sound to a line output instead.
A guitar amp is often specifically made for applying basic effects such as overdrive and sometimes reverb, and to be driven by a guitar pickup. A vinyl amp is made to be driven by a stylus pickup, and has an RIAA filter which expands the compressed bass and midrange from the vinyl (these were compressed so that heavy thumping bass lines didn’t require extreme groove variations on the disc). There may be amps that do both, but I don’t know.
You’re better off asking this in a technical sub.
As far as I can tell, the top box you mention is supposed to be used with a guitar amp, and it pretends to be the loudspeaker in the amp but sends the sound to a line output instead.
A guitar amp is often specifically made for applying basic effects such as overdrive and sometimes reverb, and to be driven by a guitar pickup. A vinyl amp is made to be driven by a stylus pickup, and has an RIAA filter which expands the compressed bass and midrange from the vinyl (these were compressed so that heavy thumping bass lines didn’t require extreme groove variations on the disc). There may be amps that do both, but I don’t know.
Firstly, the Universal Audio OX is *not* an amplifier. It’s a “load box” – a device that emulates the load that a loudspeaker places on a guitar amplifier. It’s purpose is to allow you to run a guitar amplifier at very high volume (which produces a desirable sound for many genres of music) without also having to deal with the very high sound levels produced, as the load box can silently dissipate the power coming from the amp instead. I don’t know much about turntable amps but if you want a way to run a valve/tube turntable amp as loud as possible, tol get it distorting, but don’t want loud speaker volumes then a load box would be useful. I can’t imagine that’s a common use case for turntable amps though.
Other than that, guitar amps and turntable amps obviously have some things in common. However, the pre-amps on the two will be different as they are expecting different signals. If I remember correctly, phono pre-amps apply an RIAA EQ to their input, which would be very undesirable in a guitar amp.
The loudspeakers used are quite different too. Speakers for playing back recorded music need to play back a wide range of frequencies without colouring the sound. Guitar speakers are very focussed on the mid-range sounds and have limited high- and low-frequency response, plus colouring the sound is considered a desirable quality and people choose guitar speakers based on how they affect the guitar’s sound.
Lastly, guitar amps are almost always mono but there have been stereo vinyl recordings since the 1930s.
Firstly, the Universal Audio OX is *not* an amplifier. It’s a “load box” – a device that emulates the load that a loudspeaker places on a guitar amplifier. It’s purpose is to allow you to run a guitar amplifier at very high volume (which produces a desirable sound for many genres of music) without also having to deal with the very high sound levels produced, as the load box can silently dissipate the power coming from the amp instead. I don’t know much about turntable amps but if you want a way to run a valve/tube turntable amp as loud as possible, tol get it distorting, but don’t want loud speaker volumes then a load box would be useful. I can’t imagine that’s a common use case for turntable amps though.
Other than that, guitar amps and turntable amps obviously have some things in common. However, the pre-amps on the two will be different as they are expecting different signals. If I remember correctly, phono pre-amps apply an RIAA EQ to their input, which would be very undesirable in a guitar amp.
The loudspeakers used are quite different too. Speakers for playing back recorded music need to play back a wide range of frequencies without colouring the sound. Guitar speakers are very focussed on the mid-range sounds and have limited high- and low-frequency response, plus colouring the sound is considered a desirable quality and people choose guitar speakers based on how they affect the guitar’s sound.
Lastly, guitar amps are almost always mono but there have been stereo vinyl recordings since the 1930s.
Firstly, the Universal Audio OX is *not* an amplifier. It’s a “load box” – a device that emulates the load that a loudspeaker places on a guitar amplifier. It’s purpose is to allow you to run a guitar amplifier at very high volume (which produces a desirable sound for many genres of music) without also having to deal with the very high sound levels produced, as the load box can silently dissipate the power coming from the amp instead. I don’t know much about turntable amps but if you want a way to run a valve/tube turntable amp as loud as possible, tol get it distorting, but don’t want loud speaker volumes then a load box would be useful. I can’t imagine that’s a common use case for turntable amps though.
Other than that, guitar amps and turntable amps obviously have some things in common. However, the pre-amps on the two will be different as they are expecting different signals. If I remember correctly, phono pre-amps apply an RIAA EQ to their input, which would be very undesirable in a guitar amp.
The loudspeakers used are quite different too. Speakers for playing back recorded music need to play back a wide range of frequencies without colouring the sound. Guitar speakers are very focussed on the mid-range sounds and have limited high- and low-frequency response, plus colouring the sound is considered a desirable quality and people choose guitar speakers based on how they affect the guitar’s sound.
Lastly, guitar amps are almost always mono but there have been stereo vinyl recordings since the 1930s.
You don’t want to mix amplifiers like that. Guitar amps are designed to convert the micro voltages that come from the electromagnetic field of the pickups and through the use of clever circuitry, ramp that signal up so it can drive a speaker cone with enough force to be audible etc.
The top box amp looks like a physical modelling amplifier which allows you to bypass all the faff with positioning microphones, designing rooms, setting gain staging etc when you record in a professional studio.
If you took the signal from your vinyl decks mixer and ran it through the top box amp, you would get a coloured tone, after some considerable fustication.
If you want more info on guitar amps etc, DM me, I’ve been playing for 20 years.
You don’t want to mix amplifiers like that. Guitar amps are designed to convert the micro voltages that come from the electromagnetic field of the pickups and through the use of clever circuitry, ramp that signal up so it can drive a speaker cone with enough force to be audible etc.
The top box amp looks like a physical modelling amplifier which allows you to bypass all the faff with positioning microphones, designing rooms, setting gain staging etc when you record in a professional studio.
If you took the signal from your vinyl decks mixer and ran it through the top box amp, you would get a coloured tone, after some considerable fustication.
If you want more info on guitar amps etc, DM me, I’ve been playing for 20 years.
You don’t want to mix amplifiers like that. Guitar amps are designed to convert the micro voltages that come from the electromagnetic field of the pickups and through the use of clever circuitry, ramp that signal up so it can drive a speaker cone with enough force to be audible etc.
The top box amp looks like a physical modelling amplifier which allows you to bypass all the faff with positioning microphones, designing rooms, setting gain staging etc when you record in a professional studio.
If you took the signal from your vinyl decks mixer and ran it through the top box amp, you would get a coloured tone, after some considerable fustication.
If you want more info on guitar amps etc, DM me, I’ve been playing for 20 years.
Signals have strength. Amplifier takes very weak guitar signal at example 10mV and amplifies/multiplies it by a hundred thousand to get to 100v so it has volume. If you turn up the volume knob, it may amplify it to 150v and so on.
But an amp has max voltage it can go up to before the signal starts sounding distorted. If the amp can go to 100v, but you put the volume knob to 150v, the signal gets clipped and distorts.
Here’s the thing: guitar amps are designed to do precisely this and they are good at it. If a normal audio amplifier was designed to distort on purpose at higher volumes no one would by it.
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