Irvine, CA (June 1, 2016) — Bad Cat Tube Amplifiers is pleased to announce the official release of the much-anticipated Unleash V2 attenuator/re-amplifier. The sound and reliability of their premium products coupled with unparalleled customer care has established Bad Cat as the brand of choice among touring professionals and working musicians.
About the Unleash
Bad Cat was treading into undiscovered territory when they set out to create the first compact device that could amplify a low wattage amplifier through its own speaker. Countless hours were invested as a team of the industry’s best engineers experimented with every imaginable approach to maintain even the most detailed nuances during the re-amplification process. What they soon discovered was there were no existing circuits that could be easily applied… so they started from scratch. The result was a completely original approach to re-amplification that incorporates a proprietary reactive load circuit into a circuit designed to make their transparent class D amplifier breathe dynamically with a tube amplifier.
An Accidental Breakthrough
It wasn’t until one day when an engineer was testing the Unleash’s ability to handle a higher wattage amplifier that Bad Cat decided to see what would happen if they turned the output level on the Unleash down instead of up. What they discovered was all of the circuitry they designed to retain natural tone and dynamics at higher volumes had the same effect all the way down the dial. Eureka! They had just accidentally created a completely new approach to attenuation that put zero strain on the amplifier’s tubes or transformers. Bad Cat’s idea to place this device between the guitar amp’s speaker output and the speaker also allowed the entire amplifier circuit to be captured and reproduced at any desirable volume between 1-100 watts.
When unveiled at NAMM 2013 the Unleash V1 was the first re-amplifier which could be used to limit or increase the volume of any guitar amplifier without any degradation in tone or response. Even without an official release, news of this problem-solving technology began to travel fast throughout the gear community. As the first users found new and innovative
applications for the Unleash technology, they began giving Bad Cat engineers great suggestions for features they would like to see in a future version. All of this input was compiled and
applied to create a musician’s Swiss army knife for every imaginable stage, studio, and home application.
New Features Include
- 1/10 to 100 watt output
- Proprietary reactive load input (designed to keep feel 100% intact)
- 4/8/16 ohm impedance selector to match reactive load input with amplifier output
- Dual ¼” speaker outputs (automatically adjusts for 4, 8, or 16 ohm speaker load
combinations) - Speaker phase selector
- Switch for silent stage, practice, or recording mode
- ¼” headphone out (response adjusted for full frequency through headphones or ear buds)
- XLR direct out (requires male/male XLR adapter)
- Foot-switchable dual channel levels (footswitch included)
- Passive series effects loop
- Error-proof circuit protection to guard against incorrect connection damage.
Suggested Applications
- Use one of the foot-switchable volume knobs as a clean boost without any change in tone
- Add a post-power-section effects loop to your favorite amplifier for pristine quality
effects - Turn a small combo or head into a 1-100 watt amp with two foot-switchable output levels
- Turn any combo into a wet-dry rig with an extension cab
- Gig direct to console with preamp and power tube distortion.
- Record silently through any amp up to 100w (no speaker load required)
- Practice with headphones or ear buds
About Bad Cat Tube Amplifiers
Formed in 1999 in cooperation with boutique amp industry patriarch Mark Sampson, Bad Cat Tube Amplifiers is considered a pioneer in the boutique amp industry. They have been producing premium quality guitar amplifiers for nearly two decades. An accomplished guitarist himself, company president John Thompson is fully dedicated to improving the lives of the musicians he serves. He has employed the highest production standards and assembled a team of the brightest minds in the industry to create premium quality amps that serve the needs of real working musicians. Countless professional musicians rely on Bad Cat’s amps, because they have been time-tested to withstand the rigors of heavy touring. This bulletproof quality is backed by Bad Cat’s lifetime warranty and unmatched customer care.
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