Hughes & Kettner Red Box Classic

Very simple to use. Plug into either the line input or speaker input/thru, and plug your balanced XLR connection in the other end. Select your desired speaker emulation and you're off to the races. The manual does actually mention the ground lift switch. Although mine is hard to get at.

Powering by phantom power is excellent. Doesn't get any more convenient than that.

My only wish is that you could bypass the cab emulation because now I also need a DI for applications that won't use the cab. But that's okay because the quality of the emulation is good enough to warrant the purchase.

This is by far the best cab emulation/DI box that I've tried so far. The 412 setting sounds very natural and non-compressed, almost like they went more for the cab in-the-room character than a mic'd cab. The high end comes through, but without fizziness or fuzziness. I guess the best way to describe the high end character is clarity.

I was using a DMC Cab-Tone before this and the 412 setting there was muffled and bassy. Required far too much EQ to get a decent tone that cut through the mix. The Red Box sounds good straight up. And the combo setting is good too. Just a tad brighter, but again, clear, not fizzy. The 412 reminds me of what a well-mic'd Marshall 1960 cab with T-75's would sound like. Especially if the mic job was pretty transparent. There's no compression or mid hump like there's a 57 in front of it.

Sounds great. Will be using this instead of a mic in all of my live performances.

It's a steel box. Jacks seem sturdy. Switches aren't about to break anytime soon. I'm betting it lasts a lifetime, but I guess we'll see.

Haven't had to call them.

I compared the Red Box to a DMC Cab-Tone and a Palmer PDI-09. The Cab-Tone was just too bassy and muffled on the 412 and too much high end on the combo. The Palmer had only one usable setting that could cut through, the middle one. The others were either all low end and low mids, or all high end and high mids. The Red Box beat the Cab-Tone squarely on all fronts, and beat the Palmer on price and usability because I found both the combo and 412 settings on the Red to be not only usable, but pleasing, and maybe even better than the Palmer. No doubt Palmer's high end offerings are great, but the PDI-09 is just riding on the name.

Very simple. Plug something into line in or put between guitar head and cab. There's a little, unlabeled, undocumented switch at the bottom which I assumed is ground lift? What the ****.

Has a switch for 4x12 or combo cab simulation.

Anyway, easy to get running for sure. The only problem I've had is hum using a 9V adapter. Switched for phantom power and it was gone. I don't trust the adapter input. They say it takes anything from 6V-12V but this doesn't sit right with me. I'd stay with phantom power.

Best sounding cab sim I've ever heard. I use various preamps into the line-in of this box. There is clearly some sort of power amp simulation built-in; it ads some volume and high end, some sparkle in the higher frequencies. If this box sounds too fizzy between your power amp and speaker, try your preamp (effects out or line out) into the line in of this thing, you might be surprised how it shapes the sound.

The simulation itself has a near-perfect response. The 4x12 simulation sounds beautifully neutral while the combo has a high-end bite. It's not exactly like mic'ing an amp, but it has a "closer" and fuller sound, which is exactly what I was looking for. It preserves the highs and the lows nicely.

Using the line-in, there is NO fizz. Or if there is, it is masked ingenuously in the high end, 'cause I can't hear it. I was extremely surprised by this because I also have the older passive Red Box Pro which is unusably fizzy in the high-end (you could practically hear the original signal if you attempted to eq the highs), and so are the sansamp units I have. This is the FIRST speaker sim I've ever heard to maintain a high-end presence that's not totally compressed and somehow doesn't introduce any fizz into the signal.

It's an absolute joy to actually have a decent, flat response out of a cab sim that's actually EQ-able without going to ****. You can get your sound back from this box!!! Actually usable for recordings!!!

Like I said, I don't trust the power adapter input, but I'm gonna stick with phantom power so it should be ok. Never had a thing like this break on me before. We'll see.

I asked them where to buy this locally, since they don't seem to sell this anywhere, found a dealer, ordered it in, and voila.

I own the Palmer PDI-09 Junction, Behringer Ultra-G, and Red Box Pro speaker sims, plus this one. The Red Box Classic beats them ALL, EASILY. I was very skeptical ordering this because I had a terrible experience with the passive Red Box Pro which is incredibly fuzzy and does not filter the signal nearly enough. The Classic basically redeems H&K entirely in my eyes.

The Classic sounds a lot less compressed than the Palmer. But it compresses *just* enough to avoid fizz, keeping most of the presence you need in your signal. My biggest gripe with the Palmer was that, even though it shaped the mids very well, it compressed the sound so much, there was no presence left for a usable recording. The EQ shape out of that thing just didn't sound right. It was more like a medium-quality mic job. The Classic doesn't sound as much like a mic job; it stays much more faithful to the input signal, it doesn't sound as distant, you don't lose your highs, and it's 80$ cheaper. Side-by-side, the Palmer just sounds like it tries to hard to be a microphone, while the Classic goes the other way and tries to sound like a cab.

The Behringer actually wasn't too bad (and it's super cheap), but it definitely doesn't keep the highs as nicely as the Classic does. They have some tonal similarities, but side-by-side the Behringer has a much more "boxy" sound; the Classic sounds more natural.

This sim also puts all built-in Sansamp speaker simulations I've heard to complete shame. The samsamps have a nice EQ, but terrible fizz, different from but just as bad as the red box pro. I won't be going back to them.

Overall, I am damn impressed. Of course, this is a speaker sim - it won't produce magic results right out of the box - you have to work with it, but the difference between this unit and the other speaker sims is that it actually gives you something neutral and natural-sounding enough to work with in recordings. I can honestly say this is the first sim I've been able to treat transparently in my setup, and not have to constantly compensate for in tone-sucking characteristics the others have. I can just plug into this and assume I'll be hearing my amp(s) the way I'd want to hear them through headphones.

Anyway you can probably tell by now, I love this unit. I would buy another in a second. Ordering this was a huge gamble, but it paid off. Good job H&K.

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it? Well, if you don't get it - your guitar is not plugged in:-). Just 3 cables - one regular jack FROM the amp/preamp line out and one XLR male-female cable from Red Box to either mixer or recoreder (don't forget to swithc 'on' phantom power). The third one may come from your power amp out to a speaker/cabinet in case you need it.
The manual is limited to essentials. But you hardly need more than that.

Compared to H&K Access preamp (very good machine!) with Red Box (MKII?) built-in, I can say that Classic defenitely is an improvement sounwise. Well-defined thump with 4x12 setting, bright highs with 1x12 (Combo) setting. No, it's NOT 100% miked cabinet when you play alone, but in the mix, specially with FX added, you'll be having a hard time to tell Red Box from a real stuff. Noisy it may be - beware of low-level output from your preamp. Defenitely, Red Box acts at its best with poweramp/combo out! Again, use it as prescribed! You don't crack nuts with a crystalware, do you?
Was testing The Red Box with EGNATER IE4 4-channel preamp - little bit on the harsh side. Brunetti Overtone 2-channel all-tube stompbox did much better. Hughes&Kettner 20-th Anniversary Edition Tube combo was THE best (no wonder, same family:-). Guitars played: Chafin Custom Helios, Gary Moore signature Les Paul, 62 RI MIJ Strat.

If you won't be using a really heavy hammer, you never destroy it! Will use on a gig without any backup, no doubt.

H&K have a bunch of really good people. I had (have) around 10 pieces H&K equipment (cream Machine, Metal Master, Tubeman - you name it). Never had problems contacting the Company!. Still recieving their newsletters on a regular basis.

Playing non-professionally over 25 years. Mostly blues, classic rock and everything around it. Just needed something for not-too-disturbing guitar recording. This is an inexpensive and pretty convincing way to do it. Probably, ADA Ampulator does better job, but it's not easy to find one (and it ain't cheap).

it's really easy to use - except mine.
it's made in germany but i don't know where is the german precisity. it should work with a 9v battery but when i put it in the unit i could screw back the bottom plate... fuck!
then i tried to operate it with an adaptor. i failed again... i tried 5 adaptors but none of them was okay... or the adaptors were okay but the red box... then i changed the polarity of the adaptor... yeah, life came to the fuckin' red box.

i use a gibson melody maker a peavey 5150 with the matching 412 cab but i first tried the red box with my fender roc-pro.
the manual says that it's recommended to put the red box between the amp and the cab. with the fender it was fuzzy... i tried the line out on the amp... less fuzzy... the best sound was when i connected the red box to the amp through the effect send and the to the mixer.

it still works... after two gigs...

the guy at hughes and kettner and the hungarian dealer were very helpful. first i wanted to send the red box back but i could solve the problem.

maybe i'm gonna like it.
i bought it to mic up my cab and pan the signal to the left side and send the line to the red boy and send it to the right side... i have to play more gigs and then i can rate it...