Hughes & Kettner Red Box Pro

Could not be easier. One big plus is that it needs no batteries or power adapter. I runs on the phantom power from the mixer. Setup is quick; you only need two short speaker cables and an XLR cable. Switch the Input to 'speaker out' and the cab sim to 'on.' You are ready to rock 'n' roll.

I use the Red Box Pro with my harp amps. The amp sim is great for harp, and the signal has all the tubey goodness from the power tube distortion. You don't get any room effects or bleed-over. Your "mic'ed" tone is totally repeatable.

It is possible to get better sound with the right mic and the perfect mic placement, but not often and not easily. The Red Box gives me good-to-great sound every time. As another reviewer said, it does not sound like the usual mic'ed up amp; it sounds better.

So far no problems. It seems to be a very solid product.

First I tried it with a hot-rodded 1970 Fender Champ. Several months
ago I replaced the Champ's RCA speaker tap with a Switchcraft 1/4 inch phone plug, so hook-up was easy: Champ speaker out to "Input" on the Red Box, the speaker to the "Thru" on the Red Box, and an XLR cable from the Red Box to the mixer. The cab sim was switched on. The Red Box also has a ground lift switch in case you get some hum. I warmed up the tubes on the Champ so I would get a little hair on the notes, and turned the volume to 6. I hit "record" on the computer and played for a while.

The sound on the recording was impressive. The room I practice/record in is kind of live and boxy, but the recording had none of that (of course). It sounded like a perfectly mic'ed amp, with all the lovely power tube distortion. It did not sound exactly like the Champ, which is one of the best-sounding 5-watt harp amps I have ever heard, but it sounded very good.

Next I tried it with the Masco ME-18 and 2x10 Avatar cab. I wanted to see if the Red Box made it sound the same as the Champ. No way. It reflected all the things I love about the Masco: Huge bottom end,
less compression, thumping power. Once again, the Red Box didn't
sound EXACTLY like the Masco and Avatar, but it sounded really, really good.

I think the H&K Red Box could be a great tool for harp players. It
makes it a breeze to send a good signal to the PA to augment your tube amp. In studios that prefer to use a DI, it sends a better signal that recognizes your power tubes as an integral piece of your tone package. A pro guitar buddy swears by the Red Box, and he persuaded me to try it.

The street price for the current H&K Red Box is about $120. I found
mine on eBay for $55.

Couldn't be easier. You have to be an idiot to screw it up.

Sounds a lot like a cabinet as you listen to it off-axis in a room.

Built like a tiny red tank

Don't know

One of the best cabinet sims I've every heard. It kills the Palmer stuff. The palmer boxes are mic sims. If I wanted the sound of a poor mic job, then I would just through an SM-57 in front of my cabinet. The Redbox actually sound like a cabinet. Not a cabinet that's been mic'ed up.

COULD NOT BE EASIER TO USE

OH THANK YOU H/K YOU SOLVED MY ON-GOING PROBLEM,PODXT-LIVE INTO LANEY 15W VALVE AMP D.I.INTO PA.=HARSH-GRIT WHEN TURNED UP.FIT RED BOX IN PA.INPUT = SONIC HEAVEN!THE EXACT SAME SOUND AS THE LITTLE AMP IS MAKING ONLY BIG! AND SWEET AND SMALL TO PACK BUT AS GOOD AS A BOOGIE.

BOMB-PROOF ! AL QAUIDA PLEASE IGNORE,I DONT WANT A DEMO THANKS.

DONT KNOW?

JACK OF ALL STYLES ,MUSIC IS MY TRADE,LIKE FOOD IS A CHEF'S,YOU WANT IT WE MAKE IT.45YRS MAN AND BOY AND I STILL LOVE THE SOUNDS OF WOOD AND WIRE.I HATE PEOPLE WHO MAKE VIDEO'S OF BRENT MASON AND THEN LET ORDINARY MORTALS BUY THEM AND SIT IN DARK ROOMS AND CRY! NOBODY SHOULD BE THAT GOOD IT AINT FAIR.

got the manual? ==>10
no manual? ==>1

If you dont know how to connect things together using a D.I. you are lost without the manual..

I use it to record Deathmetal/Blackmetal guitars..

compared to a PALMER DI9 it sounds bad.. not that open and with a lilbit hiss..

guitar==> Rocktron Piranha ==> BBE maximizer ==> RedBox ==> PC

or guitar ==> Rocktron Piranha ==> MArshall JCM900 (return) ==> RedBox ==>speaker and from the redbox out to my soundcard.

no problems at all.. it's a passive unit...

never used

well i give it a 6, because you can record your ideas and with a lot of tuning, EQing, maximizing you get a good sound.. but use the palmer and you just have to plugin, and get a great sound out...

It's a follow-up, one year later.
I finally found out how to use this, and I am not so proud...;-)
It is passive, which saves you a lot of hassle. Sensitive to power transformers(draw-back...) so just place it well.
The direct speaker out is great, you patch the box between amp and speaker. The ground lift is the most useful thing in the world, a real life-saver, thak you hughes and kettner!

I use it with a marshall 15watts-to-pa, and with the red box it sounds awesome! The 4x12sim is rather an 8x12 one(think more highs more lows)but it sounds frankly good.
You get noise if positionned near a power-transformer, watch out.

If only it was made with proper switches, it would be a ten. With the ones it came with it is a one...
The xlr socket is a switchcraft! Now I really don't understand about the crappy switches...

Okay, first times I was wrong. One shouldn't use this as a line device.
It obviously needs power signals to work well, such as the speaker out one from your amp. And there it shines.
The Ground Lift saved my life for gigs, and I won't ever play without this box.
The poor switches makes me think:
I may buy a behringer ultra-g, which seems far better made and also have simulation and direct speaker capability. And if it matches the simulation of my Rath box it should be heaven.
Don't go without ground lift in real life situations!!!

Yes it's easy. It is passive,so weak. No line-level processed sound and it bores me a lot. I found it a bit difficult to adjust on the mixer,though.

Guess what? German have strange ears(remember they make good cars)at best. The tone is very deceiving, I a/b-ed with a Rath simulator(little ugly-green box, active) and the difference is himalaya. Get the Rath instead,you will do yourself a big favor

Mine came with a broken switch. Was replaced but still the switches it has are absolute crap, just look at them and they start to break.
No no no I wouldn't use it on a gig, or at all in fact. Forget about this red box!

I was so disappointed with the product I didn't bother to contact them, but I've heard they are helpful and nice.

Don't get this. It's expensive,sounds flat and lifeless if not dull, and switches are a catastrophe.
End of statement, I love you and so am warning...

So easy, I'm at a loss for words!

Better than a mic for recording? No. A good way to get MOST of your sound recorded at 2am w/o waking the house up? You bet. Better than a mic live? Under ideal circumstances, no. Better than a mic placed by an hasty and disinterested soundman (the norm)? Always...

Yep. No backup needed.

Never needed it.

Great unit. I attached it to the rear of my combo amp with some industrial strength hook and eye (velcro). That way it can only get ripped off if my amp gets swiped.

PLEASE DO E-MAIL ME FOR KNOWLEDGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1.)SWITCHED-ON:LOSS-OF-"HIGH-SHELF-FREQUENCIES"(NEEDED for FUZZ!)
2.)SWITCHED-OFF:TOO-MUCH-"HIGH-SHELF"(Hurts my EARS/NOT FLAT ENOUGH)
3.)TOO-MUCH-BASS: Can't EMULATE anything but a CHOKE-COIL-INDUCTOR!
4.)MIDRANGE: Whatever happened to the UPPER-MID-VINTAGE-CLEAR-TONE!
5.)MICROPHONE: More DYNAMIC-CLARITY with a "CARD-BOARD-SOUNDING"SM57
6.)YOU CANT' EQ WHAT IS-NOT-THERE!!!in MIXER,PA,PWR-AMP,PRE(TRIED ALL)

I made a SPEAKER-ISOLATOR:
-take 2 speaker-cabinets.
-2 STUDIO-CONDENSER! (STEREO) mount XLR-JACKs on outside.
-take speaker out of CABINET#2 then reverse-polarity
-use foam-padding and calking
-LONG-STORY SOUNDS GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This little red thing is quiet easy to use. Just plug in, baby! The cab-simulation sounds almost like a real 4*12cab. I don't know how the "real" 4*12-cab-sound really differs to the sound I get out of this box. But even if you don't like it...just turn it off!
I needed the ground lift switch because otherwise I got a lot of interferences that made the sound far too noisy.

As mentioned above, ground must be lifted permanently. I use it with a H&K Edition Blonde. Setup: Amp Line Out -> Red Box -> Multicore -> Mixer unit.
I play New Metal, Alternative and Indie-Rock and I got the sound I was looking for.
As mentioned by others, high-ends don't reach the harddisc, but that's not that bad as it seems because often you're lucky if you don't hear those shreaky high-ends.
I'd definitively use it for gigs and even for studio recording when used as a second track to the miced amp.

I really depend on it. Use it on a gig w/ backup don't look like a risk to me.

Haven't dealt with 'em but I cannot imagine that their CS is causing any complaints. A friend of mine dealt with them and was amazed by their prompt support. But because I never dealt with them personally, let's say its a 7...

For this little price, I would buy it again if it where stolen or lost. But I haven't compared it to other products, e.g. the "g-thing" by Behringer or others.

Very easy. Just look at the picture in the hughes-and-kettner.com site on the Accessories link and see how simple this unit is. Just remember you will need a balanced cable to use with it.
It does not need batteries or any other power supply accessory!!!! this is a great upgrade from the original Red Box.

I use it at the end of my rig directly to the board (preamp-effects-poweramp-red box-board). My rig sounds amazing through a 4 spk cabinet, but don?t underestimate the sound this Red Box simulates. It's incredible! It gives a more balanced sound with more depth.
Is the bes cabinet simulator on the market. I checked with a few suppliers and every one said the Red Box. Now I confirmed it.

Very reliable. But I bought mine new and received it with the little plastic on-off switch (for cabinet simulation) broken. Hopefully it was set ON which is the way I will always use it, and when I played with it, I was so delighted that decided not to ship it for replacement (I'm not in the USA so is too much time and too little patience). This plastic switches can brake easily but they are not to be handled much. I will use it for recording (and I'm going to) and gig.

I play rock, alternative and some blues.
Still trying to get my perfect sound but I am absolutely convinced that the Red Box stays no matter what. Its an ADD VALUE item!
No wonder it's Hugges & Kettner.