Pros and Cons is an irregular series where I do a deep dive into a decision that I need to make – normally about gear for a home hobbyist studio. Here, I share whatever problem I’m trying to solve, all the background reading on the various options, and a look at the pros and cons of each way forward. I find that this process helps me make a more informed – and less emotive – decision. If you’re faced with a similar decision, I hope it helps you too.
Are they overkill luxury, or a necessary expense for any home hobbyist who uses multiple amps into the same load box?
That’s the question I’m trying to answer for myself in this post.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- What Is The Problem You’re Trying To Prevent?
- Debating The Options
- Looking At Available Amp/Cab Selector Units
- Is It Overkill For A Home Hobbyist To Get An Amp/Cab Switcher?
- Final Thoughts
Introduction
For 2026, I’m looking to make more use of the physical amps that I already own.
I rarely use my amps with a real cab these days. Partly because they can be too loud for home use (looking at you, my Tweed Deluxe), and mostly because I’d rather capture their recorded tones.
That means that I’m running each amp into a load box – either an old school Two Notes Captor or my Fryette PS-100 Power Station. I have more amps than I have load boxes. When I want to change amps, I have to change which amp is plugged into the load box.
What Is The Problem You’re Trying To Prevent?
Main Problem: Damaging An Amp
I’m perpetually worried that I’m going to blow up one of my amps when I switch it on, because I’ve forgotten to connect a cable from the “speaker out” to a load box.
Whenever I want to use one of my amps, I have to make sure:
- that there’s a speaker cable plugged into the back of the amp, and
- that the other end of said speaker cable is plugged into a load box or into my speaker cabs.
I stack my amp heads one on top of the other, because I’m very short on space. All the speaker cables end up in a heap together.
I’m worried that I’ll accidentally pick up the wrong cable, or forget that I’ve moved that cable into another amp.
(Yes, I don’t have enough speaker cables atm.)
Secondary Problem: Damaging The Load Boxes
If I’m regularly plugging cables into my load boxes, will this cause the input / output jacks to fail?
I’m not as worried about this, but it is a very mild concern.
Why is this even in my thoughts? Here in the UK, if a piece of gear breaks once it’s out of warranty, not only is it difficult to find someone to repair it, it’s increasingly difficult to find a like-for-like replacement.
It isn’t just our fresh food aisles that struggle with being out of stock.
Debating The Options
Option 1: Sort Out My Cables!
Every amp needs its own speaker cable, so that I’ve always got a speaker cable plugged into the amp.
Pros:
- No more worrying that I’ve moved a cable to another amp.
- No more plugging / unplugging cables at the back of the amp.
- Speaker cables are a lot cheaper than any repair would be.
- If I go for an amp switcher, every amp will need its own cable anyway.
Cons:
- Extra cables will truly make it into a rats’ nest!
Best of all: I’ve just had a dig through my cable box, and I’ve found several unused speaker cables in there. Assuming they all work, I don’t even need to buy anything.
(Let’s not talk about why these cables were in the cable box, instead of being in the amps, eh? 😁)
Option 2: Label Those Cables!
Every speaker cable needs a label attaching, so that I don’t have to guess which speaker cable is plugged into which amp.
Pros:
- No more tracing cables to work out which amp the cable is plugged into.
Cons:
- Any label can be misread; doesn’t guarantee that I’ll plug the correct cable into the load box.
I’ve no idea why I’ve never thought of this before. It’s such an obvious thing to do.
A bunch of cable labels are on their way from Amazon. By the time I publish this, they should be here and my cables should be far less anonymous.
Option 3: Use A Junction Box?
One way to avoid the wear and tear of plugging / unplugging cables to and from my load boxes is to use some sort of junction box:
- the speaker cable from the amp goes into the junction box, and
- the speaker cable from the junction box goes into my load box.
I can leave the speaker cable permanently plugged into my load box, and just do all the plugging / unplugging at the junction box.
Best of all … I already own one. I bought Kemper’s Profiler DI Box a few years ago. I haven’t used it in a while. Let’s dig it out, and give it a go.
Pros:
- No worries about wearing out the jacks on my load boxes.
- If it fails, the junction box will be much cheaper to replace than a load box is.
Cons:
- Extra cable adds to the rat’s nest of cables that I already have.
- It doesn’t reduce the amount of plugging / unplugging that I have to do whenever I want to change amps and/or cabs/load box.
- Loss of high-end on the signal with my Kemper Profiler DI Box 🙁.
- Not a lot of other products to choose from.
It’s a real shame that my Kemper Profile DI Box isn’t 100% transparent. That would have done me nicely for now.
I’m surprised that I can’t find many other products to do this job. Harley Benton make one. I couldn’t find anything carried by the major music stores here in the UK.
But I did find a product by Palmer, via Amazon. It’s affordable, and the reviews look promising. It’ll take a few days to arrive. I’ll do a First Impressions post about it as soon as I can.
Option 4: Use An Amp/Cab Selector Unit
There’s always the nuclear option: buy a pro rack unit that supports switching between multiple amps and cabs.
Pros:
- No plugging / unplugging at all: everything remains plugged in all the time.
- Rats nest gets tamed: speaker cables can be permanently routed and tidied out of the way.
- No worries about damaging amps: these units contain built-in load boxes.
- Price: cheaper than replacing a nice amp.
Cons:
- At best a luxury; possibly overkill for a home hobbyist?
- Active devices: need to find another plug socket to plug the device in.
- Looks like the devices use external power supplies (ie, they don’t support standard IEC cables)?
- Price: it’s far cheaper to just replace an affordable amp, if an accident happens.
- Not all devices support enough amps: might need two of them?
- Rarity: very specialist product that’s hard to get here in the UK.
- Warranty: if the amp switcher fails, probably have to find the money to buy a replacement.
Most of the negatives have a common root: these are specialist devices.
I can only find three manufacturers of amp/cab selectors: Ampete, KHE, and Fryette.
If I go down this route, I’m going to have to buy a new unit. I haven’t found a single unit on the second-hand market. So where can I get them from?
- Ampete and KHE’s products appear to be available only directly from the manufacturer, neither of which are in the UK.
- Fryette’s products have been very difficult to get here in the UK for several years (but at least Peach Guitars are a Fryette dealer atm).
Buying direct isn’t ideal. There’s all the hassle and cost of importing the product. My main worry, though, is dealing with faults – either with DOA units or warranty repairs.
- I can’t find any warranty information at all on Ampete’s website (and neither can Google).
- KHE offer a 5 year warranty, which includes refunding all shipping costs if the repair falls under the warranty terms. (This seems very reasonable.) KHE also urge owners to get in touch about repairs, even if the unit is out of warranty or bought second-hand. (That’s incredibly encouraging.)
- Fryette’s product, bought from a UK store, will come with at least 1 year warranty as per UK consumer rights law. After that? It’s a bit of a mystery.
Even if Ampete has a comparable warranty (and they probably do), their product is out of stock at the time of writing.
So that means it would be a straight choice between a KHE unit and a Fryette unit.
Looking At Available Amp/Cab Selector Units
My Requirements As A MoSCoW List
If we talk in terms of the MoSCoW rankings (Must have, Should have, Could have, Want), here’s what I need from an amp/cab selector:
| Requirement | Ranking |
|---|---|
| Support for 4 physical amps, up to 100W rating. | Must have. |
| Support for 8 physical amps, up to 100W rating. | Should have. |
| Support for 2 speaker cabs at 8 ohms. | Must have. |
| Support for 4 speaker cabs at 8 ohms. | Should have. |
| Support for impedance mismatching (e.g. 8 ohm amp into 16 ohm speaker cab). | Could have. |
| Support for attenuator in the loop. | Could have. |
| Support for extending with additional units (e.g. adding 4 or 8 more slots). | Must have. |
| MIDI / remote switching. | Want. |
Exploring My Minimum Requirements
The ‘must have’ requirements are the absolute minimum that I could live with:
- support for 4 physical amps, up to 100W rating
- support for 2 speaker cabs at 8 ohms
- support for extending with additional units (e.g. adding 4 or 8 more slots)
If I went with just these, I’d have to setup the amp/cab selector on a project-by-project basis. (“Project” is far too grand a word to use for home hobbyist use, but it gets the meaning across.)
Atm, I’m doing the prep work for my upcoming Marshall Origin 2H long-term review. That involves me switching back and forth between a total of 5 physical amps, into two attenuators.
This is an unusual project for me: I’m expecting it to be the biggest thing I do all year. Once I’m done with it, I don’t expect to be switching between that many amps at the same time.
Assuming the costs made sense, I’d be okay starting with just 4 amps and 2 cabs, as long as I can add a second unit at a later date if I need to.
If the unit doesn’t have built-in support for adding extensions, I’ll probably want to go for a larger unit straight away.
Exploring More Comfortable Requirements
The ‘should have’ requirements capture what I’d be much happier with:
- support for 8 physical amps, up to 100W rating
- support for 4 speaker cabs at 8 ohms
This would allow me to have all of my amps and my most-used cabs wired up all the time. Very very convenient.
I actually have a total of 6 different speaker cabs & attenuators. Most of the time, I use the attenuators as load boxes for silent recording. The 4 speaker cabs? If I want to use them, I need to route them through one of the attenuators.
That’s why …
… I Have My Ideal Requirements, But They Don’t Make Sense
If money was no object, and such a product existed (neither of which are true, I fear), I’d love to have:
- support for 8 physical amps, up to 100W rating
- support for 4 speaker cabs with impedance mismatching support
- support for an attenuator loop (or two)
Most of the time, I’d route the signal to one of the attenuator loops – and just have the attenuator configured to be a load box (ie, the attenuator doesn’t route a signal back to the loop return on the amp/cab switcher).
If I wanted to use one of the real speaker cabs, I’d just route the signal through one of the attenuator loops, back into the amp/cab switcher, and then out to one of the speaker cabs. Sure, I’d have to make manual changes to the attenuator itself (so that it wasn’t acting as a silent recording device), but that’s fine.
For this to make sense, I’d need the amp/cab switcher to support impedance mismatching – ie, it would convert an 8 ohm output from an amp into a 16 ohm input to a speaker cab. (Or, I could replace my speakers with 8 ohm speakers instead.)
Maybe we can get close, though?
Evaluating The Available Products Against My Requirements
I reckon my choice is between two products:
(KHE do smaller versions in the ACS range too. Because of the import charges that I’d have to pay regardless of which size unit I choose, it makes more sense to get the bigger ACS unit.)
How do they compare against my features list?
| Feature | KHE ACS 8×4 | Fryette ZMACS 4×4 |
|---|---|---|
| support for physical amps, up to 100W rating | 8 amps | 4 amps |
| support for speaker cabs | 4 speaker cabs | 4 speaker cabs |
| support for attenuator loops | 1 attenuator loop | 2 attenuator loops 1,2 |
| support for impedance mismatching | not supported | supported |
| support for extending with additional units | supported | supported 3,4,5 |
Notes:
- I’ve read reports that the unit doesn’t store the second attenuator loop settings in the presets (ie, the second loop has to be explicitly enabled every time the ZMACS is powered on). This may have been fixed in a firmware revision
- According to the manual, the first attenuator loop is for an attenuator that has its own bypass switch (like the Fryette Power Stations series); the second attenuator loop is for attenuators that don’t have a built-in bypass switch (like the Two Notes Torpedo Captor). It’s not clear that the ZMACS is intended to support two different attenuators at the same time.
- The Fryette ZMACS manual includes a diagram showing how to use the ZMACS and the ACS 8×4 together at the same time 😍
- According to the Fryette ZMACS manual, two units linked together provides 7×4 (7 amps, 4 cabs). According to a post in the Fryette forums, two units together can operate in 7×7 (7 amps, 7 cabs), but only the amps connected to the first unit can connect to cabs on the first unit (ie, the second unit cannot be routed back into the first unit).
- According to the same forum post, two linked units will use the attenuator that’s attached to the second unit.
From the notes, it’s clear that I’ve investigated the Fryette ZMACS more closely than the KHE ACS 8×4!
Which Unit Would Be Right For Me?
These are both great units. Either one would be a very useful addition for any home hobbyist who wants to switch between different physical amps on a regular basis.
In terms of features alone, I think it comes down to a choice between two things:
- Do I want more amps permanently hard-wired? (KHE ACS 8×4)
- Do I want impedance mismatching instead? (Fryette ZMACS)
I wish there was an 8×4 product that also had impedance mismatching … but that’s not a thing atm.
At the time of writing, each unit costs the following:
- KHE is approx £1000 plus import charges (VAT @ 20% + other charges == ~£1300)
- Fryette ZMACS is £1049 from Peach Guitars
That’s roughly a £300 (to be on the safe side) difference. Is it worth the extra cost? How likely am I to use the unique features of each unit?
- I already own more than 4 physical amps, and I plan to buy at least one new (to me) amp in the next two years.
- I already own a mix of 8 ohm and 16 ohm speaker cabs … but 99% of the time, I’m using my attenuators for silent recording. I can’t remember the last time I used my 16 ohm speaker cabs.
The KHE ACS 8×4 fits my needs better. I think that’s very clear now.
And yet, I’m still incredibly tempted by the Fryette ZMACS. Is that simply because I can buy it from a UK shop, I wonder?
Is It Overkill For A Home Hobbyist To Get An Amp/Cab Switcher?
I opened this blog post with a question. Is an amp/cab switcher an overkill luxury for a home hobbyist? Or is it a necessary expense?
Tackling The Necessary Expense Part First
The expense part is easy to answer.
If you have a nice amp or two that share the same cab or attenuator/load box, then an amp/cab switcher is cheaper than trying to get a nice amp fixed.
Equally, if you run your amps into their own cabs, or can run them into their own load boxes, then there’s nothing for an amp/cab switcher to do.
And, if you’re only using affordable amps with affordable load boxes, it’s cheaper to simply buy extra load boxes (so that each amp can have its own).
But Is It Still A Luxury?
I can already switch between different amps and cabs/load boxes by moving cables around. An amp/cab selector simply makes this more convenient to do (and a bit safer to do too).
The convenience bit … that makes it a luxury. It saves me what – a couple of minutes tops – every time I want to switch amps? Maybe even less once I’ve labelled all my cables 😁
I think it’s the safety aspect that stops it being overkill. In a world of distractions and constant stress, it’s an important benefit.
I know I would be gutted if I blew up my Tweed Deluxe amp, simply because I plugged the wrong speaker cable into my load box. I will enjoy my amps more if I am less worried every time I want to switch them on.
Final Thoughts
I’m not in a position to buy anything today. When I am, I’ve now got an idea of what’s available, and what would work well for me. And that’s the KHE ACS 8×4.
For now, I’m going to get a dedicated speaker cable into every amp, get my cables all labelled, and see if this Palmer PCABM works well as a junction box.
And then I’m going to start saving up for one of these units. I want to use my amps more, and I want to enjoy doing so. This will help.