Amp "Threshold"

Hi everyone!

I purchased a Line6 - Lowdown LD15 amp, and there is something that I can't find in the user manual or on their website...

Next to all the knobs in the front panel there is a "Threshold" ligth. What does it indicate? Can it be harmfull to the amp when it turns on?

It turns on mainly when the "Opto Comp" (and "Drive") is very high...


Also, I never realy understood what the "Opto Comp" is... any ideas?


Thank you ver much!

[johnk_10]

an opto comp is an optical compressor, and the threshold light comes on when you've reached and/or exceeded the compressor's threshhold, meaning that you are compressing the signal.

[SurferJoe46]

My Acoustic has basically the same thing, but a different name, of course.

It tells when the pre-amp is being pushed hard enough to overdrive and therefor distort. I am led to believe that there is some signal loss and compression or clipping going on at the same time.

I too was worried about harm to the amp, but I have learned that this is sometimes a preferred condition to create some powerful sounds at distortion levels, although I am more a bass sound-purist and don't go into distort, at least not on purpose.

The amps are built to handle this condition. I - on the other hand don't go there.

So just to be clear: it is all about distortion, and there is absolutely no harm in turning all the knobs up and whatch the light blink, rigth?