THE ORIGINAL AND standard Torpedo Captor X came out mid-pandemic to a flurry of anticipation and excitement that was further pumped up by supply-chain issues that made examples rather thin on the ground. The Limited Run Torpedo Captor X SE - the latest rendition of Two Notes' compact reactive load box, attenuator and IR loader is thin on the ground by design: It's a Special Edition made in vintage-looking, dark-brown crinkle-coat finish with beige script logos, with just 450 units available worldwide.
The Captor X SE is a descendant of the long-running Two Notes Torpedo range and the latest in a line of studio and live tools that deliver efficient and great-sounding ways of replacing cumbersome speaker cabinets with versatile digital solutions, while delivering a boatload of versatility. A rack-mounted Two Notes Torpedo Live gave me my first lasting diversion into Impulse Response (IR) cab tones, and I enjoyed that unit in the studio and occasionally live for several years.
Considerably smaller and configured as more of an amp top box, the Captor X SE holds just six DynIR presets compared to 128 in the now-discontinued Torpedo Live, although the full 128 can be accessed on the fly from the Torpedo Remote preset editing software.
The Captor X SE also does several things better than its larger predecessor. Dual left and right XLR outputs make the most of the multidimensional sounds you can craft in the Torpedo Remote editor, and the function of the reactive load box is extended as an amp attenuator, with a three-way switch on the back offering two levels of attenuation to any matched speaker cab connected, plus full power. In addition to the six-position preset switch and high/low input level switch, front-panel controls include output level (which also governs the 14-inch stereo headphone out), voicing (global EQ) and space (stereo width).
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