Guitar active cabinets

 

— quite a rare and specific type of cabinets (see the relevant paragraph). They are also specialized speakers for guitar or bass; however, unlike traditional cabinets, they have built-in power amps that allow at least the ability to connect a signal from the line output. And some models are also equipped with preamps and instrument inputs, allow direct connection of an instrument and fundamentally differ from combo amplifiers only in a minimal set of adjustments (or even their absence).

Most active cabinets these days are high powered units with 200 watt or more speakers, designed primarily for gigs. Among other things, by connecting an active cabinet to the main “amp” or “head”, you can noticeably unload the main guitar power amplifier and achieve high volume without significant stress on the equipment. Another, even rarer, type of device of this type is compact acoustics designed to work with guitar amplifiers, originally designed exclusively for headphones. The level of the signal given out by such a device to the "ears" is comparable to the level of a linear signal; accordingly, additional amplification is required for playback through the speaker — which is provided by the hardware of the active cabinet.