Blackstar: HT-20RH MkIII (Valve Head)

The HT-5R MK III and HT-20R MK III are highly versatile amplifiers suited to a wide range of playing styles and situations, by including the great tone and innovative features of the HT Venue MK III range.

The Clean Channel has two voices; one based on a classic American circuit and the other based on a classic British tone. The Voice switch reconfigures the preamp voicing, EQ and valve gain structure, as well as the power amplifier damping. This produces a clean, bright and tight but solid bass response for the American tone and a highly responsive ‘chime’ with looser bottom for the British tone that can be pushed into a midrange overdrive when driven hard. The Voice setting can also be selected via footswitch.

What does HT mean?
‘HT’ stands for ‘High Tension’ and refers to the high voltages used in valve circuits like HT MK III. The HT name goes back to the very beginning of Blackstar and our first products: the HT valve pedals.

EL84 Power Stage
EL84s are at the tonal heart of the HT-20R MK III combo and head. We applied our decades of valve amp design experience to combine the response and character of this classic British valve with a carefully voiced preamp to create wonderfully lush valve tones. From pure boutique cleans, to mild overdrive that cleans up by backing off the guitar volume control, right up to saturated distortion, this amp does it all.

Concentrated, to Concert-rated
The HT-20R MK III comes equipped with a power reduction feature taking you down to 2W without any tonal compromise, perfect for driving those EL84’s hard at manageable volumes in the studio or home.

When you’re ready to take to the stage, switch to full 20W and utilise the XLR DI output to simultaneously feed direct to the sound engineer with incredible sounding cabinet simulation via our CabRig™ IR-based speaker simulator software.

Perfect for Playing & Recording
Alongside providing capture-ready valve tones at any volume, the HT-20R MK III comes equipped with a direct USB-C output which can send 2 channels (left and right) to your DAW, ensuring the easiest way to capture authentic valve tone in recordings without the need for an interface.

The best part? These amps have in-built load protection, meaning you can use them without a cabinet connected for silent practice and recording.

IR-based CabRig™ speaker simulator
CabRig™, our class-leading IR-based speaker simulator comes as standard in the HT-20R MK III, offering hundreds of different cabinet, mic, and room combinations. Save your favourites to three presets for easy access directly from the amplifier. Get premium valve tones into your headphones, monitors and mixes.