Black Box HG-2

On the bench it behaves like a coloring tool, scoring 10.0/10 on how clean its signal path is; its tone-shaping and harmonics are reported as character, not graded as faults. It shapes your tone by up to ±1.5 dB on purpose — that built-in curve is part of its sound. It adds clear harmonic color (5.0% at full level) — the grit and warmth this design is meant to give. Background hiss sits at -182 dBFS — far quieter than anything you would hear in a mix. How hard you push it changes what it does (a -49 dB gap between levels) — expected for a saturator, which reacts to input level. It delays the audio by 32 samples (0.7 ms at 48 kHz) and reports that delay, so your DAW lines it back up.

Measured score 10.0/10 — signal-path noise floor (the shaping and harmonics are the design's intent, shown as character, not graded). How scoring works.

A review score is shown only when at least two independent sources — published reviews or genuine user discussion — return usable text. Launch or announcement coverage alone does not qualify, so some plugins read N/A here while still carrying a full measured score above.