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why does the volume number go lower?


Bruce802

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A lot of the newer stuff will start off at the 7 o'clock position at -35db and hit 0db at 12 o'clock and then +35db at the 5 o'clock position. The reason vary's with who you talk to i've been explained this a few time and got different answers every time. So to avoid putting my foot in my mouth maybe someone else here can muster up a better explanation.

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O.k. I'll go and put a couple of toes in mine3.gif . The volume control is really a potentiometer measured in reverse. The setting at "0" is not constraining or resisting any signal from passing through it. I believe that's how you can arrive at an idea of how quiet a unit is by looking at the measurement in db's (which I think should really be listed as a negative number). The higher the number (and further away in a negative scale from "0" the quiet-er the unit is.

AM I CLOSE!! AM I CLOSE!! DO I GET A PRIZE!!! Huh? Huh?

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Zero is a reference level inside the preamp or receiver. Depending on how it is designed, 0 may be no gain (power amp gets the voltage sent in by the VCR) or it may be some arbitrary preamp output voltage such as 1.14159265 V with an input voltage of another arbitrary value such as 600 mV. Either way it is the reference level the engineer chose. In most cases, the reference level is also the point where maximum power will produced *IF* the input voltage reaches it's arbitrary reference level, 600 mV in this case.

In my case, my phono cartridge has very low output. I could clip the power section in my old integrated amp at 2 o'clock using the CD player (typical), but could not reach clipping with the phono at maximum on the volume. The preamp did not have enough gain at +20 to get as loud as the CD would at 0. That's the input reference thing.

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...And I thought it was an engineering design from the manufacturers of audio/video receivers implemented by P.U.A.L.M. (Parents United Against Loud Music) to tell their children who own these receivers to "Turn that damn music down!" 14.gif

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Hello all.

From what I understand, zero is calculated at the point distortion is seen at the outputs when there is a nominal load with all gains defeated.

So the bottom number would relate to point where no output is seen given the same circumstances as above.

Then above zero would show output distortion relative to a systems given capabilties and design architecture.

Or something like that.2.gif

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Maybe the numbers decrease as the volume is turned-up as a sort of Cape Canaveral "countdown" to speaker failure! LOL!

Kinda like: "10...9...8...7...6...5...4(Warning, Will Robinson...Warning!...your amp is beginning to clip!!")...3...2(Warning, Will Robinson... Warning! You are about to blow your speakers!!)...1...(KA-POW!!!!)

OOOOOOOOOOPS!!! 9.gif

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