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RE: Volume control settings

Posted by Caucasian Blackplate (P) on July 11, 2014 at 22:37:07

In Reply to: Volume control settings posted by M3 lover on July 10, 2014 at 15:49:14:

"What most of us may not consider is when we advance the volume control we are not truly adding gain, we are reducing gain attenuation. Note that some preamps/receivers are actually marked with negative numbers which decrease as the gain position is increased."

This is a sweeping generalization that is not always true. There are ways to actually control the gain of an active device, and there are a few preamps that function in this manner.

"So rest easy. If you changed your amp and you now must advance your volume control to a higher position for a given listening level, all other things being equal, you likely now have less distortion in your signal path."

I completely disagree. Draw the AC current loop between the output of your source and your volume pot. Observe the differences at different positions.

While a volume pot that's cranked all the way up only ends up serving as a pair of input resistors, you would have to make the case that the output of the pot would be incapable of properly driving the circuit that followed when turned down a bit.

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