I have noticed several members writing about “full volume” and complaining about distortion there.
Back in the day it was normal for an analogue amplifier to yield maximum power at rated input voltage with the volume control around 2 o’clock. This allowed for sources with low output to still be used up to full power without running out of volume control travel.
It does mean that amplifiers of this generation would be in clipping way before full rotation of the volume pot on normal sources and way before on CD - so “full volume” is not achieved at full rotation of the volume control but a fair bit less.
It may be different nowadays but I rather doubt it.
On my Devialet amp 0dB on the volume setting gives full power for a maximum digital signal but it continues up to +30dB which gives a massive margin for the analogue inputs. Using > 0dB will mean the amp is clipping on a full modulation digital input so 0dB is “full volume “ even though the control goes further.
This is normal I believe but does anybody know different for some products nowadays?
Back in the day it was normal for an analogue amplifier to yield maximum power at rated input voltage with the volume control around 2 o’clock. This allowed for sources with low output to still be used up to full power without running out of volume control travel.
It does mean that amplifiers of this generation would be in clipping way before full rotation of the volume pot on normal sources and way before on CD - so “full volume” is not achieved at full rotation of the volume control but a fair bit less.
It may be different nowadays but I rather doubt it.
On my Devialet amp 0dB on the volume setting gives full power for a maximum digital signal but it continues up to +30dB which gives a massive margin for the analogue inputs. Using > 0dB will mean the amp is clipping on a full modulation digital input so 0dB is “full volume “ even though the control goes further.
This is normal I believe but does anybody know different for some products nowadays?