volume setup
rotary
Here, you can:
•customize the behavior of your volume control
•tailor your inputs to your particular source components
•configure and calibrate the system to take best advantage of your loudspeakers
•create shortcuts to your preferred or most frequently used functions
•program the behavior of the
Touching the Volume button on the “system setup” screen brings up the “volume setup” screen. The buttons on this screen bring up other menu screens that let you:
•customize the behavior of the volume control
•set a maximum volume level
•control the volume level of the system when it is turned on
•customize the behavior of the mute control
The rotary knob on the front panel does not directly control the volume. Instead, it controls circuitry that does so with greater fidelity and precision than traditional volume potentiometers could ever achieve.
Since the volume control circuitry is under software control, it is possible to customize its behavior under various conditions. To better understand why this is so valuable, consider two scenarios:
Person A places a high value on precision in achieving exactly the volume setting that makes the music most realistic; being able to easily change volume setting by a fraction of a decibel is critical to his enjoyment of the system.
Person B just wants to jump easily from low volumes to a reasonable listening level, and is less concerned with the finer points of precision than with getting what he wants with a quick twist of the knob.
You can see the problem in these scenarios: Person A wants extremely fine gradations on the volume control, which will require many rotations to go from extremely low setting to normal listening levels; Person B wants to get from one to the other with a “quick twist” of the knob, requiring coarse gradations in order to cover so much range in so little space. What happens when Persons A and B live in the same house? Or if Person C wants to have both, depending on their mood at the moment? (In fact, most of us are probably like Person C.)
Classé solves this dilemma by altering the response of the volume control, based on several factors.
Since it is rare to listen at extremely low (barely audible) volumes, the low range adjustment of the volume control allows for faster response to knob input when the volume setting values are low. When activated, you will get from extremely low to middle volume control settings a bit faster than you would otherwise.
This effect can be subtle, and may not even be desirable when the speakers used have extremely high sensitivity (since this results in using the lowest part of the range more than you would otherwise). As a result, the factory default setting for low range is off (set to zero).
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