Product Philosophy
Other Design Comments
X0.2 Owner’s Manual
The electronic volume control allows greater than 70 dB range and is driven by a
1)Circuit simplicity and a minimum number of components is a key element. The fewer parts in series with the signal path, the better. Adding more parts and gain stages may improve measured specs, but will seldom improve the perceived sonic quality or reliability of a product.
2)The characteristic of gain devices and their specific use is important. Individual variations in performance between like devices are important, as are differences in topological usage. All signal bearing devices contribute to the degradation, but there are some different characteristics that are worthy of attention. For example, smooth low order nonlinearities are additive in quality, bringing false warmth and coloration, while abrupt high order nonlinearities add harshness and false brightness.
3)Maximum intrinsic linearity is desired. This is the performance of the gain stages before feedback is applied. Experience suggests that feedback is a subtractive process; it removes information from the signal. In many older designs, poor intrinsic linearity has been corrected out by large application of feedback, resulting in loss of warmth, space, and detail. The trick is to get good performance without this excessive reliance on feedback.
The art of
We recommend the use of the balanced output mode where possible. It will retain the character of the input mode, but offers less distortion, less noise, more gain, and more voltage swing, without compromising the sound.
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