Product Philosophy
X1 Owner’s Manual
totally transparent. When the user chooses “Unity” this sets the X1’s gain to the low (+4dB) setting, regardless of how it was previously configured. When at Unity both left and right level controls on the X1 will have a displayed value of 24, and any previous balance settings will be lost. Both of these default conditions are intentional, and intended to make the most advantageous use of your source electronics. You may also set any of the four inputs to unity (0dB gain) by selecting low gain and setting the volume to indicate 24 on the front panel display.
Before selecting this option, it is imperative that the input device on input number 4 has its gain set to minimum. Failure to follow this precaution could result in a volume level intolerable to both ears and speakers. To further protect your hearing and valuable audio equipment, Wayne has designed this product so that the volume setting of the preamplifier will always revert to zero as you change inputs. We trust that the remote control, with its four buttons that duplicate those of the preamp front panel will enable you to quickly select inputs and establish levels of output.
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.
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 factored 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 high end audio design lies in the approach to combining these elements to get high reliability and simplicity, high quality measured performance, and high quality subjective performance. It
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