Aaron Zinck Wrote: > > > > BTW, this issue cannot be solved with your 'caution' advice. A > preamp > > doesn't help vs. just using an amp. The volume control is not > effective > > either. > > > > To the contrary--a preamp surely does help in this situation. The > "garbage" > sound that's been described is likely output at 100% of the SB3's > potential > volume output, and is certainly output at the same level irrespective > of the > SB3's volume setting. Bearing that in mind, if you're not using a > preamp > you're relying on the SB3 itself to attenuate its output to the > appropriate > level for listening (maybe you have it set to 30% volume) but if the > SB3 > malfunctions and suddenly sends a loud signal then you're looking at > 100% > SB3 garbage output straight into your amp with no attenuation. > However, if > you're using a preamp then you're likely using your SB3 at full volume > output all the time and relying on the preamp for attenuation. This > results > in a greatly reduced volume differential between the 100% volume music > signal and the 100% volume static/garbage signal. Another way to say > it is > that if your preamp's set to, say 30% volume level then anything coming > in > will be attenuated to 30% its original level before reaching the amp.Yes, you > can use the preamp as a brute-force and simplistic gain control. I was not saying that you cannot do that. But it mostly not a good solution for listening to music.
While the preamp does allow you to set a maximum gain, it has no knowledge of the volume of the incoming music. So you will have some music that is too quiet and some that is too loud. While you can protect your speakers by setting the preamp gain (volume) to very low, you will not be able to listen to much of your music. This is because for most preamps, you would have to set the volume VERY VERY low to prevent any possible signal from having a harmful effect on your amps/speakers. This is why a peak limiter not a volume control is needed. There is no nice solution other than building in a quality peak limiter or running a scanner/filter on the digital data stream before it gets sent out the digital port for digital-to-digital situations. With a digital stream processor you could then decide to set the digital outs on the SB to fixed and then control the gain with your preamp. This also has issues of working/not working well with all your music. And makes the customer work with two remotes vs. one. But it would prevent bad digital data from going out of the SB and into your main system. All I know is that the SB puts out bad data far more often than any other digital source that I've tried. It is something to be aware of and take appropriate measures, however compromised those measures may be. -- enduser ------------------------------------------------------------------------ enduser's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2656 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18818 _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
