On Fri, 19 May 2006 13:33:54 +0100, "Keith G"
wrote:


"Don Pearce" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 19 May 2006 12:28:48 +0100, "Keith G"
wrote:

I know the speakers (firewood horns - Pinkies) are 'on song' now and will
be
contributing mostly to the sound quality and I am convinced that normal
(carbon wiper) volume pots do the sound no favours whatsoever, but is
there
any reason the 'digital volume' (much like a computer soundcard, I guess)
is
likely to be helping in a significant way?

(If it is, I wonder why more manufacturers don't use them?)




No - in fact there is more chance that a poorly implemented digital
control will damage the sound. But the real reason why your amp has a
digital volume control is the usual one - cost.


Sure, the amp only cost 60 quid brand new (with warranty)!!


Pots cost money, they
need mechanical fixings to support them and people have to bolt them
in and wire them up.


Yep.


That is all bad news for a high-volume
manufacturer. People are still resistant to digital volume controls in
much of the market, though.


Hmm....


I have a couple of amps with motorized
volume pots.


Nothing 'motorized' here - the *Control* knob (multifunctional) doesn't turn
when the zapper's up and down buttons are being used and it rotates
endlessly when being turned by hand....

(Bit like the manual focussing on my digital camera - OK on the amp, but
pretty irritating on the camera!!)



The reason why it all sounds so clear is that it is a normal SS amp
and it isn't broken. These days it really doesn't have a lot of choice
in the matter - you need to exert special efforts to make a bad amp
these days,


Yes, my suspicion also and why I bought the amp in the first place, to check
it out. (See below...)


particularly if, as I suspect, this one uses chips for the
PA stage.


PA stage?? (Preamplification?)

I believe it's pretty hard to buy a bad *anything* much these days. I can
understand stuff costing a lot of money if it uses a lot of expensive
material or is hand-built (in a one-off kinda way) but I generally think the
VFM factor is pretty high for what these things cost! As to the the volume
control, I would consider that anything that took a carbon pot out of the
occasion would be a good thing? (I don't know about 'poorly implemented' -
why should it be poor? Is this one area where it would be particularly
difficult to do the thing well?)

My exploration into all this has been a staggering success AFAIAC - I have
proved (to myself, if no other) that the *speakers* drive the whole 'hifi'
thing *bigtime*! I would/will put this sound I'm getting off a cheap POS amp
against anything I've heard to date!! In fact, I'll go as far as to say I
don't much care about sources and amplification, the speakers can (and do)
make or break it all!!

I shudder to think how much money people are throwing at the game, trying to
get a pair of iffy speakers to sound good. I swapped the Pinkies for a pair
of very respectable JM-Labs the other day and the sound (from the exact same
kit) slumped like punctured tyre!! I've got turntables/tuners/CDPs here that
cost nowt and they all sound superb on the firewood horns, irrrespective of
the amplifiers used!!

Its revised my views completely, my advice to anyone looking for good sound
on the cheap would/will be 'build a pair of speakers and then chuck any old
kit at them' - I reckon you could get a superb tuner/CDP system going for
less than 200 quid!!

If me little mic weren't bust I'd post a track or two!!

(Off to check out the mic anyway..... :-)


OK - we can stop calling you Grasshopper now; you've graduated.

Oh, and PA is power amplifier.

d

--
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com