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Post by jeffhenning1984 on Jul 17, 2019 14:59:00 GMT -5
Yeah, it's a small thing, but a detented rotary pot or a switch to pad the input 10 or 20dB would really help out in creating proper gain staging with your amps and other products.
As it stands, your amps have around 30dB of gain. That's fine if you have really low output sources, but, for your own XMC-1 (which I have) or any beefy source (like pro equipment), that level of gain is way too high. Having no way to trim the input level, I'm reticent to purchase any of your amps.
I'm using your XMC-1 with a Parasound Halo-23 amp for the LS50 mains, Rythmik Audio subs and Pioneer RM-05 active monitors for surrounds. They all have gain controls on their inputs. Even with all of their inputs turned way down, the XMC-1 still has more than enough output headroom that I rarely take the volume above -5dB even for very loud listening (the volume goes up to +10 or 11dB... it goes to 11!). And this is with running everything at maximum level in the SetUp controls.
If I was using your amps (which have no gain controls), I doubt that I could get even close to that with your amps. They'd most likely be reaching the same decibel levels in room with 20dB or less gain from the pre. And suffering 10-15dB more cable and input related noise no matter how great my cables are (I use Mogami wires which are studio staples).
The XMC-1 is a beast in the best sense. It is a spectacular piece of equipment that can be used for monitoring in a studio. It can't, though, be used to its potential with amps that have around 30dB of throughput gain.
Gain staging is a big deal. Squandering 20dB of headroom is not good.
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Post by cheapthryl on Jul 17, 2019 16:11:33 GMT -5
The older UPA 2 was the only one I remember having a gain adjust on the back. Some of the Sherbourn also.
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Post by garbulky on Jul 17, 2019 16:33:28 GMT -5
Yeah, it's a small thing, but a detented rotary pot or a switch to pad the input 10 or 20dB would really help out in creating proper gain staging with your amps and other products. As it stands, your amps have around 30dB of gain. That's fine if you have really low output sources, but, for your own XMC-1 (which I have) or any beefy source (like pro equipment), that level of gain is way too high. Having no way to trim the input level, I'm reticent to purchase any of your amps. I'm using your XMC-1 with a Parasound Halo-23 amp for the LS50 mains, Rythmik Audio subs and Pioneer RM-05 active monitors for surrounds. They all have gain controls on their inputs. Even with all of their inputs turned way down, the XMC-1 still has more than enough output headroom that I rarely take the volume above -5dB even for very loud listening (the volume goes up to +10 or 11dB... it goes to 11!). And this is with running everything at maximum level in the SetUp controls. If I was using your amps (which have no gain controls), I doubt that I could get even close to that with your amps. They'd most likely be reaching the same decibel levels in room with 20dB or less gain from the pre. And suffering 10-15dB more cable and input related noise no matter how great my cables are (I use Mogami wires which are studio staples). The XMC-1 is a beast in the best sense. It is a spectacular piece of equipment that can be used for monitoring in a studio. It can't, though, be used to its potential with amps that have around 30dB of throughput gain. Gain staging is a big deal. Squandering 20dB of headroom is not good. I don't know about the XMC-1 but the +12 figure on the DC-1 runs a risk of clipping the preamp. 0.0 db gives you about 2 V line level on the unbalanced and 4V on XLR which is about the standard output. Imo getting to -5 db on very loud sequences isn't a bad thing. It also allows for some play with the equalizer settings. I'd much rather be under 0.0 db than going above it. The previous gen 1 amps were 32 db of gain. They were done that way because a lot of pre-pros couldn't manage much past 1.2V and so were unable to drive the amps to their full potential. Then the new amps were lowered to 29db of gain. There is an amp that Emotiva made (which was supposed to be spectacular according to Lonnie) which did have a selectable gain switch which allows you to select between 24 and 29 db of gain. The people that had it loved it. But I did read a few reports of failure with them.
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Post by Gary Cook on Jul 17, 2019 20:54:23 GMT -5
I'm not even sure I understand the reason for the question, XMC-1 's are virtually noiseless, have balanced discrete circuitry and when connected via balanced cables to a similar spec'd amp there is next to zero noise to be amplified. So the power amplifier gain is irrelevant in that regard. Plus power amps produce less heat at lower gain levels, hence waste less power, so are more efficient. The only time I see a possible downside is when noisy sources are used, but curing that with lower power amp gain is simply trying to use 2 wrongs to make 1 right.
Cheers Gary
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Post by AudioHTIT on Jul 17, 2019 21:57:26 GMT -5
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