Posted by Wayne Parham [ 67.66.229.193 ] on February 11, 2004 at 23:37:27:
In Reply to: Re: What's Input Sensitivity Rating? posted by GarMan on February 11, 2004 at 14:47:08:
I agree with you on the sensitivity issue. One of the things I was most impressed with on late-1970's and early-1980's Yamaha integrated amps was that the engineer had designed the system so that it would just enter clipping when the volume knob was at maximum. Essntially, you couldn't make the system clip. It only took a little bit of time on the drawing board and a couple of 1/10th cent resistors in production to do this, yet most others let 'em run wide open when the volume was at max. That usually means the system enters clipping at about 50% to 70% on the volume knob.
It's easy enough to fix. Make a two-resistor voltage divider that sets maximum gain to the level where the outputs clip. That's all there is to it.