Gain, power and volume - a confusing ménage à trois...

[mikel]

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1480783119' post='3187122']
With DSP processing the SS will deliver the same dB levels, at far less cost, size and weight than valves.
[/quote]

Cheers, and DSP processing is.......?

[taunton-hobbit]

Digital Signal Processing ?
( but I suspect that's not the answer were looking for..................)

[Chienmortbb]

[quote name='taunton-hobbit' timestamp='1480714339' post='3186735']
..........valve watts have more 'heft' ? ,,,,,,,,,,,,
oops


[/quote]No they just need more heft to move them. Now let's see who gets trolled more!

[dmccombe7]

On 31/07/2007 at 20:26, Oxblood said:

In a typical instrument amp, the first "Volume Control" you find is simply a pot placed in the signal path - just like the one we find in a passive guitar or bass, between the pickups and the jack socket. All it does is act as a potential divider: a variable resistance that bleeds some of the signal away to earth and allows the rest through to the next amplifying stage. Turn it up full, and all (or nearly all) of the signal gets through. Like a water tap, it's a purely passive device. It can't give out more than is being fed in. In some amps this first pot is positioned directly after the jack input itself, but more commonly these days it is placed after an initial amplifying or buffer stage. Either way, the effect is the same.

 

I've only just started reading thru this thread today after experimenting with the various settings on my GK1001RBii to achieve overdriven sound and was curious about the comment about the pre-GAIN or Volume being a passive Pot. If i turn up my pre-gain or volume without touching anything else the signal starts to distort before clipping (at home volumes ) which leads me to wonder about being able to turn it up full. I don't quite understand why it distorts based on your comment above. I had always assumed its because the input signal to the pre-amp is being overloaded. ? So i'm assuming that the pre-amp has a tolerance or limit of some kind.

Maybe i've misinterpreted what;s being said but i've always been under the impression, like many others, that volume on left is pre-amp input and volume on right is power amp volume too.

Based on whats been said i should in theory be able to turn up my pre-gain or LHS volume fully without any distortion appearing and that sound should then be sent as a clean sound to the power amp stage. So how do we manage to get that overdriven sound from the amp. ? Is it just the fact the voltage is now to high for the pre-amp circuit ?

I'm not being facetious here at all and only looking for more understanding.

Appreciate this is an older thread and i haven't gone thru everyone else's response so far.

Dave

Edited June 13, 2018 by dmccombe7