What Is An Attenuator Vs A Volume Control? From The Axiom Audio Glossary: Audio Terms Explained
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- When you see a control knob that says negative infinity (➖♾) you have an attenuator which uses a different number system from a volume knob that goes from 1 to 10, or 100. In this video, Chief Product Officer Andrew Welker explains the audio terms Attenuate and Attenuator, as well as explaining why some equipment displays show a negative number.
Also, audio-lover origin-story in this video! Andrew tells a tale of his very early youth, and how he learned about the difference between volume and attenuation. A cautionary tale indeed!
"What Is An Attenuator Vs Volume Control?" is the latest installment in the Axiom Audio Glossary: Audio Terms Explained playlist. Any thoughts or questions you have on covering future audio jargon will be very helpful for upcoming videos.
Finally, thank you all for subscribing. We reached a new milestone recently of 7,000 subscribers. We couldn't have done it without you. 😊
Free Download: Four Sound Improvements That Don't Cost a Dime! www.axiomaudio....
Fall in love with your music�� all over again❤️
Get speakers you’ll listen to at any volume for hours on end.��️
Questions? Contact Axiom's Friendly, Helpful Audio Experts: www.axiomaudio...
-
Subscribe to Axiom: / axiomhom. .
Facebook: / axiomaudio
Instagram: / axiomair
Twitter: / axiomaudio
Blog: www.axiomaudio...
Forums: www.axiomaudio...
#AudioTermsExplained #AttenuateVsAmplify #AudioGlossary
Thanks for the explanation, great topic!
Thanks Alex, glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you so much! This was super informative
Glad it was helpful, thank you for taking the time to comment.
Allways good information, audio scholl teacher 👍
Thanks!
My attenuator is my wife telling me to “turn it down” plus the look. Does anyone else ever get THE LOOK?
Sounds like a movie in the making: David’s wife starring in “The Attenuator”!
thanks for the explanation, got my first piece of gear with attenuation volume control recently. goes from -127.5 to zero. it is a minidsp shd studio product, used as preamp on my system, even tho it has no analog output or input.
You’re welcome. Yes, that is definitely an attenuator!
Great explanation and super funny life experience moment (tragic for the speakers of course). Thanks for sharing
Thank you for watching! Yes, it was a bad day for those poor speakers. ☹
Nice story!
There is another explanation, attenuators may refer in many cases to stepped attenuators, in which case the control is not continuous or linear, as a variable resistor, but has steps and in each step, a very precise set of resistors per channel every step of the way, and the main reason they use them, is to create in high-end audio a very precise level in each channel, we have nowadays very precise variable resistors, but even though many small high-end manufacturers decide to incorporate them into the preamp section...I have seen them mainly in headphone amps, but that applies to preamps as well....in your explanation the attenuator and a volume are basically the same thing, just different scales to measure...they are both variable resistors....
You are correct, they are both the same control electrically in most cases, just the scales are different. I know that many people are confused when they see a control that does not go from zero to ten.
So is it better to set my speakers to a negative number and increase the volume control up to 40-50 to hear my music? Whats easier on the amp? To have -00 set as levels and use the volume in the high ranges? I currently have my fronts set to +3 and surrounds to +2 and volume at about 19 -30 for tv watching and movies. Am I at risk for blowing my speakers?
Great explanation. Basically a attenuator is a chock. Holding back full volume, right? My Roon software controls my UltraRendu volume output to my Chord Qutest to my amp allowing me to skip needing a Preamp. I say that because, I have 1 source and don’t feel I need to muddy up the chain with a preamp. Any insight to that concept is welcome.
So informative
I just started my classic Carver amplifier after 30 years, remarkably it still works but when I hook up a cd player I cannot reduce the volume. Even though I can increase and lower the control manually and remotely. The volume comes out at a rather very high level and I would like to reduce it. How could I fix this issue? Any suggestions where I could do a cheap fix?
Can you please make a video about 'headroom' and explain what that is exactly. Thanks!
Good topic, thank you!
Thank you again for your wonderful videos, please don't stop. Now I have a question that have not any relation to this video, so what makes the Speakers designer Engineer decide to design speakers with impedance minimal as low as 3 ohms, that required more current and higher power from the amp? is it related to the High-end speakers? also at the same thinking, Sensitivity rating measurements of 87 db as an average also required a powerful amp that can handle this category of speakers, resulting in clipping amp at a certain volume level that will not occur if the speaker's minimal impedance like 4 ohms with a higher sensitivity (over 90 db as an average)?
Well, in my case I don’t set out to create a difficult or low impedance load, but sometimes getting the last bit of performance out of the system ends up requiring a crossover adjustment that causes a dip in impedance over a small frequency range. Since most good amplifiers will not have a problem with a small impedance dip, do we maximize performance or worry about the small dip? Now in some cases the speaker impedance can be totally punishing and it then makes matching the amplifier very critical and difficult. I sometimes wonder if some speaker companies enjoy putting out challenging to drive speakers just to get press on their designs. Sensitivity is directly related to the driver design, so this all needs to be taken into account at the early stages of the design. In a perfect world everything would be easy to drive and very efficient…the reality is that is not often the case if you want the loudspeaker to sound good.
@@AxiomHomeTheaters Thank you very much for your reply and explanation, i was anxious to read it. Andrew can you do a video on this issue adding to it something that i experiment on many of my Mirage speakers and it is why i need to increase the volume level of my amp to start to hear the high frequency (Tweeter), at low volume level i barely hear the tweeter.
@@chopin111 That might be a bit too specific for our audience. Is it something you have experienced with speakers in general?
@@AxiomHomeTheaters Yes , my brother have the M 3 mirage and he 3cperment the same issue, on the OM 5 this issue is less present as I hear the tweeter earlier. By the way the most sweet sparkle tweeter is on the OMD 28.
@@Samitocas I really can’t think of a reason why you would be experiencing that, other than it could be the full-range nature of the larger models are making it seem like there is less tweeter energy, but the overall balance and response should be correct at any listening level. Maybe room modes?
Thanks Andrew. In both cases [absolute vs dB scale] aren't all pre-amp volume controls attenuators?
For much of their range, yes, you are completely correct. However, if you go above unity gain, you are now amplifying the signal. Most pre-amps have some gain available, unless it’s simply a buffer or a passive pre-amp.
You shouldn’t talk about attenuator and volume control, what you should talk about is attenuator and gain control. An attenuator is a circuit that reduces the strength of a signal that’s already present while a gain control is a control on the level of amplification of a signal.
Viking .
7 mins to state something that could've been said in 30 seconds - I.e. that attenuate means reduce volume and attenuators knobs are marked differently. No discussion of what are the advantages/disadvantages of attenuators and how they actually work.
Good story. Sucks that happened
Glad you liked the story, it really sucked for the speakers!
Is "abrupt throttle tip-in" a thing in audio? I had a couple of 70's and 90's Japanese integrated amps where the volume was blisteringly loud by 30% of the volume dial; to get the same volume with my modern AVR, I'd have to go to 60-70% of the volume control. I can see why it's used for cars, because it gives an illusion of power where maybe pressing the accelerator by 20% opens the throttle by 50%.
Maybe de control was not logaritmic, but linear, Sansui has a couple of amps like that, they are brutally loud....
Most controls for volume have what’s called an “audio taper” to give a smooth increase in level across the range, however the appearance of digital volume controls means that the curve can be anything you want. I’m not sure why any manufacturer would want to mess with what works, but who knows.
Topic -:
01. Ohms, what is it and why someone would want 4 ohm speakers instead of 8..
I believe he as already done a couple of videos on speaker impedance. This is one of them: m.ruclips.net/video/JaEgq7W8IZI/видео.html
If you have not seen it, check out our video on amplifiers and impedance. The question of 4 vs. 8 ohms comes up often enough I will make a video at some point. Thanks! ruclips.net/video/JaEgq7W8IZI/видео.html for the long version. Thanks to the commenter who provided the link earlier. It was Held For Review by RUclips, I approved it, but the comment simply disappeared.
@@AxiomHomeTheaters thank you.
@@lorindamikaela You’re welcome.
Ally took my car and plans for the brain zapper
Good job of explaining nothing.