jaytrinitron
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- Joined
- Jan 27, 2018
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So the other day I was reading the MassDrop THX AAA 789 amp page and one of the engineers at THX was explaining that the pot on the 789 only has -85 dbfs of attenuation, and so you can still hear the music with really sensitive IEMs with the volume pot turned all the way down - described as "pot bleed". He said the only way to stop this would be a relay stepped attenuator (as present in the Benchmark THX HPA-4) but that was prohibitively expensive for the 789. All fair enough. But I am wondering whether this would affect the output on the 789 negatively. As far as I am aware, Amir measures only the max output and/or line out of an amp when doing his tests, but hardly anyone listens at these volumes. So I am wondering, does the attenuation of the pot negatively affect the measurements to a significant degree? If it does, are the effects of pot attenuation vs not using a pot audible? I believe not, since as I understand it the amp measures at its worst on full/max output, and only gets better from there (I think). Is this true?