I'm having trouble understanding the indicators of the balance and impedance adjustment functions with only a single display. The documentation is pretty clear for 2 displays, but not for a single. The balance control appears to work okay with the Apple remote, but I don't understand what the display is indicating (left or right or alternating?) Can anyone provide some more info on how the single display works in those 2 modes?
Thanks,
Mike
Hi Mike,
The short but not very satisfying answer is running with a single display - although you can do it - leaves you running half blind on most of the adjustment modes and on auto-calibration of the LDRs.
When adjusting balance, the left/right displays diverge from each other as volume balance swings left or right. With a single display - which only shows the right channel - you only see a change when the balance is skewed to the right.
In impedance adjust mode, the left display shows the impedance setting number (1-5) while the right shows the impedance level (1k-99k) for each impedance setting number.
To date, I've stopped short of insisting people buy dual displays or no displays all but perhaps it's time to rethink that. An alternative I've been considering is to modify the firmware to optionally operate mode-limited with no displays and only an LED indicator. While mode-limited, impedance adjustment mode, brightness adjustment mode, and max volume upon input change mode would all be inhibited. You could change volume, adjust balance, and change input only. The challenge with that is there's no obvious way to tell the V2.1 board to operate in such a mode. It really needs a mode jumper input.
In your case the best solution is just get the second display which is only $39 plus shipping.