I was wondering what input voltage is required to bring the Clari-T to full volume. Vinnie, in an earlier post you stated
"I'm sure the voltage required to achieve max power out of the Clari-T-Amp is less than 1V."
I did not worry about this too much at the time, but I thought most amplifiers required 2V to come to full power.
I have been concerned about the Monica II DAC as it puts out .7V.
.7V to 1V is not too terrible a ratio, but to 2V it doesn't seem too good.
But you actually stated < 1V. D ...
Hi JeffB,
The input sensitivity of the Clari-T (w/o shunt-mode volume control) is approx 0.6V, and with the shunt-mode volume control, it is approx 0.7V.
The Monica II dac has can drive the Clari-T to max power when one uses recordings that play loud enough to let the Monica II output full power, but recordings tend to be recorded at all different volume levels (damn recording engineers to blame, again
)
I have a few CDs that are recorded at lowish levels, and when using the Monica II, it does not drive the Clari-T to full-output.
What does one do? You can use an active preamp to obtain more gain, or increase the gain of the Clari-T-Amp, which will lower its input sensitivity. Or, if you are using speakers that are high efficiency, maybe you would never need to push the Clari-T to full output, as that might me too loud.
When using a source that outputs the "standard" 2Vrms, you can just about always drive the Clari-T to full power, even when using CDs that are recorded at a low level.
Does this make sense? Please let me know if I can provide more info.
