Repost from another topic about the volume issue:
With P8, the digital volume control is not as 'pure' device as the passive Alps pot, and the primary goal for electronic volume control (as in the P8) is it's very easy to use software to dial-in exactly the volume level, and there are 200 steps available.
The challenge with P9 is that we have exactly 1 rotation on the Alps pot, as limited by its physical form. Compare this to the equivalent of "20 turns" (equivalent) on P8 volume.
One point that I want to make is that human hearing is 'logarithm' in nature, and on P9, we decided to simply divide down the 1 rotation into 100 steps, as the Alps port is logarithm in nature, display=50 not necessary means a 12'o clock position on the analog pot, but rather, the Alps port gain is at the 50% level in dB scale.
We are tracking the voltages electronically and not memorizing the physical position.
- Casey
I will add that using the Apls volume pot allow us to achieve pure analog volume control without the expense of using banks of expensive resistors and relays (that will double the price of P-9
). The result is superior performance as evident in the spec. The drawback is the integration with digital volume remote and the Apls volume pot. I think after a while, you'll get use to it
. The alternatives are not good. Pure digital solution degrade performance. Array of resistors banks (traditional high end approach) will bring the price of P-9 to $10,000. So, I think at US MSRP $3150 for a best performing preamp in the world, this is a good compromise in value for money
- Jason
