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Here, you can:
• customize the behavior of your volume control
• tailor your inputs to your particular source components
• configure and calibrate the system to take best advantage of your loudspeakers
• create shortcuts to your preferred or most frequently used functions
• program the behavior of the SSP-300’s DC triggers
volume setup Touching the Volume button on the “system setup” screen brings up the “volume setup”
screen. The buttons on this screen bring up other menu screens that let you:
• customize the behavior of the volume control
• set a maximum volume level
• control the volume level of the system when it is turned on
• customize the behavior of the mute control
rotary The rotary knob on the front panel does not directly control the volume. Instead, it
controls circuitry that does so with greater fidelity and precision than traditional volume
potentiometers could ever achieve.
Since the volume control circuitry is under software control, it is possible to customize
its behavior under various conditions. To better understand why this is so valuable,
consider two scenarios:
Person A places a high value on precision in achieving exactly the volume
setting that makes the music most realistic; being able to easily change volume
setting by a fraction of a decibel is critical to his enjoyment of the system.
Person B just wants to jump easily from low volumes to a reasonable listening
level, and is less concerned with the finer points of precision than with getting
what he wants with a quick twist of the knob.
You can see the problem in these scenarios: Person A wants extremely fine gradations on
the volume control, which will require many rotations to go from extremely low setting
to normal listening levels; Person B wants to get from one to the other with a “quick
twist” of the knob, requiring coarse gradations in order to cover so much range in so
little space. What happens when Persons A and B live in the same house? Or if Person
C wants to have both, depending on their mood at the moment? (In fact, most of us are
probably like Person C.)
Classé solves this dilemma by altering the response of the volume control, based on
several factors.
Since it is rare to listen at extremely low (barely audible) volumes, the low range
adjustment of the volume control allows for faster response to knob input when the
volume setting values are low. When activated, you will get from extremely low to
middle volume control settings a bit faster than you would otherwise. This effect can
be subtle, and may not even be desirable when the speakers used have extremely high
sensitivity (since this results in using the lowest part of the range more than you would
otherwise). As a result, the factory default setting for low range is off (set to zero).