Hello

Just wanted to add some observations. Warning: I have a tendency to overexplain...

Yes, it is amazing, how subtle are the factors that can influence each of us, and how that *one particular thing* in the midst of hundreds of design features can just throw you completely off track sometimes...

This thread has made me realize that, similar to BenjaminKing, I've been thoroughly trained by experience to always-always-without-fail turn the volume down manually to a reasonable level as the final step just before hitting the power button (or power-down macro) on shutdown.

Of course, Miss Lena, with your current volume knob, even if you turned it down *every single time* at shutdown, someone could still come by and crank up the knob while the unit was turned off, and it would blast you as soon as you turned it on if you didn’t do the visual check. But check this out: because the Outlaw volume control has no effect when the power is off, there is *zero* chance of anyone turning it up to dangerous levels while the unit is turned off. In other words, if you lower the volume *every time* as the last step before you power down, it can *never* blast you when you first turn it on, even with no visual reference.

Which means: You could (as you mentioned) program a macro to drop the volume substantially as part of the shutdown procedure, BUT - this is the cool part - if you’ve already got ’em trained to *always* use the shutdown macros, and you include the volume drop *only in the shutdown macros*, you would *never* have to worry about the volume being too loud on startup, because it *cannot* move from where it was at shutdown. See?

Does that make sense? Or help at all? It sounds like this type of volume knob might even work out *better* for your situation. The “level check before un-muting” would still be an issue; perhaps you could do a volume-down-then-mute macro, though this kinda defeats the “instant off” nature of the mute button...

Also want to point out that my understanding of the Outlaw “linear volume” control is that it actually provides *much* finer control than a standard potentiometer, even if it doesn’t have a cool light. One reason is demonstrated in JeffLH’s post: it takes the Outlaw volume a full 2.5 revolutions to go from minimum to maximum volume, compared to much less than a full revolution of usable rotation for a fixed knob. Plus, the “linear volume” concept supposedly gives you a smooth volume increase through the full range of the knob (perhaps JeffLH can confirm this), as opposed to many other products where you get the majority of your usable volume - from where it’s just audible up until distortion kicks in - in the small space between maybe 7 o’clock and 3 o’clock on the knob. Add it up, and you’ve got 900 degrees of rotation to fine-tune the exact volume you desire, compared to maybe 240 degrees of usable rotation with a pot. That’s over three times the resolution: for each “unique volume position” on Matthew Hill’s knob, the Outlaw actually has a range of three+ positions (not pickin’ on ya, bro, just making the point). This should give us much more sensitive control over very small volume changes while completely avoiding the “oversteer” gonk mentions, where the inertia in the knob motor moves it farther than you’d like when trying to make subtle adjustments - happens on my Onkyo receiver all the time (not fer long, though, heh heh heh).

Just my $.02...I could be on crack tho...


Edit: Apparently I really am on crack, just noticed that you're not sure if you can make a volume adjustment part of the macros. Hey, if you can train them to use the macros, you can train them to lower the volume manually every time, as an integral part of the shutdown process. Do it a couple of times in a row, and it becomes a habit.

Hope I haven't totally wasted your time...



[This message has been edited by ampeg66 (edited March 01, 2002).]