ss amps with variable input sensitivity

Not many amps have volume controls anymore and with good reason. The volume control affects the sound probably more than any other device in your system. A bad one makes bad sound. And having an amp and preamp both with them can make for a bad combination.

I believe parasound made some earlier amps that had volume pots. Can't tell you anything about the sonics of those amps. Most of the earlier parasound gear are probably well built even with the pots.

Hi KP. Just noticed your new thread following our active-xover discussion. The only SS amps with some adjustment that I've heard of are ones which have a limited number of discrete gain levels that can be changed by the owner. For example, the Rowland amps, and the Gamut amps (there are others). I personally own a Llano Design Trinity hybrid amp, which has tube input/gain stage but SS MOSFET output stage. It accepts a wide variety of small signal tubes, and I can change its overall gain (and sound character) dramatically by rolling the (two) tubes. This amp might be a way for you to match your Rogue amp in a biamp situation; the Llano is more likely to blend with the tube amp, yet it provides more slam in the bass than many pure-tube amps (it's not very expensive either). Send me an email if you'd like more details.

KP to my curiosity and for the sake of my personal education please tell me what is the neccessity for such amp with variable sencitivity?
Thanks!

Hello, Ral, nice thread transition, eh?

Marakanets, I'll abridge the XO thread:
Alber suggests I passively biamp my vr-4's.
Rogue 120 magnums on top.
Since I would to be using an active XO, I need bass amp(s) with adjustable gain.

KP

KP, available on Ebay almost all the time is a second hand Carver AV-705x, 5 channel amp with gain controls for each channel. If you use only two channels, it puts out 180 watts per. I just bought one and have listened to it some now, and it is as uncolored an amp as you can find with plenty of power. Really nothing to criticize about it at all. Easy to buy and sell on Ebay, so you could try it and if for some reason you found it unsatisfactory. it wouldnt cost much to resell it.

DEFINITELY THE PARASOUND OFFERINGS!!!! Most of the Parasound models offer adjustable input volume pots, and are simply superb bass amps! Infact, the Parasounds, if anything, are really well known for their solid bass reproduction! The are very good sounding solid class B amps on their own mostly, but also shine when used to driver bass on biamp and subwoofer set-up's!
If you are doing it right, you could use a very high refined amp on the top, and the parasound on the bottom, for absolutely superb results in just about every conceivable instance!...that being if your speakers sound good biamped in the first place!
good luck

OK, so if the Rogues have a sensitivity of .83v, and the Parasound that of 1.0 this means that the Rogue will play louder at any given volume setting than the Parasounds; correct?

Also, I imagine that the sensitivity adjustment on the Parasound can only attenuate the signal, not boost it.

In this case, this combination would not be practical. question mark.

KP

...sencitivity is the value that you can input for the desirable output.
Usually in specs the input sencitivity is the voltage you need to throw in order to get the maximum output power.

The Xover should have output level controls

parasound hca 1206 and hca 1205 both have output pots on the rear of the chassis for each channel