The following article will help give you a better understanding of the HDA Zone Volume Response vs DMS on various HDA devices.
Unlike the DMS Series Amplifiers, all HDA Amplifiers use a “Linear” Volume Scale (also known as “Linear Taper”) for a zone’s volume controls. DMS Amplifiers used what is known as an “Inverse Log Taper” Volume Scale for a zone’s volume controls.
The lowest volume settings for a DMS Amplifier control the volume in a very heavy-handed manner, and once you have turned the volume up past 65% in a DMS zone, an audible change in volume is almost negligible.
By using a Linear Taper volume control response, an HDA unit continues to output a noticeable volume change throughout the entire volume scale.
Therefore, a DMS Amplifier will seem louder than an HDA Amplifier at lower volume levels, but lack volume, power, and contour at higher volume levels.
The DMS Zone Volume Curves were “tuned” to give the user the impression that the amplifier was louder than other 50 Watt amplifiers.
If the DMS Amplifiers used a “Linear” volume scale like HDA does, the HDA/DMS Volume Curve Comparison graph would appear as the following:
Additional Information & Resources:
To learn more about HDA products and programming, please see the HDA Programmers Guide or the Accelerator 3 online Programming Guide.
