Stratovarious
New member
Why do amp companies all over the world label their pre-amp distortion as "Gain" and what was the first amp to say "Gain" on it, I was always curious about this, and I reckon its a cool fun fact 
Trivia: Why is it called Gain?
- Thread starter Stratovarious
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SlyFoxx
Glossless
Re: Trivia: Why is it called Gain?
Well as far as we know Randall Smith was the first to develop the cascading preamp.
Excerpt from Ritchie Fliegler's "Amps!"
Smith says: "I got the idea to add more stages of gain and then turn it down [with a master volume]. I had no clue how much it took to drive these things [Crown DC300 power amps] so I added about 80 times the gain I thought they could possibly need..."
Well as far as we know Randall Smith was the first to develop the cascading preamp.
Excerpt from Ritchie Fliegler's "Amps!"
Smith says: "I got the idea to add more stages of gain and then turn it down [with a master volume]. I had no clue how much it took to drive these things [Crown DC300 power amps] so I added about 80 times the gain I thought they could possibly need..."
Rich_T
Kyuss_Rockologist
Re: Trivia: Why is it called Gain?
The gain of an amplifier it the amount it increases or decreases the amplitude of the input signal.
To work out an amplifier's gain, you divide the output power or voltage by the input power or voltage. To work out his in dB, you need to use a logarithmic equation.
For the voltage gain this is 20log (Vout/Vin)
For the power gain this is 10log (Pout/Pin)
So, your gain controls are labelled gain, because that is exaclty what they control, the change in voltage or power that the amplifier produces, which is refered to as the gain of an amplifier circuit.
The gain of an amplifier it the amount it increases or decreases the amplitude of the input signal.
To work out an amplifier's gain, you divide the output power or voltage by the input power or voltage. To work out his in dB, you need to use a logarithmic equation.
For the voltage gain this is 20log (Vout/Vin)
For the power gain this is 10log (Pout/Pin)
So, your gain controls are labelled gain, because that is exaclty what they control, the change in voltage or power that the amplifier produces, which is refered to as the gain of an amplifier circuit.
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