Traditional loudness circuitry ties the "loudness" function and "volume" to a single control, the volume control. What manufacturers traditionally do is make the one control try to do both functions. What happens is that for a certain amount of rotation of the control, the listener hears a certain "volume" level, and also a certain amount of "loudness". The listener however has no control over the ratio between the two as the manufacturer has decided that in advance. So, as the volume is lowered, loudness increases and if the volume is turned up, loudness decreases. This system, almost universally used, as far as we are concerned, places the listener at a great disadvantage because he has no choice in what he hears. Loudness is not "continuous" or "variable" but "fixed" by the manufacturer.

  We have a completely different approach and use a separate volume control and a separate loudness control, so that at ANY volume setting, listeners can decide for themselves what level of loudness they prefer. Our circuitry is extremely unique, as it is almost impossible to find this feature anywhere else. One must understand what the difference is between "volume" and "loudness"; otherwise all of this could be somewhat confusing. Typically with full gain on our loudness control there is a boost in lows of approximately 13dB, and a boost in highs of approximately 3 dB, and the mids are unchanged. At the minimum setting of the loudness control there is no boost at any frequency and provides flat response, virtually removing it from the circuit.

  This Loudness Contour Control (The LCC) is used only on our preamplifiers and normally not used on our power amplifiers.