What is Contrabass? and Servo amp?

[HWF]

I am looking at an Onkyo A-8190 amp and thought you all might know if these are important features. Also is Onkyo in general high quality equipment?

This amp has 2 cd selections CD and CD Direct. CD direct by passes the tone controls. Why would that be of benefit any idea.

 

[adhoc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HWF This amp has 2 cd selections CD and CD Direct. CD direct by passes the tone controls. Why would that be of benefit any idea.

CD direct avoids placing all the components involved in tone control in the signal path by providing an option to switch it out of the loop, which can only be a good thing imo.

 

[jefemeister]

I found this on a japanese website: http://www11.plala.or.jp/se_ke5583/O...raa-815ex.html

maybe contrabass is a +10dB boost at 20Hz? If so, I'd say it's nothing more than a very specific EQ function and not very important.

The servo part probably refers to how the DC offset at the output of the amplifier is controlled. A servo mechanism is common for this as it avoids hand-tuned pots or running the output through a capacitor. Again, no big deal here--lots of amps do it.

More interestingly, are you refering to Servodrive's Contrabass subwoofer? It's a sub that uses a belt drive, motor controlled mechanism to move the driver's cone in place of the standard voicecoil. This has nothing to do with Onkyo though.

http://www.servodrive.com/Download_f...ContraBass.pdf
http://ultimateavmag.com/features/704way/index3.html

 

[HWF]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jefemeister I found this on a japanese website: http://www11.plala.or.jp/se_ke5583/O...raa-815ex.html maybe contrabass is a +10dB boost at 20Hz? If so, I'd say it's nothing more than a very specific EQ function and not very important. The servo part probably refers to how the DC offset at the output of the amplifier is controlled. A servo mechanism is common for this as it avoids hand-tuned pots or running the output through a capacitor. Again, no big deal here--lots of amps do it. More interestingly, are you refering to Servodrive's Contrabass subwoofer? It's a sub that uses a belt drive, motor controlled mechanism to move the driver's cone in place of the standard voicecoil. This has nothing to do with Onkyo though. http://www.servodrive.com/Download_f...ContraBass.pdf http://ultimateavmag.com/features/704way/index3.html

There are 2 contrabass switches side by side on the front of this Onkyo and over the top of those switches is the label muting (Seems like wierd labeling), one switch says 20db the the other 10db. There is a seperate Contrabass tone control, labeled defeat through 20db. The standard bass and Treble tone controls are located next to it.

The contrabass control truly does seem to extend the bass response of the sound. It seems to have no effect on the over all sound of the amp untill there are some very deep base notes, and then it very gentle but very noticeable. I really like this it is nothing like increasing the regular base tone control.