I will agree with you with the proviso that I now more about radio than
audio in this case.

All I'm saying is that if you lower the gain, you really lower the noise

But if you lower the level, then the noise remains the same, relative to
the signal


And for the person who said gain and level are the same thing... NOT IF
THEY ARE PROPERLY LABELED I have a television in front of me which does
not have a volume (level) control on it, it has a GAIN control, No audio
goes through the GAIN control, it is simply a DC voltage divider nothing
more. Thus filtering any noise generated by the control is very easy

By the way, how to tell... A GAIN control has 3 connections to it,
Usually B+ (Battery plus in this case) Ground and wiper (Variable or
output in this case)

A Stereo LEVEL control has six, 2 ground, two "Output from whatever is
in front of it" and two "Wiper" or "Output to whatever is behind it"
Note, that this simple type can mess up impedance matching too, a Gain
control does not do that.

Older tube type hardware normally used volume controls cause B+ was on
the order of 100 volts or more, usually more. Modern transistor stuff
with voltages of 10 or less often use Gain cause, believe it or not, not
only is it better but it's cheaper. However a 10 buck transistor radio
may well use either.

But if properly labeled GAIN affects the parameters of an amplifier stage
LEVEL is between two stages, or between either input or output and the
pre-amp. They are very clearly not the same

Some folks mis-label them however

(Apologies to the person this is in reply to... I know the rant is not
to you)

Ron Hardin wrote:
John in Detroit wrote:

NO, what I am saying is that pre-amps generate noise,the lower the gain,
the less noise, WAY LESS.


If it's like radio, the noise figure of the first amplifier gives mostly
the noise figure of the whole system. So it's not a matter whether pre-amps
generate noise, but whether they generate more or less than the amplifier
that follows them, that gives the noise performance of the system.

ie. the signal has to be amplified _somewhere_, and you want it done _first_
in the quietest amplifier.

--
John F Davis, in Delightful Detroit. WA8YXM(at)arrl(dot)net
"Nothing adds excitement like something that is none of your business"
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