LOUD, BUT DISTORTED.

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 4, 12 August 1927, Page 13

LOUD, BUT DISTORTED.

AIM FOR TONE. __ Don’t bring in the music too loudly | or you will overload your yalves, _There are physical limits to the capae city of radio valves just as there are t@ our appetites or the speed our car will develop without also developing trouble, Very few machines of any kind are ef ficient when overloaded. If we eat he» yond our normal requirements we snffex all manner of disagreeable conditions-« indigestion, fatigue, sleeplessness, , et al; if we drive our motor beyond its normal capacity we lose traction, are bounced about, and are as likely ag not to burn out a bearing or two. If, in our radio receiver, we are using small valves and we turn out enough volume to fill a dance hall we cannot expect music, because we tre sure tq get noise instead. Overloading our valves-and such operation is surely doing just that-results in a heavy drain on our batteries and produces dige tortion which almost any ear will dee tect. Do Not OverlOad Valves. © ; Where small valves are employed w& may well be satisfied if our load supe plies volume enough for a medium siz ed room. Where semi-power valves aré properly used we may expect enough volume from our speaker to fill a largé room without sacrificing -tone quality, but where music loud enough for dane ing in a fair-sized ballroom is required ordinary valves will not do. We mnst use a power amplificr, equipped with power valves. Harm to Radio, The idea that an ordinary receiver may be used in a club or hotel dining. room without such a power amplifier is doing much more to hurt radio than to make it popular. In almost ev cease of this nature the receiver i cranked up to the last notch in order to have it heard above the rattle of dishes and buzz of conversation. ‘rhe result is bedlam. Radio receivers, when properly designed and properly operated, are capable of tremendous volume accompanied by beautiful tone colour. They mav be calied npon to serve where every other tmeans for providing entertainment fail, and they will produce music in a most satisfactory manner if we employ them with some regard for their limitations and do not look for Cadillae performances from a flivver.