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Old 17th Oct 2019, 9:38 am   #45
ricard
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Lund, Sweden
Posts: 1,631
Default Re: Cretinous idea - The combined volume pot and mains SW.

I remember an old television at my grandparents house which was originally bought in New York in the 1960s. It's the only TV I've ever seen that had a 'turn-off-spot' which lasted for up to a minute or so as I recall (it was a long time ago). I never noted any burn-out effect in the area where the spot persisted. But it's the only TV I've ever seen to exhibit that effect, so I'm assuming that most televisions of later date either had a purposely designed circuit to avoid the spot (i.e. a 'spot killer' as mentioned earlier in the thread), or that by design the EHT dies down fast enough so the spot doesn't appear.

Getting back on topic, one advantage of the on/off switch + volume control is that the unit basically has one single everyday control, so it's a single-control user interface in more modern parlance. Logically it makes sense, you turn the volume down, and when it's so low you can't hear it you might as well turn it off completely.

Certain members of the general public would be scared stiff if they had more than one control to operate - I've heard stories which I don't think are myths of people coming in to the dealer to have them select a different channel on their radio, or a different volume level. So having the power switch and volume control in one forces them to understand how the volume control actually works.

Not having the unit potentially burst out at maximum volume when switched on would be another advantage, on the other hand with older valved equipment, the sound would come up gradually giving the user (assuming he or she was still close to the unit) time to manually turn down the volume if indeed necessary.
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