Classe Audio CP-500 User Manual
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extensive listening tests Excellent measured performance is to be expected in world-class products, and
Classé products deliver that performance. However, experience has shown that
technical excellence alone is insuffi
cient to guarantee subjectively musical results.
For this reason, all Classé products are laboriously fi ne-tuned during the
development process by carefully controlled listening tests. Our ears are still
some of the fi nest laboratory test instruments available, and nicely complement
more traditional engineering test equipment. In the course of optimizing the
circuitry for a product, hundreds of decisions are made based on the subjective
impression given by substituting one high quality part for another.
As an example, we may listen to half a dozen 0.1% tolerance fi lm resistor
components of the same value, from several diff erent companies. Standard tests
may show them all to provide identical results in terms of noise, distortion, and
so forth. Yet, almost invariably, one selection yields some small improvement in
the subjective reaction to the performance of the product under development.
Less often, even a single such change can result in a surprisingly large
improvement.
Multiply those various improvements by the dozens or even hundreds of such
decisions that must be made before the product can be fi nalized for production,
and you have a remarkable improvement, indeed – all based on careful listening
tests, which we view as a necessary complement to the solid engineering you
might rightly expect from Classé.
extraordinary longevity Another benefi t of having worked with highly refi ned circuit designs so
extensively over many years is that we have vast experience in what works well
over the long term.
By using only the highest quality parts to begin with, and then using them in an
informed way as a result of both accelerated aging experiments and actual long-
term experience, we are able to design and manufacture products which we are
confi dent will stand the test of time.
We are confi dent that your new Classé preamplifi er will give you many years of
trouble-free reliability and musical enjoyment, just as previous Classé products
have given their owners.