User Guide
Great care has also been taken--as in all aspects of the GML Model 2020--to select the
highest quality components, from the potentiometers on the front panel to the smallest
passive elements. This attention to detail partially elucidates the quality found in the
High Resolution Discrete Input Channel. These component choices, coupled with
superior design and a proclivity towards innovation, combine to make the Model 2020
the most powerful, flexible, and transparent single channel processor ever designed.
Another feature that distinguishes the Model 2020 from the myriad of other
commercially available single channel processors is its inherent dynamic range. In the
EQ section, this extended dynamic range allows for the addition of 15 dB of gain in
multiple frequency bands simultaneously without even a hint of distortion or loss of
detail and authority. Furthermore, in the Dynamics section this range inherently offers a
great deal of added flexibility within the audio path, allowing the Model 2020 the utmost
freedom, precision, and transparency in dynamically controlling gain. This amazing
power is due in large part to the GML propensity to design all audio circuits from
discrete components. Discrete designs, when executed properly, help to preserve not
only sonic integrity and musicality, but also to maintain the widest dynamic range
through the entire signal path, thus eliminating many sonic compromises and limitations.
Not only do these discrete structures--and the GML 9202 discrete opamp in particular--
sound better than their integrated counterparts, they also offer the ability to design for
higher signal levels internally, while also optimizing dynamic range by providing a low
noise floor.
An additional benefit of the discrete circuit topology used in the Model 2020 is increased
bandwidth. Not only does this significant extension--of both high and low frequencies--
provide for more detail and realism; it also ensures a greater degree of linearity in the
traditional audio spectrum (20 Hz to 20 kHz) by locating bandwidth poles superceding
these commonly-accepted limits. Indeed, the frequency response of the Model 2020 is
well within +/- 0.1 dB from below 10 Hz to well above 40 kHz, while the +/- 3.0 dB
response exceeds the ability of most audio test apparatus to measure.
Interestingly, the Model 2020's design affords it distinct advantages over signal chains
comprised of entirely separate units. Not only is the flexibility of the 2020's routing--
obviating the need for tangles of cables --lost in separates, but also the small 2U frame
of the Model 2020 greatly outpaces the space requirements of such separates. Only a
single GML external power supply is required for the Model 2020, further saving space
and knots of power cables. Most importantly, by locating all of the processing blocks in
one chassis, the Model 2020 eliminates the need for extraneous buffering and
balancing stages between each processing block. These superfluous stages
necessarily add noise and distortion in even the best separates and worse, may cause
interface compatibility problems.