MAS6116 is designed for high-end audio systems where the volume control is done in the analog domain for best performance. In many audio preamplifiers it’s an advantage to get a lot of voltage swing out from the unit, close to +/-15V signal levels. In most competing devices an op-amp is needed after the volume controller to get these levels since the IC can not work with those high input signal levels. For such a system not only the signal is amplified but the noise as well. With the MAS6116 high signal levels can be used everywhere inside the pre-amplifier and MAS6116 can then operate with input signals up to +/- 18V and used as an attenuator. Very little noise usually comes out from the preamplifier and the beauty is that the noise depends on the volume level. When listening at a lower volume levels the noise is always inaudible. To improve the system performance even further the MAS6116 can be used in a balanced configuration with one MAS6116 per channel.