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 Post subject: Stepped Attenuators
PostPosted: September 19th, 2021, 1:45 pm 
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Has anyone tried these? Series resistor style, surface mount resistors.

Gonna try them as high and low frequency output level controls in a crossover. One will doubtlessly be wide open in normal use.

Stuart


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 Post subject: Re: Stepped Attenuators
PostPosted: September 19th, 2021, 2:02 pm 
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Location: Baltimore MD
What is the source


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 Post subject: Re: Stepped Attenuators
PostPosted: September 19th, 2021, 2:07 pm 
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eBay, Hong Kong


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 Post subject: Re: Stepped Attenuators
PostPosted: September 19th, 2021, 2:10 pm 
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https://www.ebay.com/itm/190844814249


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 Post subject: Re: Stepped Attenuators
PostPosted: September 19th, 2021, 2:35 pm 
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Well at that price it is worth a try.


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 Post subject: Re: Stepped Attenuators
PostPosted: September 19th, 2021, 2:59 pm 
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Stuart Polansky wrote:
Has anyone tried these? Series resistor style, surface mount resistors.

Gonna try them as high and low frequency output level controls in a crossover. One will doubtlessly be wide open in normal use.

Stuart

You could go with a decent quality pot and configure a shunt attenuator that keeps the pot out of the signal path and puts the signal through one high-quality resistor such as Vishay bulk films or Dale metal films.

I did the same thing that BAT did many decades ago with a PS Audio Pre-amp and was unexpectedly surprised with the much improved sound quality.


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 Post subject: Re: Stepped Attenuators
PostPosted: September 19th, 2021, 10:37 pm 
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Joined: May 21st, 2017, 11:34 am
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Stuart Polansky wrote:
Has anyone tried these? Series resistor style, surface mount resistors.

Gonna try them as high and low frequency output level controls in a crossover. One will doubtlessly be wide open in normal use.

Stuart


I've played around quite a bit with ladder attenuators and series style attenuators, both with leaded resistors and SMD resistors. When using leaded resistors for the attenuator, I found that a ladder attenuator sounded considerably better. But the SMD series attenuators sounded just as good as the ladder attenuator. Even the cheap ones from Hong Kong. So I wave my hands and say that the extra lead inductance of conventional through hole resistors adds up when one has a large number of them in series. SMD parts are closer to an ideal resistor since they don't have leads and the extra associated inductance. Whether or not you believe my rationalization, I do think that the sound results are clear and reproducible.

--Gary


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 Post subject: Re: Stepped Attenuators
PostPosted: September 20th, 2021, 1:26 pm 
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Thanks Gary, that's what I was looking for.

I have P&G pots as well as LDR attenuators, but duplicating them in multiples for high and low level outputs of a crossover would be a daunting task and NOT fit in my enclosure.

Thanks again.

Stuart


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