Analogue volume controls.
A necessary evil.
One of my DACs has onboard volume, and an IR remote, which would be great, only as with many remotes there is a lag, then the volume goes down slowly, then stops because the button needs to be held consistently.
And no use for the other DAC.
But then analogue volume pots, motorised if possible, exhibit poor tracking near the bottom of the range, where it spends much of its time.
Attenuators on the power amp? well yes, but then there is not a low impedance path on the interconnect and hum pickup is more of an issue.
Switched attenuator - yes, works really well over the full range, sounds great, but no remote control.
Round and round the dilemma goes
No real reason for this post / thread other than to moan!
Small semi-detached house suggests gain-riding (especially at night) is essential btw.
A long time ago in our trailer-trash days we had a 14 inch TV, no remote control, so I fashioned a bamboo stick with one end pointy to press the buttons, and the other end with a bit of sponge glued on to turn the volume knob…
I’m wondering that may be this is the way to go
I dislike the volume control on the Levinson 523 preamp. Above 20 or 25 it goes up and down in 0.1db increments. Going from 30 to 40 is a pain in the neck. Keepjng the remote button in has the volume jumping up and down quickly and suddenly.
The BHK preamp volume control is nice.
The CJ GAT volume conttol is also nice.
My older CJ PV10AL does not have a remote control.
Yep, the volume control on the BHK pre suffers from none of those issues in my experience. Nor does the Leuca volume control on my Luxman C700u, it’s pretty much flawless. My Dehavilland UltraVerve’s motorized 32 step attenuator combined with its dual trim pots work very well also, although getting the trim pots adjusted just right can be a bit fiddly. The worst is the motorized Blue Alps pot on my ModWright LS36.5. While the pre only has 12db of gain, the taper on the pot could sure ramp up more gradually. Thankfully I can adjust the output level on the Auralic Altair in that system to allow the pre to operate in the range where it tracks best.
BHK beyond my means, though I have looked at variable gain and VCA type setups, too many active components in the path and tricky to build on proto-board
@Elk funnily enough I do have a dual comp/limiter on my other system (which is basically made up of the leftovers) but mostly for the pretty flashing LEDs (see also NR units that some folks have here). It’s not really up tp the task of HiFi though, I’ve seen the circuit diagram, the VCA element is a basic THAT corp VCA…
@flowcharts it would make a good project, but expensive in parts etc. and complex.
A Pre-fade attenuator in the (mostly) passive preamp may help though, that’s the next try and will retain remote control.
The Switched attenuators really do sound fine though, I’m almost contemplating going “old-school” and forgoing remote control
I know you can’t go out and buy an Esoteric volume pot, and if you could, it would be very expensive, but I thought it is very interesting on how it works. after reading about it, I still don’t fully understand how it is done.
Here’s Esoteric’s explanation of the way it is done on the C-02.
[Another important feature of the C-02 is Esoteric’s Quad Volume Control System (QVCS). Changing the volume alters the gain in each of the C-02’s four circuits: a positive and negative for each of the two stereo channels. Many volume controls alter the gain in only two circuits, which, Esoteric says, may cause a gain imbalance between channels of up to 5%. Although such imbalances are rarely severe enough to be audible, the work that has gone into the QVCS illustrates the lengths to which Esoteric will go to create as perfect a product as possible. The user can select from five volume curves. By selecting the appropriate curve, the C-02 can be optimized to complement the efficiencies of the power amplifier and speakers used, or to simply accommodate personal preference. In order to prevent noise generated by the QVCS from infecting the signal path, the control system communicates with the C-02’s audio circuitry only via a photo coupler – there is no electronic or physical coupling between the QVCS and the signal path. Adjusting the volume control activates an onboard microcomputer; a photo receiver senses light from an emitter, and an adjustment in the volume is made. At that time, the microcomputer tells the photo coupler to disengage from the audio circuitry and turns off the QVCS.]
Yes I have considered something like that - I like it a lot!
Sadly the (not too expensive) switched attenuators I have are very stiff to turn, at least for a rubber toothed belt to turn, but the more I use it, the more I am used to setting a volume and listening rather than turning it up and down all the time.
Are you able to control the volume on your digital player (or at least use them as a general attenuator, so your preamp doesn’t have to stay so low)? Most of them (including the squeezelitevfamily) have good implementations.
Trying to stay bit perfect (for what it is worth), also one DAC does (it’s an RME ADI2) with output attenuators set low, but the remote is a bit laggy, and the other DAC doesn’t (it’s a “Franken-DAC” with transformer outputs straight off the DAC chip) so they are both low output.
Doesn’t help that Quad power amps, though brilliant, are quite high sensitivity.
They have input level controls, but again it messes up the low impedence path and risks increasing hum pickup - next door have a bunch of kitchen appliances effectively twelve inches and a thin wall away from the whole system
As I hoped I have stiumulated an interesting discussion about volume controls and their various issues
