Thoughts on the this stepped attenuator from ebay?

Haven't seen that one before.

We have seen some little stereo series attenuators made out of the frame from a cheap carbon pot with boards that carry smd resistors, and people say those sound pretty good. I have one but haven't used it.

The worry is really more about the switch quality.

I tried using one, but lifted one of the SMD resistors soldering in the input - they do NOT come with the nice leads, at least mine didn't, but YMMV. The switch is the concern.

The seller is very reliable, got a few other items from him but not the SMD-stepper.

I am using the same switch configured with Dale resistors for almost two years in my parafeed Aikido

and have no problems whatsoever with the contacts.

Also had fun soldering one of those myself (10k) for another project, but haven't used it yet...

The pic you you show is NOT the smd. Didn't say it was difficult, it is just a caution. 

Sure it's not the SMD, didn't say that.

I was referring to the quality of the switch itself where I am having no problems with the contacts...

Quote:

Originally Posted by stew1234 

I haven't seen s pre-built pot with SMD resistors before on ebay. I've been looking for a good balanced pot but am not really sure if this falls into the good deal/ decent performance category or definitely not worth it. Any thoughts?

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Balance-XLR-23-Stepped-Attenuator-Potentiometer-50K-Log-/300483399901?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item45f634d0dd#ht_4663wt_901

Just ordered this one last Tuesday for my b22, will comment on the quality by next weekend ;)

I have one I use with my balanced bijou, and I love it. It sounds better than the dual tdk pots I had previously(which were very good pots in their own right). Wiring can be a little tricky, but for anyone with decent soldering skills it shouldn't be a problem. It's even better than the step attenuators kingwa uses in some of his amps.

Do you have to solder resistors in this one?

I used this one before in a few builds, it's a great value and not hard to install.  Seller is also very good.  My one concern is build quality - I've had to "fix" one before.

One of the units I got (I've bought around 10 various attenuators from this seller already) had resistors that weren't soldered properly, I had to track down which solder joints were cold and fix.  One thing of note - if somebody runs into this problem - the resistors only have contacts ON TOP, not on the sides or the bottom, it took a little time to figure that out. :p

I don't use the balanced or SMD version.  I've not had problems with them, per se.  I tend to shy away from the low steppings now, as there is not enough volume control, either too loud or too soft in some cases.

I have builds from a few years ago that utilize them still.  They seem OK, and cheap enough that if something goes wrong a replacement isn't hard to obtain.  I've not had the switch fail yet.